Advisory / Counseling Services News
Thirty-eight businesses across the Highlands, islands and Cairngorms National Park area have been shortlisted for the area's most prestigious food and drink awards. Finalists ranged from new businesses to established producers; family-run restaurants to Michelin-starred establishments and demonstrated the strength and diversity of food and drink businesses across the region.
Pupils from Wick High School and Lamlash Primary School on the Isle of Arran have been announced as winners of a dragon's den style competition to design apps that solve real-world problems. The Highlands and Islands ‘Apps for Good' final took place today where schools from across the region pitched their products via live videos to a panel of judges based at UHI’s executive office in Inverness.
Week Commencing 22 June 2015. Energy & Business Services Following their attendance at last week's Wick RNLI Open Day this week's Caithness Courier carries a piece on the team from Beatrice Offshore Windfarm Ltd (BOWL), who took a stand at the event to promote the project.
Week commencing 15th June 2015 Energy & Business Services Good to meet representatives from SSE Power Distribution in Thurso this week as they undertook a final consultation on the proposed route for the new high voltage overhead line from a new substation at Thurso to a new substation at Philips Mains near Mey. The project has been the subject of three separate consultation phases since June 2011, and this phase shows how previous comments on the route have been taken into account before an application for consent is submitted to Highland Council this summer.
Week commencing 8th June 2015 Energy & Business Services Good to see today's John O'Groat Journal piece welcoming the current survey work being carried out at Wick Harbour using a jack-up barge. The survey work is being used to support the design of onshore Operation & Maintenance (O&M) facilities for the Beatrice Offshore Windfarm Ltd (BOWL) project in the Moray Firth.
Social enterprises in the Highlands and Islands are helping Scotland tackle social issues, promote equality and achieve economic growth, a major summit on the sector heard today (Wednesday 10 June). Social enterprises trade like any other business, but at their heart they have a social purpose; trading for social, community and environmental benefits and reinvesting their profits to deliver their social purpose.
Week Commencing 1st June 2015 Energy & Business Services Great to see news this week that a new company is being set up with bases in Aberdeen and Lybster, creating 16 jobs between the two areas - 5 of those being planned in Caithness. Enerquip is Chaired by Andrew Polson, the Caithness native who set up AMC Engineering before its purchase by Forum Energy Technologies.
Week Commencing 25th May 2015 Energy & Business Services Catching up this week with June Love and Roy Kirk of HIE, who continue to meet companies with an interest in establishing operations in the area. Several discussions have re-opened following an understandably quieter period for companies in the oil & gas industry.
Communities living on Scottish Government-owned crofting estates are being offered assistance to investigate buying their own land, in a support package announced today (Friday 22 May). Dr Aileen McLeod, Scotland's Minister for Environment, Climate Change and Land Reform announced the support while addressing the Community Land Scotland annual conference in Inverness.
Week Commencing 18 May 2015 Energy & Business Services Following mention in last week's email about current activity at the Forss Business & Technology Park, it is good to see the coverage in today's (Friday's) press about the partnership between Abbey Ecosse and Enercon, which will see Enercon establishing a service base at Forss for its operations and maintenance personnel in the north. This is one of several developments being worked on for the Park, and new jobs are likely to result from this.
Week commencing 11 May 2015. Energy & Business Services Encouraging progress continues to be made at the Forss Business & Technology Park, which is now being operated by Abbey Ecosse.
From week commencing 30th March to week commencing 4th May 2015. Energy & Business Services The MeyGen tidal project in the Inner Sound of the Pentland Firth continues to make progress.
AN excellent range of one-bedroom and studio flats with affordable rents are available now at Caberfeidh Court in Wick. Cairn Housing Association has 36 high quality properties that are available exclusively to people over 50 years of age.
The removal of trapped fuel elements from the Dounreay Fast Reactor moved a step closer with the successful trial of bespoke equipment to lift off the top plate. Decommissioning the 50-year-old experimental reactor is one of the most technically challenging projects in the NDA estate.
The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, the public body that owns Dounreay and funds its clean up, has published its annual business plan, setting out key tasks for the site licence company DSRL to deliver in the next 12 months. These include: - Decontamination of Prototype Fast Reactor pond to meet regulatory requirements - Completion of construction of new fuel characterisation facilities - Material Test Reactor raffinate immobilisation complete - Continuous improvement in health, safety and environmental performance.
Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) estate has measured that over 21% of its spend is with SMEs. This equates to over £330 million spent out of our total annual supply chain spend of £1.7 billion.
Week Commencing 23rd March 2015. Energy & Business Services It was good to meet up this week with directors of Abbey Group, whose company Abbey Ecosse has taken over ownership of the Forss Science and Technology Park.
People involved in the development of wave energy technology in Scotland will be able to find out more about a £7million support fund in a special online webinar next Tuesday (31 March). Wave Energy Scotland (WES), part of Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE), is funded by Scottish Government.
Scotland's First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon MSP has launched a new three-year operating plan for Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE). The new plan is launched as HIE marks the 50th anniversary of the establishment of its predecessor, the Highlands and Islands Development Board (HIDB), which began operating in November 1965.
A NEW partnership agreement has been signed to develop and deliver training required at the Dounreay site during decommissioning work and help staff gain the qualifications they need to transfer to other employment sectors as the site closure progresses. Dounreay Site Restoration Limited (DSRL), responsible for the clean-up and demolition of Britain's former centre of fast reactor research and development, has established a memorandum of understanding with North Highland College UHI and the University of the Highlands and Islands to help close collaboration working and academic links across further and higher education and the nuclear industry.