Private sector led economic development body Opportunity North East (ONE) will target growth in food, drink, fishing and agriculture businesses across the region this year, backed by £1.6 million of investment.

More than 75 delegates from across the UK and Ireland attended a workshop in Aberdeen yesterday (Wednesday 14 June) to explore opportunities for collaboration between the oil and gas supply chain and the developing wave and tidal power sector.

Opportunities to build food tourism in North East Scotland will be the focus for a dining event at one of the region’s newest destination venues later this month.

The next North East Food & Drink Network Dining Event at The Barn @ Barra Castle, near Oldmeldrum, on Wednesday 28 June, organised by Opportunity North East (ONE) and Aberdeenshire Council, will bring together local food and drink producers, hoteliers, chefs and restaurateurs to create new business connections to enhance the use of local produce in the foodservice sector and help develop the food tourism offering in the region. This year’s series of dining events builds on the success of the networking events previously organised by the Grampian Food Forum.

Opportunities for oil and gas supply chain companies to apply their expertise in the growing wave and tidal power market will be highlighted in Aberdeen this week, at a workshop organised by private sector economic development body Opportunity North East (ONE) and the Ocean Power Innovation Network (OPIN) and supported by Scottish Enterprise.

The oil and gas industry will be a key contributor to the long term economic success of North East Scotland, according to private sector economic development body Opportunity North East (ONE).

The extent to which UKCS reserves are recovered in the decades ahead and the supply chain grows through innovation and exports will be fundamental to achieving the economic renaissance vision for the region, which is shared by private and public-sector stakeholders.

Building on the success of its start-up year, private sector led economic development body Opportunity North East (ONE) has set an ambitious programme of action and investment for its second year of operations to strengthen and diversify the economy of Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire.

ONE’s goals are to lead the development and delivery of the region’s Renaissance Economic Vision and Strategy; grow the food, drink and agriculture sector; build the life sciences sector; maximise the oil and gas opportunity; evolve tourism to exploit new business and leisure opportunities. These were developed in conjunction with industry and stakeholders, reflect the real opportunities within the region and its key industries, and are aligned with sector-specific, regional, Scottish and UK economic development priorities and strategies.

The ONE and OPIN oil and gas supply chain diversification workshop in Aberdeen on 14 June will provide exclusive access to key speakers and companies from the wave and tidal industry and focus on research and technology, commercial issues, project opportunities, and the available support for wave and tidal collaboration.

Companies and technology developers from Scotland and Ireland are leading the world in the creation of the growing wave and tidal energy sector. Meanwhile, Scottish oil and gas supply chain businesses have a global reputation for excellence, built over more than 50 years of exploration and production activity in the harsh environment of the North Sea. An event in Aberdeen next month will explore how the two industries can work together to exploit growth opportunities.

Under the Opportunity North East (ONE) Oil and Gas Diversification Programme, and through the Ocean Power Innovation Network (OPIN), the one-day workshop in Aberdeen on 14 June 2017 will bring together know-how from the complex upstream offshore environment with the newest of the offshore energy industries.

The workshop is designed to provide exclusive access to key speakers and companies from the wave and tidal industry, including Atlantis, OpenHydro, Sustainable Marine and EC-OG. Attendees will learn about the available support for wave and tidal collaboration and benefit from sharing development information and insights from both sectors.

More than 100 people attended a seminar yesterday (10 May 2017) to explore the range of growth support available to food, drink and processing businesses in North East Scotland.

The event at Thainstone House Hotel, by Inverurie, was organised by Opportunity North East and Aberdeenshire Council as part of the North East Scotland Food & Drink Network. It highlighted the range of local and national support available to the sector and enabled businesses to engage with providers at a single event.

Food and drink producers, primary processors and businesses considering diversification based in Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire and Moray attended the event.

A new research agreement involving an Aberdeen biopharmaceutical company aims to accelerate the development of new therapeutics, underlining the strengths within North East Scotland’s life sciences cluster.

Elasmogen Ltd, a University of Aberdeen spin-out focused on the development of next generation biologics, and Feldan Therapeutics, focused on intracellular delivery of proteins, today (9 May 2017) announced a research collaboration with Amgen, to develop and deliver novel intracellular biologics. The collaboration combines the unique capabilities of Feldan’s Shuttle platform and Elasmogen’s soloMER™ technology to develop the delivery system and binding domains to two undisclosed intracellular targets for Amgen, one of the world’s leading independent biotechnology companies.