One of the great privileges of being an MSP is the number of visits we can engage in across our constituency regions. For me, one of the best visits l have been on recently was as a member of Holyrood’s Finance Committee to the Life Sciences Department of the University of Dundee in late August.
The University of Dundee is leading biological sciences in the UK according to the two most recent Research Excellence Framework exercises as well as being rated by Octopus Ventures as the UK’s best university for supporting spin-out companies.
We were there to witness at first hand the quite extraordinary work that is happening in medical and biological research - so extraordinary that the University of Dundee is now leading the world when it comes to aspects of treating serious diseases, especially in the continent of Africa.
Dundee’s Drug Discovery Unit’s many notable successes include the invention of cabamaquine, a compound that has been found to cure malaria in a single dose. The institution is also one of the world leaders in targeted protein degradation, housing the Centre for Targeted Protein Degradation, which has transformed our understanding of various diseases and has provided cures to ones previously believed to be “undruggable” through revolutionary new techniques.
Our visit took us through all the laboratories and gave us the opportunity to meet very special scientists from all over the world. It brought home how lucky we are in Scotland to have world leading universities. But to remain world leading we need to protect their research funding, and that is clearly a major issue within the current structure of higher education funding.
One of the sites at the university is the new Dundee Life Sciences Innovation Hub which will contain a new generation of high-growth companies and bring 800 new high-value jobs and a £190m boost to the region.
It is so important that this kind of hub brings innovation companies together to inspire new ideas and creative development. This is much needed given the long-term issues in the Scottish economy which continue to show that economic growth is sluggish. All the while, the strain on public services is set to increase considerably.
It is therefore crucial that we are supporting areas such as life sciences which provide so much potential for growth, innovation and productivity to support our economy. Life sciences are a major contributor to the economy already, generating highly skilled jobs and applying research which is used to improve the lives of people across the world.
The University of Dundee has become world-renowned for its research in this field and I would like to thank the Principal and Vice Chancellor, Professor Iain Gillespie, for his pioneering and ambitious management of this institution which brings so many benefits to people across Tayside.
