September Virtual Seminar

The North East of Scotland Manufacturing Forum held a pre-launch event in September. This day long seminar including some great discussions about the manufacturing in our region, the energy transition, net zero and financial support systems.

National Subsea centres director, Chris Pearson, introduced the day and the team at the National Subsea Centre.

The first session was chaired by James Njuguna from the National Subsea Centre and RGUs School of Engineering, with Andy Rodden being our first speaker of the day. Energy Transition Programme Director lead a discussion on the energy transition and the future role of manufacturing in the North East region. This was followed by an interactive discussion involving all participants, lead by James, to stimulate talk around the products, services and challenges felt within the sector.

After a short break, Andy Rodden Chairs the Session titles Energy Transition & Digitisation in Manufacturing. This session saw talks from; Adam Ubh, Chief Technology Officer, HydroVolve, Prof Kambiz Kayvantash, Director of AI/ML Applications for Design and Engineering, Hexagon Manufacturing Intelligence and Ms Amy MA, Chief Executive Officer, Danu Robotics. This session covered some interesting topics in terms of diversifying technology and AI and Machine learning applications in the energy transition.

The third session, Manufacturing for Net Zero & Circular Economy, was chaired by Terry Vogt from Aberdeen Chamber of Commerce. This session invited speakers from RGUs Gray’s School of Art, Josie Steed, Origins’ Ben Durack, Engineered Composites Solutions’ Prof Simon Frost and Zero waste Scotland’s’ Colin Kennedy. This session showed a real insight into some of the local case studies manufacturing in the sector right now.

The final session was chaired by RGU’s Head of entrepreneurship and innovation, Chris Moule, leading an insightful discussion on the business support, advise and funding opportunities available in the North East of Scotland. Jessica Hall and Russell Whyte from RBS took the opportunity to outline how RBS can support local businesses, whilst Scott Graham and Alex Campbell from Scottish Enterprise and Scottish Manufacturing Advisory Service outlined the key support mechanisms their organisation has to offer. Cathy Higginson from Interface, Laura Dee, Ian Heywood and Andrew Pratt from Innovate UK, discussed the business-academic collaboration opportunities within the region. To finish the session Patrick McCarthy from CeeD discussed their Advancing Manufacturing Cluster Builder.

The virtual seminar was an interactive and engaging event, bringing together many different organisations within the North East of Scotland Manufacturing sector.