SAMS news room

Thursday night (15 Nov) saw around 60 people gather at the Royal Society of Edinburgh to celebrate the multitude of advances made by the BioMara project that for the past four years has been investigating the feasibility and viability of using marine biomass from seaweeds and microalgae as a source for biofuels.

The dinner, hosted by Sir John Arbuthnott, President of the RSE, welcomed guests from the wider community, academia, business, funders, politics and the six project partners from Ireland (Dundalk Institute of Technology, Institute of Technology Sligo), Northern Ireland (University of Ulster, Queens University) and Scotland (SAMS, University of Strathclyde). 

Following a summary by the the project leader Dr Michele Stanley, several short presentations highlighting the various benefits of the project were given by Mike Russel MSP (Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong Learning in the Scottish Government), Bob Hannah (Department of Energy, Ireland), Paul Boylan (Special EU Programmes Body) and Professor Mike Cowling (Crown Estate).

BioMara has been part-financed by the European Union’s INTERREG IVA Cross-border Programme managed by the Special EU Programmes Body, the Crown Estate (UK), Highlands and Islands Enterprise (Scotland), The Scottish Government, The Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment (Northern Ireland) and the Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources (Ireland).