The Moredun Research Institute is preparing to launch a £1 million fundraising drive as part of its centenary celebrations next year.
The institute, based on the outskirts of Edinburgh, will also recreate its famous “Moredun Bus” and take it across the UK and Ireland throughout 2020.
The bus was a mobile laboratory which travelled around the UK in the 1920s to help farmers diagnose livestock disease problems on their farms.
Moredun chief executive and scientific director Professor Julie Fitzpatrick said the 21st Century equivalent of the bus will act as both a diagnostic unit and a platform for knowledge transfer.
“The vehicle has been designed to incorporate modern molecular diagnostic equipment including technologies that will make on-farm or pen-side identification of pathogens and diseases a probability in the near future,” she said.
Prof Fitzpatrick said £1m was being sought to fund Moredun Research Fellows.
“These are to support young scientists to come in to do disease-specific projects,” she said.
“We are hoping to fund three fellowships which would be two-three year appointments.”
Prof Fitzpatrick also revealed Moredun had launched a bid with others, including Scotland’s Rural College and Edinburgh University, to get funding from the UK Government’s Innovate UK fund to create an Aquaculture and Livestock Cluster for Enterprise (Alice).
“This is a £53m bid for support,” Prof Fitzpatrick said.
“Alice has been promised about £26m in cash and in-kind contributions from its own partners and the hope is to raise the remainder from UK Government to allow a step-change in agricultural, and aquaculture, farming in Scotland,” Prof Fitzpatrick added.