The Scottish Crop Research Institute (SCRI), Invergowrie
The Institute has a history dating back to the 1950’s as a result of the amalgamation of the Scottish Horticultural Research Institute (SHRI) which was established in Invergowrie in the spring of 1951 and the later amalgamation with the Scottish Plant Breeding Station (SPBS) based in Pentlandfield, Edinburgh to form the Scottish Crop Research Institute in 1981.
The Institute has some 400 staff and students and operates in the public/private sector. SCRI’s research focuses on processes that regulate the growth of plants and their responses to pests, pathogens and the environment. It includes genetics to breed crops with improved quality and nutritional value as fast as possible.
A commercial arm, Mylnefield Research Services (MRS) Ltd, was established in 1989, to market products, intellectual property and the Institute’s expertise.
SCRI’s research encompasses activities in approximately 30 countries worldwide, including more than 25 partners across the European Union on one project
The Institute is making clear contributions to the economic wellbeing and quality of life in these countries, as well as here in Scotland.
SCRI receives funding of approximately £10 million per year from the Scottish Government and the UK Government for scientific research, and also receives £1 million of funding from European Union sources. Another £2 million is received government research contracts in competition against other competitors and another £2 million is obtained from commercial contracts.
SCRI is a research institute with a truly international reputation and communicating the results of its research to the international scientific audience through publications and presentations is an important part of its knowledge transfer activities.
The Institute required the design of a database to track staffing, finance and partners involved in projects run by the Institute or in which the Institute had an involvement. The Institute had an existing system in place to do this, however it had never been able to give all the outputs required and therefore required replacement.
The Mission
Dundee College's mission is to contribute to an ambitious Scotland by playing a lead role in education, community and economic development.
The aim of the College Business Development Team is to make a major contribution to sustainable economic growth in Scotland by increasing skills and business capacity in the local area. To support this activity the college has developed a number of initiatives in partnership with local public and private sector organisations to enhance employer engagement and knowledge transfer activity.
The IT specialist based within the Business Development Team at Dundee College had provided a diverse range of IT training to SCRI staff over a considerable number of years, and this relationship led to the Institute approaching Dundee College to play a lead role in the development of a new database for SCRI and the training of operational staff in its use.
The Solution
A partnership approach was suggested, in that training in Access, in which the database was to be developed, would be carried on in parallel with the database development thus giving the SCRI staff “ownership” of the system. The training built around the database development gave SCRI staff the ability to use the database and make alterations to it.
SCRI hired the IT facilities at Dundee College to enable the Assistant to the Directors of Science and 2 members of the Contracts Office to work together with the IT specialist on a combination of training and development. In addition, an investment was made by SCRI to ensure that the installation of the new database on site ran smoothly.
Initially it was intended that the IT specialist should be given access to the finance system in use at that time, however this was not possible due to external access being blocked by the Institute’s security systems. Therefore, time was spent at the Institute analysing the existing system, and copy data was given on CD for development work at the College. Due to the nature of the data being worked on, a secrecy agreement was signed between the 2 parties.
Over a period of weeks, the database was developed, with SCRI staff bringing documentation and ideas to the sessions. The database was then installed at the Institute and the IT specialist set up a methodology of transferring importing existing data into it.
New data is being input to the database on an ongoing basis now, and only one short visit to the Institute has so far been required to make any changes. Any other issues have been dealt with over the telephone.
The principal issue here is that this is a commercial product that has been produced, and as such it is likely to be one which may change over time as the needs of the Institute change, and thus may require further work.
It has been indicated that more development may be required as the complexity of the information required from the database is high. So far there has been no need for any form of “help desk” involvement, and the minor queries dealt with over the telephone have only taken a few minutes.
This project has been very successful. The bringing together of SCRI and Dundee College staff on the project brought very few issues or problems apart from a couple of technical ones which were worked around. The good communication between the individuals was in the main due to the ongoing history of collaborative working with Dundee College, and there is ongoing dialogue between the Institute and the IT specialist in terms of future requirements.
“Many challenges that might have occurred did not do so because of the collaborative way the team operated. The ownership aspect of the project means that the SCRI staff who built the system know it inside out, as opposed to having a finished product dropped on their desks without them really knowing how it worked”.
Allan Ramsay – IT Specialist, Business Development, Dundee College
What difference has the project made?
“It’s great - each time the Directors ask for information from the system, we haven’t been able to say no”.
Liz Stewart - Assistant to the Directors of Science at the Scottish Crop Research Institute