Experts in underwater imaging technology are trialling the use of a first-of-its-kind system that could see 3D digital models used by Scottish seafood producers to map out and monitor complex marine environments and habitats.

Fugro has opened new state-of-the art marine chemistry and biology laboratories within the Heriot-Watt University Research Park in Edinburgh, UK.

Professor Bahman Tohidi, Director of the Centre for Gas Hydrate Research and Centre for Flow Assurance Research (C-FAR) at Heriot-Watt, has been given the International Lifetime Achievement Award at the 9th International Conference on Gas Hydrates, in Denver, Colorado.

The economics professor who leads the in-depth data collation process for BP’s annual Statistical Review of World Energy has welcomed the energy major’s latest findings as “clear evidence of a major transformation in the global energy landscape”.

A major funding package for the Institute of Petroleum Engineering (IPE) at Heriot-Watt University will directly support research and training for the future of the industry in UK offshore waters. Heriot-Watt’s Chief Scientist, Professor John Underhill, has secured funding of £416k from Verus Petroleum, an independent oil company active on the United Kingdom continental Shelf (UKCS). The award will support a number of oil and gas related training and Applied Geoscience research activities in IPE including the NERC Centre for Doctoral Training (CDT), the Ogilvie-Gordon 3D Audio-Visualisation Centre (OGAVC) and UK Continental Shelf (UKCS) and Frontier Basins PhD research activities.

Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon visited the Edinburgh Campus of Heriot-Watt University yesterday (Thursday 20 April) to mark the signing of a five year Partnership Agreement between Total and the University’s Institute of Petroleum Engineering. Worth a minimum of £2.5m, the agreement was signed by Elisabeth Proust, managing director, Total E&P UK, and Dr Gillian Murray, deputy principal, Business and Enterprise, at Heriot-Watt University.

A pioneering global research centre for earth and marine science and technology based at Heriot-Watt University has been opened by the Deputy First Minister John Swinney. Bringing together the expertise of the British Geological Survey with the academic innovation of Heriot-Watt, the Lyell Centre will ensure future generations of researchers are equipped and capable of meeting the global science and technology challenges facing the world. Through championing innovation, collaboration and enterprise, this Scottish-based research facility is tackling some of the major issues of natural resource and energy supply and security in a sustainable way. Work underway at Lyell by world leading academics and scientists is already looking at solutions to critical global problems - from protecting coastal ecosystems, to understanding how our inland waterways will cope with future needs; from tackling the effects of climate change in Sub-Saharan Africa to finding deep-sea mining solutions that work within our global environment.