A most excellent joint venture
A prototype digital vaccination device and protoype fish orientation system have both been produced by a recent collaboration between Aqualife Services and the University of the West of Scotland (UWS) - in a partnership that has just been awarded a Certificate of Excellence.
As Aqualife's MD, Ronnie Soutar, explains to Fish Farming Expert: "The first helps to reduce repetitive strain injury for vaccinators, the second should reduce the time taken to inject each fish and both projects are up to the prototype stage at the moment.
"These are two key components of any vaccination machine but they can also be used in conjunctions with existing systems: we're trailing using the orientation device with the first of the new generation of Lumic machines."
The Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) project was given “Outstanding” status by Innovate UK – an accolade given to only a small percentage of all KTP collaborations.
Aqualife’s Technical Director, Phil Brown, who led the project, said in a press release: “We were already very happy with the outcome of the KTP project. Kristian Clezy, the graduate engineer placed into our company by UWS, did excellent work and helped us achieve considerable progress. The results we achieved led into our current R&D programme. This is focused on the development of our machine-vaccination service, which is crucial to Aqualife’s future strategy. To receive this independent recognition of the KTP project’s success really is the icing on the cake.”
David Kennedy, project leader for UWS, said: “KTP projects are a vital part of the university’s links with industry. We knew that this project had very significant practical impact and are very pleased to have its Outstanding status recognised by InnovateUK. The project also led to one of our graduates landing a very good job in industry, which is an equally important outcome for the university.”
"Coincidentally," Ronnie told Fish Farming Expert, "we were hoping to offer Kristian a job with us at the end of the project, but he ended up getting a job with the design company who worked with us on the project. We're very happy for him."
