What is the International Barley Hub?
The International Barley Hub (IBH) is a platform to promote excellence in barley science and promote collaboration across the scientific, industrial and commercial sectors. Our goal is to generate new discoveries and their effective translation into wider economic, social and commercial benefits. Through this research and application we aim to improve the resilience and sustainability of barley crop production and mitigate impacts of climate and environmental change.
Where are we based?
The International Barley Hub is hosted at The James Hutton Institute near Dundee, Scotland. We are an international community with collaboration and interaction across the UK, Europe and the rest of the world.
Economic impact
The IBH received an initial £40 million investment to develop an institute-led innovation centre project as part of the Tay Cities Region Deal funding.
The IBH is expected to provide an £18.04 return for every £1 invested.
Stakeholders
The International Barley Hub involves a range of stakeholders from the entire barley industry.
IBH is underpinned by the research excellence of the James Hutton Institute, University of Dundee, Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC), Abertay University, the Rowett Institute.
Businesses and sectoral interest groups such as Scotch Whisky Research Institute, Maltsters Association of Great Britain and the National Farmers Union Scotland form part of the demand side of the IBH project consortium.
Funders
The International Barley Hub receives support from a number of sources.
Large contributions to barley research funding have come from the Scottish Government’s Rural and Environment Science and Analytical Services (RESAS) and have been supplemented by competitive research awards from BBSRC, EU H2020, SUSCROP, DEFRA, The Crop Trust, DivSeek International Network, AHDB, GCRF, EastBio, James Hutton Limited, the European Research Council, The Mylnefield Trust and other charitable organisations.
The International Barley Hub funded by The Tay Cities Region Deal
The Tay Cities Region Deal is a partnership between local, Scottish and UK governments and the private, academic and voluntary sectors which seeks to create a smarter and fairer Angus, Dundee, Fife and Perth & Kinross under the headings Inclusive Tay; Innovative Tay; International Tay; Connected Tay and An Empowered Tay.
The Scottish Government and UK Government will each invest up to £150 million in the Tay Cities Region Deal over 10 years, subject to final approval of robust business cases. This investment has the potential to lever in £400m of investment over 15 years.
If every project and programme set out in the submission is funded and delivered, up to 6,000 job opportunities could be created across the tourism, food and drink, creative industries, eco innovation, digital, decommissioning, engineering, biomedical and health and care sectors.
As of 30th September 2022, more than £219m of funding was approved for investment by the Joint Committee and over £74m of Government investment has been released.
A total of 677 jobs have been created so far from the investment.
The investment has also resulted in more than £123m of £400m anticipated leverage at Deal signing, being secured by Projects, with more than £81m received.
Full and further information on the progress the Deal has made to date on securing investment and jobs, can be found within the Annual Performance Report located on the Tay Cities Region Deal website.