Provision of Design Team Services for SRUC’s Dairy Nexus

Dairy Nexus will provide a flagship facility that re-positions the Borderlands at the forefront of industry-focused, rural co-innovation and knowledge exchange. It will drive transformational research and innovation to decarbonise the dairy sector and move it towards a circular bioeconomy. In doing so, Dairy Nexus will deliver significant and inclusive regional growth to underpin the rural communities that are so important to the Borderlands economy and its regional identity.

Dairy Nexus will comprise:

• Co-innovation Hub with modern Knowledge Exchange facilities (linked electronically to other sites in the region) and co-working spaces
• “UK-first” Digital Twin of a dairy farm that will use cutting edge digital technologies to decarbonise forage-based dairy farming, safeguard animal health and wellbeing, accelerate productivity growth and optimise milk composition for the downstream dairy processing sector
• Modern biorefinery facilities for R&D around biorefining of manure, grass and milk, creating new value streams for dairy farming
• Modern milk technology laboratories for R&D aimed at maximising value and reducing energy consumption and waste in on-farm milk handling and storage.

By supporting a key sector in the Borderlands region, Dairy Nexus will bring additional inward investment and R&D spend to the region leading to the creation of new high-value jobs, improved productivity, increased environmental benefits and more prosperity and resilience to the region’s rural communities.