News story: Agreement sets sights on the future

Sellafield Ltd signed with the National Nuclear Laboratory.

Sellafield Ltd has signed an agreement that will introduce a significant change in the way it works with its major partner, the National Nuclear Laboratory (NNL).

Both have a long and proud history of working together – and the new Technical Services Agreement (TSA) is designed to strengthen that history and set the direction for years to come.

The 2 organisations signed a collaboration agreement in October 2016. The TSA aligns with this and provides the legal procedures for placing work between the 2 companies.

Sellafield Ltd, Technical Director, Rebecca Weston said:

This 17 year agreement is about applying a long term view to our work – which will help us work better and nurture the game changing ideas we need to achieve our mission, as well as giving the confidence to invest in the development of skills for the long term.

We have many examples of fantastic collaborative work with NNL across our portfolio, although many areas where we don’t. This will help spread that collaborative approach and make it more consistent.

It will enable us to make the best use of skills across our two organisations and very importantly proactively develop our supply chain and academic and national laboratory links, being smarter in the way we divide work up and getting the right people together to deliver what we need.

Chief Executive Officer of NNL, Dr Paul Howarth said:

“We have a strong, multi-faceted and unique relationship with Sellafield Ltd. A large portion of our work has also been associated with Sellafield and the site hosts around half our workforce and our biggest nuclear facilities.

“This new partnering approach will enable us to work much closer with Sellafield Ltd on new innovative approaches to help tackle the challenges on the site and will enable us to bring in supply chain companies, academia and small to medium enterprises across different technology sectors that may be able to offer innovative solutions.”



Press release: Horticulture Connect: Linking Rwanda Products to The World

The 14th and 15th February will see the launch of Horticulture Connect, a ‘first of its kind’ conference promoting horticultural market links between the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Rwanda, held at Kigali Convention Center. This conference provides a strong opportunity to introduce British and Dutch investors and buyers of horticultural produce to Rwandan producers and exporters, and the event will be a starting point in creating firm trade and investment opportunities.

The British High Commission, working with Lord Dolar Amarshi Popat, the UK Prime Minister’s Trade Envoy to Uganda and Rwanda, have been at the forefront of establishing an air link between the United Kingdom and Rwanda. In addition, Lord Popat has visited the country to advocate on behalf of British business interest as well as to encourage increased trade and investment between the two countries. On his most recent visit, he discussed with the Rwanda Development Board the possibility of hosting a horticulture market conference that would enable increased Rwandan exports of flowers as well as fruits and vegetables to the UK using the newly established air link.

A trusted airlink between Kigali and Amsterdam was already established in 2010 with 5 flights per week, and since April 2013, KLM serves Kigali by a daily flight, connecting Rwandan products to the European market. The Netherlands actively supports the horticulture sector in Rwanda, and through its global auctioning system in flowers provides an enabling infrastructure for potential future exports to the UK and other European destinations. The recently developed HortInvest Program, which is financed by the Netherlands, aims to develop the horticulture value chains in Rwanda. For this event, 2 Dutch importers of horticultural produce (Van Oers United and Del Monte Foods) will visit Rwanda and meet with their potential business partners.

Establishing these types of connections is critical to growing Rwanda’s exports and opening up opportunities for investors. A recent visit by the private sector players with NAEB and RwandAir to the UK New Covent Garden Market has indicated the need to further explore opportunities for developing more robust trade relations in exports of fresh produce. Rwandan horticultural exporters currently face significant market access constraints mainly due to the lack of effective connections to European markets. On this last point, the UK Department for International Development (DFID) and the Netherlands embassy in Rwanda see strong prospects for the horticulture sector’s role in driving economic development. Sarah Metcalf, Head of DFID Rwanda said: “Horticulture Connect presents an exciting opportunity to engage with local and international businesses on the themes of inclusive economic growth and rural livelihoods. We also look forward to showcasing DFID programmes and partners contributing to Rwanda’s growing horticulture sector, such as TMEA (Trade Mark East Africa), AFR (Access to Finance Rwanda), and FONERWA (Rwanda’s national Climate Change fund)”.

Hon. Gerardine Mukeshimana, the Minister of Agricultural and Animal Resources said, “The conference seeks to move beyond the conversations held before and create a business platform that provides delegates with tangible opportunities to establish relationships and engage with our local producers. It is one of the key factors in the growth of investment in agri-export sector.”

Rwanda is known for offering investment opportunities and is among the region’s fastest growing economies. Rwanda has been frequently on top rankings for the best place to do business and to invest in Africa, with an average GDP growth of 8% for the last decade.

End.

Notes to Editors:  DFID Rwanda has a range of programmes supporting the agricultural sector, including a major £43m Programme of Support to Agriculture (POSA), a £23.5m Improving Market Systems for Agriculture in Rwanda (IMSAR) programme, and others important to the sector such as TMEA (Trade Mark East Africa), AFR (Access to Finance Rwanda) and FONERWA (Rwanda’s national Climate Change fund)).  Further information about DFID’s activity in Rwanda is available at http://devtracker.dfid.gov.uk/countries/RW/ and https://www.gov.uk/world/organisations/dfid-rwanda.  The Kingdom of the Netherlands also has a range of programmes supporting the agricultural sector in Rwanda, including a $22M donation to the Multi Donor Trust Fund for Feeder Roads, an Integrated Water Resources Program of $44M that will run until 2020, a Landscape Restoration Program of $19 M that will start this year and will run for 4 years and a Horticulture Value Chain Development Program (HortInvest) of $20M that started recently and will run for 4 years.  The export of horticulture products from Rwanda to the Netherlands in 2016 was worth $625.000 (mainly cut flowers, vegetables and plant extracts), while the import was worth $390.000 (mainly seeds).



Notice: WR8 0QY, Mr Adam Bishop: environmental permit application advertisement

The Environment Agency consults the public on certain applications for waste operations, mining waste operations, installations, water discharge and groundwater activities. The arrangements are explained in its Public Participation Statement

These notices explain:

  • what the application is about
  • how you can view the application documents
  • when you need to comment by

The Environment Agency will decide:

  • whether to grant or refuse the application
  • what conditions to include in the permit (if granted)


Notice: AL7 1AN, Gilbertson & Page Limited: environmental permit issued

The Environment Agency publish permits that they issue under the Industrial Emissions Directive (IED).

This decision includes the permit and decision document for:

  • Operator name: Gilbertson & Page Limited
  • Installation name: Brownfields Pet Food Factory
  • Permit number: EPR/YP3135YD/A001


World news story: UK Space Agency to run £2.2mil project in Malaysia & Indonesia

The UK Space Agency (UKSA) will be running a £2.2 mil project in Malaysia and Indonesia to use satellite observations and measurements to monitor peatland areas, thereby reducing the occurrence of forest fires and haze in South East Asia. The project, named Peatland Assessment in SE Asia by Satellite (PASSES) will be delivered by CGI IT UK Ltd in partnership with the Global Environment Centre (GEC) of Malaysia.

The state-of-the-art project will map peat condition using observations from satellites through the EU Copernicus programme and emerging industrial hosted processing capabilities. By monitoring water levels and improving hydrology in the peatland areas, the risk of fire can be dramatically reduced.

Her Excellency Vicki Treadell CMG MVO, the British High Commissioner to Malaysia, welcomed the initiative and said:

This project is the latest example of the UK’s partnership with Malaysia in tackling global environmental challenges. This cutting-edge UK space technology will monitor risk areas, so it helps to reduce forest and peatland fires as well as haze that they cause. As such it will also reduce the significant health risks from haze as well as global CO2 emissions. So whether on the ground or now from space, Britain’s partnership with Malaysia is helping to improve the lives of Malaysians and the environment in which they live.

Faizal Parish, Director of Global Environment Centre (Malaysia) said:

The PASSES project will further develop and demonstrate new cost effective satellite technology suitable for detecting and monitoring vertical displacement over very large peatland areas. As such it will be highly strategic in enabling more efficient targeting and monitoring of results of management actions including water management and peatland restoration as well as supporting fire and haze prevention, both in Malaysia and Indonesia.
PASSES is one of 10 new projects under UKSA’s International Partnership Programme announced by the UK Science Minister Sam Gyimah on 8 Feb 2018. The projects underline the importance of bringing together the UK’s world-class research and expertise to deliver innovative solutions to real world problems across the globe.

The successful projects, worth £38 million in total, are led by a diverse range or organisations from the UK’s growing space sector, from large companies such as Inmarsat and CGI, to start-ups such as Guildford-based Earth-i. The UK Space Agency and industry are working together to grow the UK’s share of the global space market to 10% by 2030.

Science Minister Sam Gyimah said:

The UK Space Agency’s International Partnership Programme will help developing countries tackle big issues like disaster relief and disease control, while showcasing the services and technology on offer from our leading space businesses.

The International Partnership Programme is part of the UK’s Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy’s Global Challenges Research Fund. It is a £1.5 billion fund from the UK Government, which supports cutting-edge research and innovation on global issues affecting developing countries.