In what is certain to be seen as a further blow to the status of crop research on Tayside, it has been announced that Dr Nigel Kerby, managing director of Mylnefield Research Services, is to move on within the next few months after 23 years’ service with the company.
MRS was set up under Dr Kerby’s leadership as the commercial wing of the Scottish Crop Research Institute, and has built up its activities to the stage where it has a turnover of £4 million.
When founded under the leadership of then SCRI director John Hillman the intention was to create a business which could professionally commercialise the crop research output from the Mylnefield site and it has proved a success, with its surpluses used to finance scientific activity.
The MRS staff numbers, given recently as 33, include directly employed plant breeders specialising in soft fruit and potatoes.
These activities continued after the April 2011 merger of SCRI with the Aberdeen- based Macaulay Land Use Research Institute to form the James Hutton Institute.
It was, however, announced in April that MRS was to merge with its Aberdeen opposite number, Macaulay Scientific Consulting Ltd (MSC). MSC has a smaller turnover at £2.3m, employs no staff directly and is under the direction of Hans Steuten.
A separate board was set up run the merged subsidiary. At the time, JHI chief executive Professor Iain Gordon hailed the move, saying it was an “exciting time for the James Hutton Institute as we focus on developing sustainable income streams to support further investment in delivering excellent science”.
However, it now seems Dr Kerby is not to be part of the process and has decided to step down from his position on April 6 next year.
Under Dr Kerby’s leadership MRS pioneered the protection and commercialisation of intellectual assets and resources, including a significant victory in securing royalty payments from Spain on very widely grown Mylnefield-bred raspberry variety Glen Prosen.
He has forged many partnerships in the agricultural industry, for instance in creating collaborative breeding partnerships with potato production companies.
He also worked tirelessly in building research and trading relationships with China.
Dr Kerby’s success was publicly recognised nationally and locally by MRS winning the Courier Agricultural Business of the Year Award in 2014, and the award of an MBE in the 2014 New Year’s Honours list.
He was also named by the Institute of Directors Scotland as Tayside Regional Director of the Year.
In a statement released by JHI at the weekend Dr Kerby said: “After much deliberation I am convinced that the time is right for my departure in April 2015.
“It is my intention to work in the field of agricultural research for development, and I hope to be able to act as an ambassador for the James Hutton Institute promoting the excellence and relevance of their research in addressing global challenges.”
Following his departure, Dr Kerby plans to spend more time working on agricultural research for development and economic growth, and has just joined the governing board for the International Crop Research Institute for Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT).
Meanwhile, a redundancy programme aimed at reducing JHI staff levels by 70 from the current 600 continues. Savings of £2.5m annually are being sought.
As of last week 45 staff had negotiated voluntary redundancy, with compulsory redundancy now likely for the remaining 25.