News

NatureScot’s consultation on the Scottish Planning Biodiversity Metric (SPBM) is now live

The Institution of Engineers in Scotland have launched their 2026-2027 programme!

University of Glasgow chemists are set to advance their research into how sound waves can remove harmful pollutants from drinking water after being named as a finalist in a national funding competition.

AI tools are now woven into everyday work: they’re everywhere, remarkably intuitive, and they solve real pain points that existing systems and processes often ignore. It’s no surprise that people turn to them, especially when they offer a faster route around slow or cumbersome internal processes. Christina Lovelock MBCS explores.

A breakthrough new development in communications research may have solved a key problem with one of the enabling technologies set to underpin the 6G networks of the future.

Tools to strengthen the UK energy sector’s resilience against quantum enabled cyber-attacks are being developed by Edinburgh scientists. 

The project, known as Network Security in a Quantum Future, has been awarded £6.2 million to help prepare the energy network mitigate for future quantum computing cyberthreats.

Scotland may need between £7.8 billion and £14.2 billion of investment over the next 15 years to adapt to the impacts of climate change, according to new research led by the University of Strathclyde.

Published by ClimateXChange, Scotland’s centre of expertise on climate change, and supported by Paul Watkiss Associates, the study provides the first comprehensive estimate of investment needs across five key sectors. It offers an evidence base to inform future policy and infrastructure decisions and estimates Scotland’s climate adaptation investment needs up to 2040 across agriculture, communities (flooding), natural environment, transport and water.

As temperatures continue to rise across the UK, the challenge of keeping buildings cool and protecting occupants from overheating is becoming an increasingly important issue for the built environment.

CIBSE’s expertise on building performance and climate resilience was recently featured in The Sunday Times, with Dr Anastasia Mylona, Technical Director at CIBSE, contributing to the national conversation on the growing demand for cooling solutions and the need for a balanced approach to managing overheating risks.

On 19 June 2026, a significant development in UK data protection law came into force under the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025 (DUAA), introducing a new statutory right for individuals, including employees, to raise data protection complaints directly with organisations. This marks an important shift in responsibility, as employers are now required not only to handle data appropriately but also to actively facilitate, manage and respond to concerns when they arise. Previously, many complaints were directed straight to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), but the new framework places clear emphasis on resolving issues internally in the first instance.

Heriot-Watt engineers, working with colleagues at the University of Leeds and across Europe, have designed and tested a new type of self-levelling railway sleeper to tackle the long-standing problem of transition zones on the rail network.

Oxford Nanopore Technologies has won the 2026 MacRobert Award, the UK's longest running and most prestigious prize for engineering innovation. 

The Royal Academy of Engineering has announced Oxford Nanopore Technologies as the winner of the 2026 MacRobert Award, the longest running and most prestigious prize for UK engineering innovation, recognising a homegrown engineering breakthrough that has transformed access to real-time genomic information across public healthcare, research, and industry.

Dr Enoch Agyepong FBCS assess the most common AI based attack vectors and offers his views on strategies that should enable organisations to thrive