A CROP diversification project aimed at improving crofters’ income streams while supporting people living with dementia is one of more than 30 ground-breaking ideas through to the semi-finals of this year’s Converge Kick-Start Challenge.

The idea came from Georgina Macdonald, a 61-year-old who lives on North Uist and graduated from Lews Castle College University of the Highlands and Islands (UHI) earlier this year.

A preliminary test on North Uist showed that the environmental conditions on the Hebrides are ideal for growing daffodils, an important source of galantamine, a compound which is used in the treatment of Alzheimer’s.

While synthetic galantamine is expensive to make, it is occurs naturally in daffodils, providing crofters with an easy-to-grow crop and an alternative income stream.

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Macdonald said: “This project means a lot to me personally. The many elements cover a wide range of benefits for the community in addition to supporting those living with dementia.”

Another semi-finalist Tom Carew, 25, a PhD student at the Centre for Health Science in Inverness has developed a lab-tech, mechanical scalpel device which prepares in-gel protein, DNA and RNA samples into evenly sized gel pieces.

This resolves a number of existing sample preparation issues and significantly lowers the risk of contamination and sample loss.

He said: “To say I’m excited would not do my current feeling justice, I’m really looking forward to the training workshop next month.”

Semi-finalists will now be invited to two days of intensive business training and asked to submit a business case with the best being asked to pitch at the awards final in February.

Converge director, Dr Claudia Cavalluzzo, said: “We look forward to working with our KickStart cohort in the months ahead and helping them refine and validate their early-stage business ideas through customer discovery training, pitch coaching and the wrap-around support offered by our team and partners.”