Our latest ‘I’ve got an Idea’ Fund award goes to Biotechnologists, Jude Taylor & Thomas England, joint founders of jutobio.com

In their words “We started with a wonderfully Scottish question: what if whisky waste could help grow the world’s crops? Distilleries produce huge volumes of leftover liquid they normally pay to throw away – so we’re feeding it to microalgae, which grow and produce natural compounds called biostimulants. Sprayed onto crops, these boost yields and cut farmers’ reliance on polluting synthetic fertilisers, all without the marine harvesting that conventional alternatives depend on. It’s an inventive and circular idea, giving Scotland’s national drink a second life as plant food”. 

The award will cover the materials costs of running their decisive first experiment testing whether their chosen microalgae strains will grow on real distillery waste at bench scale, and measuring the biostimulant compounds they produce.

We like whisky and love DIY experiments so we wish Jude and Thomas the best of luck as they pursue this idea. Sláinte guys!