MEASURES for managing Scotland's burgeoning deer population have moved a step closer – with four "innovative projects" now in the running for a £650,000 contract. 

Forestry and Land Scotland (FLS) officials have narrowed down a final shortlist ahead of the latest round in Scottish Government CivTech funding. Specifically, the finalists are being asked to develop a cost-effective way of identifying the exact whereabouts of animals over five kg in an area.

READ MORE: Innovative approaches sought to manage Scotland's deer population

For the Exploration Stage, FLS is now asking the four companies to develop their applications for the challenge and bringing to bear their experience from the aerospace, digital mapping, computing and forestry sectors.

The four firms are:

  • BH Wildlife Consultancy | Drone services
  • 2Excel Aviation. An Aviation and Aerospace Services Business
  • spotta.co/forestry
  • EOLAS - Ecological land data management - animal species count services

Project manager for FLS, Veronica Lyne-Pirkis, said: “The great thing about working with CivTech is that we are able to access a phenomenal range of expertise that we might otherwise not engage with.

“Bringing fresh eyes and different ways of thinking to a problem are usually very effective ways of finding solutions to those problems.

“We are very excited that our innovation journey continues to re-shape modern forestry and we are looking forward to seeing what ideas these four companies develop.”

FLS has opted to work with four companies, instead of the more usual three, in order to fully explore all of the innovative ideas that have been put forward.

Part of the CivTech Round 9, FLS’s project is worth up to £650,000 and is part funded through CivTech’s Innovate for Nature initiative. 

Full details of the Challenge can be found on the CivTech Scotland website.