Dr Ian Hutchinson

I work at Scotlands Rural College, Centre for Epidemiology and Planetary Health in Inverness.

In the Scottish Governments Centre of Expertise for Animal Disease and Outbreaks EPIC 4, I share my time between data support and managing our project website. The role of a data support assistant involves liaising with data providers and users, monitoring data set updates and the competition of DSAs/DPIAs. I led the EPIC website redeveloped in 2023; with the web design and development team at d8. The website redevelopment aimed to bring the 10+ years of EPIC research outputs to the fore.

Additionally, I provide research support to the SAIC-funded Gill Health project and EU Horizon 2020 Cost Action and DECIDE projects.

I joined EPIC 2 as a project coordinator in 2013. I was involved in coordinating several activities for the consortium, which included: supporting the Centre of Expertise (CoE) Directorate, reporting, organising meetings/workshops, developing an externally facing website and providing database support for researchers. I have a scientific background in molecular virology carrying out my PhD (The Role of VP7(T13) in Initiation of Infection by Bluetongue Virus) at the Pirbright Institute. A 4-year post-doc appointment followed at the Marie Curie Research Institute studying intracellular transport of Herpes Virus Type-1 tegument proteins. Later I joined personal lines insurer Esure as an underwriting analyst, which included: involvement as a technical workstream lead in the product launch of Sheilas’ Wheels motor insurance. I have also worked for the large German insurer Allianz on an international best practice initiative for motor insurance. Through this work, I achieved a blue belt in the process improvement methodology, Six Sigma. In addition, I was also involved in a customer-centred redesign of the motor insurance quote and buy webpages and the launch of their offering on aggregator sites.

Outside the office, I enjoy exploring the Highlands of Scotland with our yellow Labradors Torr and Brahan.