Dundee's Thriving Sectors

Dundee, Scotland's 4th largest city, is known historically for its jam, jute and journalism. While jute is no longer in great demand, modern Dundee is a city of science, discovery, culture, art and journalism too. Scotland's sunniest city, Dundee is a dynamic and compact city that's becoming a modern wonder.

A UNESCO City of Design, Dundee is home to the V&A Dundee, the world's only V&A museum outside of London. A long-time leader in video game design, Dundee has spawned hit titles including Lemmings and the globally bestselling GTA series, yes - really, and Abertay University was among the first to offer dedicated video game programming degrees. A city reinvented and on the make, Dundee has respawned.

• Creative and Digital Technology
• Life Sciences and Health
• Food and Drink

Creative and Digital Technology

Dundee is a city of design, creativity, and digital technology. The home of world-famous comic book icons the Beano and the Dandy, Dundee has a fun side too, and it is this fun and explorative side that made Dundee a city of video games as they exploded into the world. Spanning generations, Dundee was the home of the company now known as RockStar North, you might better know them for classic games like Lemmings, and modern blockbuster series GTA. Other global titles including Minecraft are now designed in Dundee. A UNESCO city of Design, Dundee is home to the only V&A Museum of Design outside of London, a stunning waterfront building that has breathed new life into Dundee and brought its design credentials into the global spotlight.

Dundee's tech, gaming and design talents include:

• Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design, where illustrators and designers learn their craft before transitioning into a range of roles, including video game design work.
• Abertay University School of Design and Informatics - those games you play on your phone, console or computer, could just be the designers began their careers studying in Dundee - one of the first universities in the world to offer game specific degree programs.
• Originally known as DMA and founded in Dundee, Rockstar North is now based in Edinburgh. Titles developed in Dundee include Lemmings and GTAI,II and III.
• Rockstar Dundee - until 2020 known as Ruffian Games, the latest Dundee export to join the Rockstar family, and testament to the continuing innovation and success seen in Dundee's games development sector.
• 4J Studios, developers who brought the world famous sandbox game Minecraft to consoles.
• The V&A Dundee museum of design - housed in a stunning waterfront building as unique as the displays inside and the first V&A outside of London.
• Dundee's very own answer to DC Comics and Marvel- DC Thomson have been publishing The Beano since the 1930's. Other big titles include The Dandy and Scots favourites The Broons and Oor Wullie.

Life Sciences and Health

Dundee, like all Scottish cities, has a strong life sciences cluster, with research taking place in Dundee and Abertay Universities and the James Hutton Institute, as well as numerous private ventures who work in close collaboration with their academic peers. Dundee has particular strengths in chemical science and drug discovery, biosciences and agricultural science. In Drug discovery Dundee is making a big impact on a global scale, with new research clusters tearing down the walls of traditional disciplines to focus on drug discovery for the developing world and in identifying unmet clinical needs and developing solutions to them. Today there are over 80 companies established in the Dundee area, collaborating and working with academia on a range of biomedical and life science projects.

Dundee's Life Science and Health Experts include:

• The Dundee University Drug Discovery Unit brings innovation and collaboration to life, bringing chemists, biologists, industry scientists and academics together to identify unmet clinical needs and pursue innovative solutions to them.
• Bio-Dundee is a partnership between public, private, academic and third sector organisations whose the purpose is to build the strength of the Life Sciences and Healthcare sectors in Dundee and the wider Tayside region.
• The University of Dundee Welcome Centre for Anti-infectives Research is developing new methods, technologies and processes that will make drug discovery for neglected tropical diseases faster and smarter.
• The University of Dundee MRC Protein Phosphorylation and Ubiquitylation Unit studies a variety of topics in partnership with academics around the world to understand how our cells regulate their biology and how this can lead to cures and treatments for diseases including Parkinson's.
• The Dundee Institute of Healthcare Simulation (DIHS) has been formed to capitalise on the capability of two centres within the School of Medicine at the University of Dundee. DIHS will enhance existing simulated training activity and develop new educational products which will establish the DIHS as a world leading facility for simulation-based healthcare education.
• The Tayside Medical Science Centre conducts large scale clinical trials in areas such as diabetes, capitalising on Scotland's world leading public health data.
• The James Hutton Institute combines strengths in crops, soils and land use and environmental research, and makes a major contribution to the understanding of key global issues, such as food, energy and environmental security, and developing effective solutions to these.
• The Leverhulme Research Centre for Forensic Science (LRCFS) has an interdisciplinary research team, the largest in the UK, dedicated to the improvement of the robustness and quality of the science underpinning evidence presented within the criminal and civil courts.

Food and Drink

Dundee is located within Angus, one of Scotland's most fertile regions which boasts 40% of Scotland's class A agricultural land, and excellent produce from seafood, dairy, wool, lamb, beef and a wide range of fruit and vegetables. But feeding the world is a modern challenge that relies on science as much as good farming. Dundee has developed into key research partner with Scottish producers, probing soil science, growing techniques and even vertical farming to secure food supplies for the future.

Dundee's Farmers Market:

• The James Hutton Institute combines strengths in crops, soils and land use and environmental research, and makes a major contribution to the understanding of key global issues, such as food, energy and environmental security, and developing effective solutions to these.
• A truly innovative company, with truly global applications, Intelligent Growth Solutions is tackling the problem of an expanding population with limited resources head on. How can we feed a projected global population of over 10 billion? We need to revolutionise food growth, and IGS have developed carbon neutral, low energy, low water, vertical farms that rely on UV light, and can be deployed just about anywhere.
• Key crop barley is seen as vitally important for future food supplies, and the James Hutton Institute is taking a global role in ensuring the long term sustainability of the crop - International Barley Hub
• The University of Abertay Division of Food and Drink conducts research into food science & technology, sensory & consumer science, public health & human nutrition and zymology & alcoholic fermentations.
• Zero Waste Scotland launched its first dedicated food waste reduction support across Dundee, Angus and Fife, placing the region at the forefront of the food waste revolution.