Our mission
Faced with the reality of a global climate emergency, The Salter Centre believes that well-trained and motivated engineers can play a major part in bringing the planet back to a sustainable future.
Our founder, Professor Stephen Salter, was a celebrated craftsman, engineer, teacher and communicator who, amongst many other areas, made major innovations in renewable energy and climate mitigation. In 2023, he established ‘Lothian School of Technology’ as a Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation, bought the buildings in which it would be housed, and appointed trustees.
After his death the trustees wished to honour Stephen by renaming the charity and were grateful to gain his family’s enthusiastic support – hence ‘The Salter Centre’.
According to our legal constitution, the ‘purposes’ of The Salter Centre are:
a. To advance environmental protection and improvement by contributing to the reverse of global warming including by:
i. promoting the sustainable management of natural resources;
ii. investigating, and supporting the investigation of, climate change; and
iii. promoting energy saving measures and the use of renewable energy;
b. To advance education by supporting the training of engineers in design and practical skills especially in the field of climate change.
In furtherance of these purposes, we have created a place in which engineering enterprises working to develop cleantech are likely to succeed, and we help to train and encourage school pupils, students, and employees in practical engineering and problem-solving.
We support this work by providing affordable, well-equipped spaces to engineering enterprises that are aligned with our environmental aims. Our facilities include a shared machine shop, fabrication facilities, and training programmes.
We will nurture a creative collaborative working environment as we recognise enterprises can often help each other succeed.
We will coordinate relations with tertiary education institutes and schools so that young people come here in numbers and learn in a productive environment.
The Salter Centre will, on occasion, invest in resident enterprises.
We will help enterprises here attract the best talent irrespective of a person's gender, ethnicity, physical ability or social background.