Surpassing our targets and focusing firmly on securing future success

Over the past year, the Bayes Centre expanded its community by welcoming nine new companies, including three international firms setting up UK bases. This growth brings our total members and partners to 37. Collaborations with these companies have focused on societal impacts, such as improving Edinburgh’s cycling routes, tracking endangered seabirds and monitoring biodiversity through birdsong. Bayes also led two significant R&D projects and supported 13 others, generating £9.2 million in income – well surpassing our £1.2 million target.

In collaboration with various university schools and Fife College, Bayes introduced the Space Bridges courses to address skill gaps in the space sector, with the initiative attracting 145 enrolments. Read more about this on page 21. In entrepreneurship support, we helped 90 company founders and start-ups through programmes such as the Venture Builder Incubator, AI Accelerator and EIE25. The EIE event showcased innovations from Scottish universities to 276 investors, co-hosting with Tech Tour Growth Deeptech 25 and connecting 120 global investors with 42 European start-ups.

I’m looking forward to a number of our plans for the coming year, which involve the launch of an online Applied Data Science MSc with a focus on practical applications, with the first intake in September 2026. Bayes also plans to host bespoke innovation Away Days for industry and public sector organisations and to grow its community to 45 units or organisations by enhancing visibility and collaboration within the university. I hope you enjoy the case studies selected by the Bayes Centre to feature in this year’s DDI Annual Review but, of course, this is just a small snapshot of what we do.

Professor Ruth King, Director, Bayes Centre