DDI supports scheme to attract research talent to Edinburgh

19 February 2019

The Data-Driven Innovation initiative has announced its support for a £5.5m fund to appoint 25 post-doctoral researchers at the University of Edinburgh who will focus on data-driven innovation and working with industry.

Researchers recruited through the Train@Ed Post-doctoral Fellowship will work with academics and external partners from the private, public and third sectors.

The pump-priming support aims to deliver extra resources and capacity across the University to improve the research impact from DDI. A further aim is to make the new resources financially sustainable and grow research and development contracts and consultancy at the University.

The DDI initiative and the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions fund are each funding one-third of the scheme, with the remaining portion expected to come from external partners.

Jarmo Eskelinen, Director of the DDI initiative, said: “We are delighted to support this scheme aimed at attracting international talent to the City Region and building industry engagement around DDI.

“Projects funded under the scheme will benefit from expertise and data analytics capabilities across our DDI Hubs, and will become a key component of building the DDI academic community at the University of Edinburgh. Within this exciting environment, researchers will gain transferrable skills for productive careers in science or industry.”

The scheme will help address a major gap in opportunities to collaborate with industry and help reduce barriers to researcher mobility (e.g. assistance with visa applications, with relocation expenses etc).

The project criteria has six research themes, including data science, creative industries, financial and business services, and life and medical sciences.

The Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions is part of the Horizon 2020, the EU’s research and innovation programme, which aims to promote research that tackles industry and social challenges.

The University of Edinburgh staff should sign in to EASE for application details.