Caroline Parkinson

The Edinburgh Futures Institute (EFI) is the Data-Driven Innovation Hub for the creative industries and where the Creative Informatics Cluster team and I will be located when the refurbishment of the old Royal Infirmary on Lauriston Place is complete.

The inscription over the door of the building is ‘Patet Omnibus’, which is Latin for ‘open to all’. That describes the ethos that informs EFI’s activities. In like spirit, my role with my other Sector Engagement colleagues is to work closely with industry, in my case creative industries and cultural sector, to develop working collaborations to stimulate innovation informed by research and supported by skills provision.

The development of our work with the sector has been informed by consultation and testing various initiatives with the Creative Informatics Cluster, and communicated in our white paper, ‘Developing Data-Driven Innovation in the Creative Industries’.

The issues raised and innovation ambition expressed is still relevant and, in fact, has been intensified through the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. We are working through these ‘Covid times’ by converting our services to online with digital platforms that support collaborative co-creation, open studios and seminars, and delivering new skills programmes. We also continue to engage with creative and cultural partners on their areas of interest with our researchers and alsoo, of course, in how to innovate through and out of Covid-19 for our seriously hit sectors.

We are open to working with all in the sector and look forward to doing so in the months and years ahead to help support data skills needs, data research queries and develop new data-driven and innovative solutions, products, services and audience experiences.