Bayes Centre

The Bayes Centre will assemble up to 600 world-leading applied data science researchers, talented students and staff from organisations across the public, private and third sectors into one facility. It will do this by providing commercial collaboration space for use by industry, and by drawing together academic and research expertise from across the institution, as well as organisations like the Alan Turing Institute and the Data Lab.

Senior Responsible Officer, Professor Dave Robertson
Director, Professor Michael Rovatsos

Contact: Neil McGillivray, Chief Operating Officer, Bayes Centre, Email: neil.mcgillivray@ed.ac.uk, Tel: +44 (0) 131 651 3127

National Robotarium

The National Robotarium will be co-located on the Heriot-Watt University campus, having access to the resources of both Heriot-Watt and the University of Edinburgh. It will meet existing and future industrial need by accelerating the generation of knowledge and flow of technologies into the economy through targeted research, industry collaboration, living laboratories, demonstrator and incubation facilities. The National Robotarium will provide state-of-the-art facilities to co‐locate researchers, engineers, entrepreneurs and educators to deliver the UK’s leading international centre for the generation of new, smart robotics companies.

Contact: Ross Clark, Project Manager, National Robotarium at Heriot-Watt University, Email: r.clark@hw.ac.uk, Tel: +44 (0) 131 451 3719

Edinburgh Futures Institute (EFI)

The EFI will be a global centre for multi-disciplinary, challenge-based DDI research, teaching and societal impact. The biggest challenges that the world faces are complex and interconnected. Solving them requires multiple orientations and understandings. EFI’s approach brings the arts, humanities and the social sciences into contiguity with data science, natural sciences and with medicine – to co-create deeply interdisciplinary models. The first major programme is focused on the challenges and opportunities posed by the revolution in data, digital and artificial intelligence. EFI will help to transform the application, governance and benefits delivered from the use of data. It will do this by bringing together a range of academic disciplines, third party organisations, and sectors including financial services, cultural industries and the public sector, that are dealing directly with these challenges.

Senior Responsible Officer, Professor Dorothy Miell

Director, Professor Lesley McAra

Contact: John Hausrath, Programme Manager for the Edinburgh Futures Institute, Email: john.hausrath@ed.ac.uk, Tel: +44 (0)131 650 9695

Usher Institute

Through the application of data science, the Usher Institute will aim to develop innovative and financially sustainable models of health and social care that improve lives.

Located at Edinburgh BioQuarter, the Institute will become a world-leading hub where up to 600 health and social care researchers and scientists will collaborate with colleagues from public, private and third sectors organisations to deliver data-driven advances. The Institute will drive health and social care innovation at scale by integrating the activities of: clinicians, life scientists and data scientists to identify new, co-produced insights in identified areas of challenge; and industry and public sector organisations to extract, apply and commercialise expert knowledge.The Institute will draw on Scotland’s mature and world-leading health data assets, and well-established governance and data-sharing protocols developed in partnership with the National Health Service and the Scottish Government.

Director, Professor Aziz Sheikh

Senior Responsible Officer for the DDI Programme in Health and Social Care, Professor Nicholas Mills

Contact: Colan Mehaffey, Chief Operating Officer for the Health & Social Care Sector of the Data Driven-Innovation programme, Email: Colan.Mehaffey@ed.ac.uk

Easter Bush

An efficient agricultural sector is critical to social well-being ; by 2050, global agricultural production will need to increase by 50% to feed a growing global population. By applying data technologies that enable farmers and related industries to improve food production, veterinary care, digital agriculture (Agritech) will be critical to increasing global food supply.

The project will seek to leverage existing world-class research institutes and commercialisation facilities to help Easter Bush become a global location of Agritech and veterinary excellence. It will do this through the deployment of a campus-wide network that will generate and collate, in real time, a multitude of local and global data, (e.g. veterinary activities, animal genetics, food species genetics, soil condition, weather and market drivers). It will also work with commercial collaboration partners to use this information to realise the potential of having the right food species, and the right products, in the right field at the right time to maximise agricultural productivity.

As part of this project, there is also a proposed A701 relief road and A702 link, which represents a significant investment in the key infrastructure needed to support the major growth planned along the A701 corridor.

Senior Responsible Officer, Professor David Argyle

Director, Professor Bruce Whitelaw

Contact: Val Hughes-White, Campus Operations Officer, Easter Bush Campus, Email: Val.Hughes-White@ed.ac.uk, Tel: +44 (0) 131 651 9180

Edinburgh International Data Facility

The Edinburgh International Data Facility (EIDF) provides the enabling data infrastructure platform for the wider DDI Programme. The DDI Programme requires an extremely powerful, high capacity and flexible infrastructure, capable of responsive delivery of an expanding range of complex and bespoke data and analytical services. By leveraging prior investments in the Edinburgh Parallel Computing Centre (EPCC), and its Advanced Computing Facility (ACF), the EIDF represents a practical, flexible and cost-effective approach to the delivery of the diverse technological requirements of the DDI Programme.

Senior Responsible Officer: Professor Mark Parsons

Contact: Dr Rob Baxter, Programme Manager, Email: r.baxter@epcc.ed.ac.uk, Tel: +44 (0) 131 651 3579