Edinburgh Futures Institute would like to thank all our students, staff, and partners who have made 2023 a fantastic year! We end the year on a high note as we welcome new staff and celebrate key milestones in the delivery of our teaching, research, events, and partnerships.
Farewells and welcomes
Edinburgh Futures Institute warmly welcomes Professor Kev Dhaliwal (Professor of Molecular Imaging and Healthcare Technology at the Institute for Regeneration and Repair) who has been appointed Interim Director of the Institute. We also appointed Professor Enda Delaney (School of History, Classics & Archaeology) as Director of Research. And we bid a fond farewell to Professor Chris Speed.
13 postgraduate programmes
Our first undergraduate cohort (MA (Hons) Interdisciplinary Futures) and the second intake for our postgraduate degree programmes arrived in September. We launched an additional three programmes for 24/25 bringing the Futures Institute postgraduate portfolio to 13 programmes.
123 academics from 21 different schools are engaged in Edinburgh Futures Institute – co-creating, developing and delivering interdisciplinary, data-rich and challenge-led programmes featuring 128 unique Futures Institute courses.
Our thriving ecosystem
We have a pipeline of over 40 external partners exploring co-location in the building with us. Partners will join the wider Futures Institute ecosystem of centres, hubs and projects. Explore our ecosystem!
We created over 90 fully scoped student challenge projects – offering students, and industry and sector partners unique opportunities to engage and work together on particular challenges – these were sourced and ready to take forward this academic year. Learn more about student challenge projects.
Our four key sectors
We saw tremendous activity across our four key sectors: Creative Industries, Financial Services and FinTech, Public Services, and Tourism, Travel, and Festivals.
We launched the Prevention Hub, the second annual CreativeTech Scotland Gathering, and the CoSTAR programme.
We announced two innovative financial services partnerships – Centre for Investing Innovation with abrdn and the School of Mathematics, and the Centre for Purpose-Driven Innovation in Banking which will combine business insights from NatWest Group (NWG) with research excellence from across the University of Edinburgh.
Visiting Fellowship Programme
We launched the inaugural Visiting Fellowship programme with an open call for applications to the 2024/25 academic year. The programme is designed to allow exceptional researchers to work on a project of their choice in collaboration with academics affiliated with the Futures Institute and our key themes. Find out more here!
Our event seasons
Our first three event seasons cut across a range of timely and challenging topics from the climate crisis and inequality to Artificial Intelligence and the future of leadership with 58 different events. Our hybrid events have reached audiences in 50 countries across 6 continents. Watch-on-demand.
Our fourth season, on the theme “The Future of Education,” will be in Autumn 2024 in the new building. Colleagues from across the University are invited to propose event ideas for our upcoming seasons – get involved here!
Data-Driven Innovation
We celebrated the first five years of data driven innovation and progress across the Edinburgh and South East Scotland City Region Deal with a range of highlights from the DDI programme and all of the hubs. Explore the work of the DDI hubs.
We look forward to an exciting, challenging, and inspiring new year!
