We offer open and participatory events that showcase interdisciplinary work and impact and spark ideas, inspiration and debate.
Get event updates from Edinburgh Futures Institute.
Our Utopia Labs are ‘no-spaces’, places where everyone is welcome to join us in dreaming futures that inspire our experience of the present.
A talk by danah boyd.
In this Technomoral Conversations panel, we will hear from leading voices from the Majority World on what they have learned from and about AI, and the issues and visions they would like to see taken up.
Join this weekly reading group hosted by The Binks Hub and led by Dr Autumn Roesch-Marsh.
A panel event marking the 10-year anniversary of Katie Paterson’s 100-year artwork, Future Library.
Part of the University of Edinburgh's Edinburgh Futures Conversations series.
Unco is a project to create a new Scots lexicon of LGBT+ words. These words are a proposal for how LGBT+ people can talk about themselves in Scots.
This event will bring together key figures from the Scottish education landscape to talk about AI in schools and our education futures.
Niranthea is a hybrid short film combining documentary, audiovisual synaesthesia and AI hearing algorithms to tackle the notions of Deafhood, prosthesis and cyborg.
Join this weekly reading group hosted by The Binks Hub and led by Dr Autumn Roesch-Marsh.
Ex Silens is an experience into a radically alternative sensorium through the entanglement of multiple bodies, multiple agencies.
Interdisciplinary artist Kasia Molga invites you to explore her first iteration of 'How to Find the Soul of a Sailor,' the result of The New Real 2023-2024 commission 'Uncanny Machines' supported by the Scottish AI Alliance.
Join Professor Alex Gil, Senior Lecturer and Associate Research Faculty of Digital Humanities in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at Yale University, in the Centre for Data, Culture and Society (CDCS) Annual Lecture 2024.
Join us for an informative online session to explore postgraduate taught study at Edinburgh Futures Institute (EFI).
Join this weekly reading group hosted by The Binks Hub and led by Dr Autumn Roesch-Marsh.
Join Professor Daniel Kreiss for an in-depth talk and discussion, hosted by the School of Political Science, on how platforms fail democracy. It will examine their role in political polarisation and disinformation, while advocating for democracy-worthy policies to safeguard elections and institutions.
Join this weekly reading group hosted by The Binks Hub and led by Dr Autumn Roesch-Marsh.
A film by Sapphire Goss, produced, written and narrated by Liz McFall. The screening will be followed by a discussion with special guests.
Join the Edinburgh Centre for Data, Culture and Society for their latest project deep dive featuring Andrew McLean.
Join this weekly reading group hosted by The Binks Hub and led by Dr Autumn Roesch-Marsh.
Join this weekly reading group hosted by The Binks Hub and led by Dr Autumn Roesch-Marsh.
An interdisciplinary symposium on AI and vocal music, with an immersive opera concert and social evening.
Join this weekly reading group hosted by The Binks Hub and led by Dr Autumn Roesch-Marsh.
A preview dance performance featuring University of Edinburgh dance students and cutting edge robotic technology.
A live performance featuring new poetry from Kathleen Jamie and music created by AI from live drawings by Kate Steenhauer.
TJ Billard offers an insider’s view into transgender activism during the first two years of the first Trump administration.
Comedian Fern Brady joins Michael Pedersen to talk creativity, comedy and books.
A panel event celebrating the creation of the Edinburgh Seven Tapestry.
A workshop series on the skills needed by creatives in the current technological landscape, in partnership with Adobe.
For Freelancers
Join the Centre for Investing Innovation for a guest lecture featuring Sahra Ghalebikesabi, Google DeepMind.
A panel event on the mechanisms of exclusion in cultural work and how they are mirrored in other national and policy contexts
A workshop series on the skills needed by creatives in the current technological landscape, in partnership with Adobe.
For students and early career practitioners
This webinar is designed for individuals and organisations across the creative industries who are navigating the evolving landscape of digital content management and licensing.
In this talk, the co-founders of the Public Data Lab will share their experience of developing new collaborative methods through digital tools.
Making Waves is an exciting programme of events that explores creativity in different forms, crossing areas such as the arts, technology, science, and the environment..
Watch recordings
Our Autumn 2024 programme of events explored the future of education through panel discussions, poetry readings, live music and performance, and deep intellectual debate and discussion.
Watch recordings
Our Autumn 2023 programme of events explored leadership in all its forms – from the seats of power to the front lines of activist movements and even in our own workplaces.
Watch recordings
Our Spring 2023 programme of events explored the interconnections of AI and data with humanity through conversations, performances, and workshops.
Watch recordings
Our Autumn 2022 programme featured more than 20 events exploring crisis, migration, displacement and equality coalescing around the theme of Climate Justice.
Watch recordings"The production and intellectual content of your recent events has been fantastic! Thank you for the opportunity to attend and learn. This is probably the best event I have been to all year."
Event attendee, Love Machine Spring 2023
"Really, really impressed with Futures Institute events. Properly impressive speakers, and seamless technical management. Thank you for keeping them hybrid/online – it's a really nice way to keep in touch!"
Event attendee, Love Machine Spring 2023
"Amazing! I hope that Utopia Lab can ring in every event season, the dream space that you curate and allow to flourish is an important and novel lens that Edinburgh Futures Institute offers partners, students, staff, researchers and anyone with an interest in collaborative thinking and doing."
Event attendee, Love Machine Spring 2023
Our public events seasons are co-created with people from across the University of Edinburgh. If you'd like to contribute ideas for the programme please contact the events team.
Call for proposals
Edinburgh Futures Institute (EFI) building, The University of Edinburgh, 1 Lauriston Place, Edinburgh, EH3 9EF
*Deliveries via West Entrance on Nightingale Way.
Email: efi@ed.ac.uk
The University of Edinburgh is a charitable body, registered in Scotland, with registration number SC005336, VAT Registration Number GB 592 9507 00, and is acknowledged by the UK authorities as a “Recognised body” which has been granted degree awarding powers.
Unless explicitly stated otherwise, all material is copyright © The University of Edinburgh 2021.
