We offer open and participatory events that showcase interdisciplinary work and impact and spark ideas, inspiration and debate.
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Speculative Futures Central Scotland hosts a conversation on participatory futures with Futurall, a research and design studio building hope, agency and action towards more equitable futures.
Join us to discuss the women building a robust transnational feminist network, the tactics developed in the global south which are now being shared with feminists in Europe and North America, and building a new model for international feminist solidarity.
Join us to discuss the human dynamics of the workplace, how to better understand our own inner theatre, and how this knowledge can create better managers and leaders.
As AI's influence grows, navigating its geopolitics becomes increasingly crucial for shaping the future of nations and their global relationships.
DigitalScotland is the largest annual gathering of public sector technology professionals.
This workshop will address the complexities, challenges and future scenarios facing the retrofitting and energy efficiency of existing buildings.
The UK FinTech Symposium is the annual conference for the FinTech National Network and is the gathering place for FinTech leaders to collaborate, cooperate and develop new market opportunities.
Join the Centre for Technomoral Futures for their Flagship Lecture, where delegates will hear from Dr Michael Veale on Governing the AI Business Model: Platforms All the Way Down?
The fourth CDCS Annual Lecture How to See What’s Missing presented by Mary Flanagan.
CreativeMornings Edinburgh invites you to join a conversation with the team behind the Recycling A Hospital project at Edinburgh Futures Institute.
Join the Centre for Data, Culture and Society for their first Project Deep Dive of the semester ‘Image and Text Analysis using Multi-modal Embeddings’ presented by Justin Chun-ting Ho.
The use of science and technology to optimise the output of workers for the profit of business is not a new phenomenon. For this session we welcome two sociologists who work on the quantification of the body and worker, Dr Mark Patterson, and Dr Karen Gregory. Dr Patterson will explore the history of measurement of the ... Read more
Prediction of the impacts of climate change is one of the most urgent challenges facing humanity, crucial tools that will support policy, business and civil society in planning mitigations - everything from the pricing of insurance to building community resilience and the speed of decarbonisation. Just as in the work done to demonstrate human impacts ... Read more
Join MusAI and The New Real to delve into the intriguing intersection of artificial intelligence and music copyright.
2023 was undoubtedly the year of 'AI' - when we were all amazed by the capabilities of ChatGTP and image generators, and stories of existential risks filled the media. This narrative seemed to be pushed by the very people who had invested most in developing Large Language Models, and were interlinked with the ideology of ... Read more
As our society has become increasingly dependent on information infrastructures that reach into our pockets, homes and workplaces, we have become increasing vulnerable to attacks on and through these systems. How can we improve legal, technical and human dimensions of design and use to ensure future protection and resilience?
Join the Centre for Data, Culture & Society and the Social Data Science Hub for a Project Deep Dive presented by Anja Neundorf, professor of Politics and Research Methods at the University of Glasgow.
Join us for a day of creative discussion with other makers of multi-disciplinary and music driven performance to identify how we overcome barriers and envision a future together.
Ensuring the safety of our information infrastructures is a huge challenge that involves human, legal, and technical cooperation at a global scale. The rise of new technology, especially AI, poses great challenges for the development of effective law and regulation. In this session we have a perspective from law and social science from the University ... Read more
The CDCS Project Deep Dive series continues with ‘Digitization for Social Welfare: Examining the Building and Other Construction Workers' (BOCW) Welfare Funds in India’ presented by Dr Sruthi Herbert.
Join us for a live-stream of this conversation hosted by Professor Liz Grant and Dr Katherine Trebeck, University of Edinburgh.
This workshop organised by The Binks Hub will help you use poetry to communicate your research.
This event asks how people politically mobilise when subject to data systems that algorithmically govern them but remain opaque.
This event marks the launch of Tech Tuesdays, a new series dedicated to making sense of technology within the tourism, travel, and hospitality industries.
Join the Centre for Data, Culture & Society for a Project Deep Dive presented by Sal Hagen, University of Amsterdam.
The Technomoral Conversations series brings together leading experts in a “fireside chat” format to discuss futures that are worth wanting.
In her book Richie evaluates medical reproduction from an environmental perspective & confronts the carbon impact of the healthcare industry.
In the seminar, Ben Collier will introduce the new book, Tor: From the Dark Web to the Future of Privacy (MIT Press, 2024).
ChatGPT and the other new advances in artificial intelligence have the potential to change work, education, and even what it means to “think” in the first place. In this talk, Professor David Williamson Shaffer looks at what AI is (and isn’t), its impact on what and how we learn, and how AI can change what ... Read more
To what extent can human creators exercise control on the technological tools they are using? And how does the control that technology exerts on them influence the creative process?
This event is specifically designed for professionals within the hospitality and tourism sector who are eager to explore what value robotics can bring to their businesses.
Dr Petko Kalev discusses why resiliency is an important dimension of market liquidity. For University staff and students only.
Hear a project deep dive from Ursula Martin on Imagining AI: computing stories in a museum context.
Enjoy a guided tour to mark the opening of the Edinburgh Futures Institute building.
What role should the public have in shaping Artificial Intelligence (AI)? Should the public have a voice in how AI is being developed and used, and how it’s governed and regulated? And how might a diverse cross section of the public be involved in the decisions made by big tech, regulatory bodies, and local and national government?
Join this one-day symposium on 'Artificial Intelligence as the Broken Machine' with invited keynote speaker Prof. Louise Amoore.
Join the Centre for Data, Culture & Society for their 5-day Summer School.
This event will showcase the potential for AI in the creative industries.
TikTok: Work, Time, and Play in a Platform Economy brings together papers that analyse emerging digital visual culture(s) and aesthetics through critical platform analyses.
This conference will share new insights and discuss the economic issues related to the application of technology within finance in a rapidly evolving regulatory landscape.
Join us to celebrate publication of Shannon Vallor's latest work The AI Mirror, one of the most important books we can read right now to find our way through the AI-hype headlines and harness its power to reinvigorate our sense of human agency and possibility.
Join us to explore the future of sustainable technology through design, engineering, and finance.
Hear about some of the latest research and engagement projects led by the Digital Cultural Heritage Cluster members, make new connections and get inspired.
An exciting day of cutting-edge creative tech keynotes, demos, and panels, with workshops and a closing reception with an interactive performance!
Our panel of artists, curators, and researchers explores how data-driven art raises new ethical provocations for curation and exhibition.
Join us to explore the Citizens Data Agency, a fictional service provider proposing five speculative data support services.
Anthropic’s workshops aim to show the Fringe community how AI assistants can help with burdensome tasks, and to hear your feedback as we all shape the future of this technology together.
Part of the Edinburgh International Book Festival, this Future Tense event features Margaret Atwood, Canadian novelist, poet, and literary critic.
Part of the Edinburgh International Book Festival, this workshop will get you thinking about how the future can inspire and influence our present.
Part of the Edinburgh International Book Festival, two fascinating technology writers reveal the disorientating extent to which we are already governed by AI and complex systems.
Part of the Edinburgh International Book Festival, this event invites writers and readers to ask: who truly benefits from the current AI explosion?
Part of the Edinburgh International Book Festival, this writing workshop explores how poetry can be a portal for our memories of the old Royal Infirmary.
Part of the Edinburgh International Book Festival, join Shetland-born author James Crawford as he talks about his latest work, Wild History: Journeys into Lost Scotland.
Part of the Edinburgh International Book Festival, hear stories capturing the memories and experiences of the Edinburgh Futures Institute building in its previous life as a hospital.
From their personal knowledge, our conversationalists will discuss the success of the original Edinburgh Conversations in the 1980s, and how in the context of the current global situation, the approach might be replicated.
What is the relationship between the digital and the museum? This question is at the heart of this 2-day conference.
Speculative Futures Central Scotland is delighted to invite you to an in-person evening event about Futures Boardgames.
Fintech Scotland Festival will take place between 25 September 2024 and 04 October 2024 across Scotland.
Hear from experts on these and a range of other issues around the complex interplay between artificial intelligence, data and democracy.
Join this weekly reading group hosted by The Binks Hub and led by Dr Autumn Roesch-Marsh.
Explore the Edinburgh Futures Institute building on Doors Open Days 2024! See exhibitions, meet staff and students and take part in a range of exciting hands-on drop-in activities suitable for all ages.
Explore the Edinburgh Futures Institute building on Doors Open Days 2024! See exhibitions, meet staff and students and take part in a range of exciting hands-on drop-in activities suitable for all ages.
Explore how automation and artificial intelligence could run the back office of your tourism or hospitality business.
Join this weekly reading group hosted by The Binks Hub and led by Dr Autumn Roesch-Marsh.
This talk discusses work carried out at the NEMUS project on the topic of digital conservation of historic stringed instruments.
The Binks Hub and the Ripple Project warmly invite you to an exhibition of co-created art that challenges the status quo and offers an alternative view of what communities need to flourish.
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..
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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.
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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.
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Our Spring 2023 programme of events explored the interconnections of AI and data with humanity through conversations, performances, and workshops.
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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.
