Other areas we've been making progress

Here are some other areas within the Community Plan that we're pleased to say we've made progress on in the first year.

Digital Inclusion

The IT Reuse project at the  University fixes, cleans, securely wipes any data, and redistributes PCs and other electronic equipment. 

In the last year, 425 PCs and laptops, as well as around 280 pieces of additional equipment like monitors, mice, and keyboards, have been given a new lease of life, and distributed to community organisations and individuals. 

Over the last 12 months, we have donated to The Edinburgh Remakery, People Know How, Midlothian Council, Access to Industry, Safe Families UK and Ripple Project. These organisations have gone on to distribute the equipment to those in our  communities who need them most, including school children to enable  them to continue their studies at home throughout the pandemic. 

We estimate that this project has collectively saved recipients around £100k, as it costs between £250-500 for a refurbished piece of equipment with everything included. Read more here.

Commitment 1: Sustain and grow activities related to our social impact pledges including: tackling homelessness and rough sleeping; promoting digital inclusion; supporting vulnerable groups and areas of multiple deprivation.

Supporting  social enterprise

£6m of funds have now been committed in principle to a number of social enterprises, including:

• £500k in Big Issue Invest Power Up Scotland
• £1m in Big Issue Investment Social Investment Fund 2
• £1m in Scottish Growth Fund 2 managed by Social Investment Scotland
• £250k in Fair by Design fund https://fairbydesign.com/fair-by-design-fund/
• £1m in Social and Sustainable Capital for the Simon Community investment

Edinburgh Innovations - the University of Edinburgh’s commercialisation service - continues to support social enterprises to a high level and Student Enterprise Hubs have re-opened post-lockdown. 

Commitment 2: Develop training and support for student social enterprises, and invest up to £8 million by 2023 in social investments that help tackle social and environmental challenges, as part of our Social Enterprise and Social Investment Strategy.

Community Grant Scheme

Through the University's Community Grant Scheme, we have disbursed in excess of £100k in 20/21. Over the last year we also improved our promotion of the scheme to organisations outside Edinburgh (i.e. the wider Edinburgh region), which has been reflected in recent grant recipients. Read the full story.

We also brought our past community grant recipients together in person in October 2021 for a networking session - the first post-lockdown in-person meeting.

Commitment 3: Grow our Community Grants Scheme and develop links with a more diverse group of organisations. 

Commitment 5: Create more opportunities to bring our community grantees together to share their experiences.

Resources for communities

We've made progress in providing ad hoc resources for community groups. One example is providing polythene to the White House in Craigmillar to allow their garden team to re-cover their polytunnel.

Commitment 8: Actively look for ways in which we can place more of our resources (buildings, equipment, vehicles) at the service of local communities and groups, whilst still using them to deliver on their core purpose.

Online short courses

The University of Edinburgh has more than 87 online courses across Coursera, FutureLearn and Edx, and we are the only UK University to have courses on all three platforms. These courses are free (optional £50 for completion certificate) and open to everyone. In 2021, we launched 10 new courses. Across all of our available courses, 19% of people who enrolled on a course were UK-based.  

Progress regarding our 'short courses' and 'open lectures' run by the University's College of Open Learning includes:

• pivoting our in-person provision to online, allowing learners to continue to engage during the pandemic (and creating new flexible learning opportunities to those unable to study on campus);
• almost 5000 enrolments on Short Courses (with the great majority being local adult learners);
• over 1000 participants in our Open Lectures (mostly local);
• Created a new Community Engagement Officer citizenship role.

Commitment 14: Provide learning opportunities for local communities through the Centre for Open Learning, Short Courses and Open Lectures, making sure that voices of the local communities are taken into account in the development of the Centre’s new Outreach Plan.

Edinburgh City Charter

We signed the 2050 Edinburgh Charter, joining other organisations and representatives of the city such as the Lord Provost of Edinburgh, Cllr Frank Ross. Read the full story. 

Commitment 18: Sign up to the city’s 2050 Edinburgh City Vision which is underpinned by the following principles: Fair; Pioneering; Welcoming and Thriving.

University estates development

In the last year we have developed development and consultation webpages to be more transparent about our estates development. We also include regular updates in our community newsletter, which you can sign up to here. 

Commitment 30: Aim to operate on a ‘no surprises’ basis with community partners on developments of our estate which could impact local communities, and be as open and transparent as possible about our future plans.