Scientists join big data institute
Edinburgh researchers are joining a UK institute that aims to be world-leading in analysing and applying digital data.
Mathematicians and computer scientists from the University will contribute to the work of the Alan Turing Institute, which will have its headquarters in London.
The news was announced by Rt Hon Dr Vince Cable, Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills.
Diverse analysis
The Alan Turing Institute will attract the best data scientists and mathematicians from the UK and across the globe to break new boundaries in how we use big data in a fast moving, competitive world.
The Alan Turing Institute will enable knowledge and predictions from large-scale and diverse digital data.
It will seek to make discoveries, create business opportunities, inform policy making, improve our environment, health and infrastructure, and accelerate solutions to global challenges.
Edinburgh is one of five universities - and the only one in Scotland - selected to join.
The Universities of Cambridge, Oxford, UCL and Warwick have also been invited to join the Institute, which was first announced in the Chancellor’s 2014 Budget.
It is being funded over five years with £42 million from the UK government.
Supporting industry
The university partners will contribute further funding.
In addition, the Institute will seek to partner with other business and government bodies.
The Institute’s work is expected to span a range of academic disciplines and be relevant to many industry and public sectors and to the third sector.
It will be have its headquarters at the British Library, in London’s developing Knowledge Quarter area.
The delivery of the Institute is being coordinated by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council which invests in UK research and postgraduate training.
We are delighted to contribute our expertise in computer science and mathematics to the Alan Turing Institute, which promises to be a world leader in the analysis and application of data science. We look forward to working with partner institutions in this exciting and promising new area.
Alan Turing’s genius played a pivotal role in cracking the codes that helped us win the Second World War. It is therefore only right that our country’s top universities are chosen to lead this new institute named in his honour.