This year I’m going to be quite heavily involved with the new Edinburgh Futures Institute, which will be doing new kinds of interdisciplinary research to tackle complex societal problems, bring the social sciences and humanities to bear on data science, and develop a whole new portfolio of postgraduate and undergraduate programmes to teach students about current pressing and critical themes.
The EFI will be based in the Old Royal Infirmary building – for those that know Edinburgh, this faces out onto the beautiful Meadows near the centre of town – and will make some truly exciting new links between work we do at the university, local communities, businesses and people, as well as with students, academics, practitioners and artists from around the globe.