Collaborations with industry
Some of our current and recent collaborations.
Facility work supporting commercial growth
In 2014 the University and STFC (Science & Technology Facilities Council) created the Higgs Centre for Innovation in a new purpose-built building at the Royal Observatory, Edinburgh. It builds on the technology development and business incubation at the STFC’s UK Astronomy Technology Centre (ATC) with research and training at the University. Its mission is to promote innovation in, and impact from fundamental physics to produce people who will improve our understanding of the Universe and whose know-how transforms industry. This will be achieved by bringing together exceptional postgraduates, new data analytics tools, and companies, all embedded in a rich atmosphere of leading-edge scientific research.
Consultancy and complex fluids solutions
Edinburgh Complex Fluids Partnership (ECFP) sits within the Institute for Condensed Matter and Complex Systems. It was founded in 2012 with a mission to use scientific insights to advance formulation and complex fluid design and processes. ECFP aims to improve product performance, consumer experience and help companies switch to more sustainable resources and more efficient processes. Already, it has helped companies from all sectors relevant to formulation science from multinational blue-chips to local SMEs. Its world-leading researchers and excellent facilities are key to its success in solving problems and generating innovative solutions.
Edinburgh Complex Fluids Partnership
Collaborations in high performance microprocessors
A group in Particle Physics Theory within the Institute for Particle and Nuclear Physics has a long record of working with large computer companies to co-design microprocessors for power-efficient high performance. This work led, for example, to the IBM BlueGene series of supercomputers. Today, they have a close relationship with Intel and are currently expanding their activities for co-design of key high-performance computing and data analytics codes. Collaboration with the Alan Turing Institute is creating significant opportunities for cross-fertilization of the group’s research into algorithms and machine learning.
Research partnerships in astronomy
The Wide-Field Astronomy Unit (WFAU) within the Institute for Astronomy is a leader in the field of sky survey data management. Recently they have started a collaboration with the Advanced Technology Center of Lockheed Martin Space Systems that will apply WFAU’s data management expertise: Lockheed Martin are using astronomical facilities to study satellites and orbital debris, and WFAU are developing and operating data management systems to aid the analysis of this data, part of a long-term research programme designed to help satellite operators avoid damage from orbital debris.
Partnership delivery of PhD studentships in data-intensive science
The Scottish Data-Intensive Science Triangle, ScotDIST, is a partnership between the universities of Edinburgh, Glasgow, and St. Andrews to offer PhD studentships in data-instensive science. It is funded by the Science & Technology Funding Council.
Data-Intensive science is the application of data science, the computational and statistical study of large data sets, to scientific problems. PhD students at ScotDIST will research their chosen field with the tools of modern software development, high-performance computing, and machine learning.
ScotDIST welcomes industrial partners who could host 6 month PhD student placements in data science areas.