2023 News Archive

FinTech Scotland and Smart Data Foundry have announced the winners of their UK Fintech Innovation Challenge. The challenge aimed at discovering innovative solutions to strengthen the relationships between financial institutions and their SME clients.

Bayes Centre Member FinTech Scotland has announced the launch of the Financial Regulation Innovation Lab (FRIL) - a dynamic initiative set to revolutionise and shape the future regulatory landscapes in the UK and around the globe. Championing the frontier of financial regulation and harnessing cutting-edge technologies, FRIL will help ignite employment creation and business opportunities, while also unlocking the potential of future talent.

The Bayes Centre is pleased to announce that its renowned EIE event which aims to give investors and entrepreneurs access to the Scottish tech ecosystem will return next year, after a two-year hiatus. EIE24 will take place at iconic Edinburgh locations on 30th April and 1st May 2024.

Bayes Centre community member, the Central Asia Creative Hub (CACH), is an online networking platform connecting diverse artists, businesses, and practitioners passionate about promoting Central Asia's rich heritage. The platform aims to foster cross-cultural understanding, collaboration, and bring the region's cultural diversity to Scotland's creative festivals and beyond.

Bayes Centre Partner Rovco Rovco has successfully completed all survey work on behalf of Flotation Energy and Vårgrønn for the planned Cenos floating offshore windfarm located in the Central North Sea, 200 kilometres off the coast of North-east Scotland.

Edinburgh Futures Institute welcomes new Director, Professor Kev Dhaliwal to the role.

A bold new multi-million pound initiative that will push the forefront of generative AI to benefit society and stimulate economic growth has been launched at the University of Edinburgh.

We had a great time on Wednesday at our Venture Builder Incubator (VBI) welcome event to celebrate the start of the fourth VBI. It was an exciting evening of innovation, networking, and celebration.

A reminder of some practical information about this year’s Bayes Centre Christmas closure.

Yesterday, at The Earthshot Prize Awards ceremony in Singapore, Prince William and The Earthshot Prize named Acción Andina, GRST, WildAid Marine Program, S4S Technologies, and Boomitra the 2023 Winners of The Earthshot Prize. The Bayes Centre is proud to be an Official Nominator for the Earthshot Prize.

Bayes Centre celebrates its fifth anniversary.

Entrepreneurs from across Scotland working in robotics and AI are transforming their research and innovation ideas into commercial reality, thanks to the expansion of the University of Edinburgh Venture Builder Incubator (VBI) programme.

The UK’s first next-generation supercomputer – 50 times faster than any of the country’s existing machines – is to be hosted by the University of Edinburgh.

The Bayes Centre is pleased to welcome the Central Asia Creative Hub (CACH) as its newest
community member. Supported by the Creative Informatics Inclusive Innovation Working
Spaces Fund, the CACH will be proudly hosted by the Bayes Centre until February 2024.

Bayes Centre community member the Scottish Centre for Administrative Data Research (SCADR) analyses public data from across the public sector to create data driven insights, which can inform policy and benefit society. The teams also investigate possible linkage methodologies and use innovative skills to further advance administrative data research.

The search for the next Winners of The Earthshot Prize 2024 has begun, and the Bayes Centre is once again proud to be an Official Nominator. The Earthshot Prize is a global environmental prize and platform for impact, dedicated to finding and growing solutions that will repair our planet this decade. As one of a select group of organisations from around the world who will submit nominations to this prestigious global prize, we are delighted to be part of this global community!

An African agricultural business which helps the continent’s farmers increase crop yields is among the 13 cohort companies announced for this year’s University of Edinburgh AI Accelerator (AIA). The programme has selected a group of emerging companies from Scotland, the UK and other parts of the globe which are focused on using ‘AI (artificial intelligence) for good.’

Last week, external organisations and researchers got together for an Academic Industry Meeting day (AIMday®) to discuss the solutions University of Edinburgh academics and technical teams can offer industry in the fields of data science and digital technologies.

Five years after it was signed by the Prime Minister and First Minister, the Edinburgh and South East Scotland City Region Deal has helped 15,000 people secure employment, and improved the skills and knowledge of over 103,000 of the region’s citizens.

A visit from NASA astronaut Dr Kate Rubins has strengthened the University’s space technology ambitions.

Vahanomy, a climate and mobility data company which took part in cohort 6 of the University of Edinburgh’s AI Accelerator has partnered with the University of Edinburgh Business School's Centre for Business, Climate Change and Sustainability to develop project financing and costing models for electric vehicle charging infrastructure. This work has been facilitated and funded by the AI Accelerator programme based at the Bayes Centre.  

Applications are now open for The Alan Turing Institute’s new Turing Fellow scheme.

The Edinburgh & South East Scotland City Region Deal has marked its fifth anniversary

The Bayes Centre, the University of Edinburgh’s Innovation Hub for Data Science and Artificial Intelligence is delighted to announce that Professor Ruth King, an international leader in the field of statistics, will take up the position of Director in August 2023.

Starting in September, the first cohort of the Bayes Innovation Fellows programme will explore how to commercialise their research. The programme will help them to discover how to commercialise their research and/or spin out a company. Find out more about the programme and the first cohort in this interview with our Director of Research, Filippo Menolascina.

Bayes Centre community member FinTech Scotland was established to secure Scotland’s place as a top five global fintech centre. The organisation brings together entrepreneurs, the established financial sector, the public sector, accelerators, investors, consumer groups, technology and service firms, universities and skills agencies.

Bayes Centre partner The Alan Turing Institute has announced the appointment of Jean Innes as its new CEO.

Four students from the University of Edinburgh in the School of Engineering and School of Informatics have joined this year's Alan Turing Institute Student Enrichment Scheme.

Bayes Centre community member auticon is a social enterprise and IT consultancy. Their social mission is to improve the employment prospects of autistic adults and promote neurodiversity.

Dr Duncan Martin, Head of Entrepreneurship at the Bayes Centre, on the University of Edinburgh is meeting its entrepreneurial admissions, and the future of the renowned EIE conference.

Highly prestigious five-year tenure track fellowships focused on innovative research.

The Data-Driven Innovation Initiative has announced that broadcaster, author, and tech ethics expert Stephanie Hare will deliver the keynote talk at the ‘DataFutures, AI Futures’ conference on Wednesday 27 September 2023.

Bayes Centre Member Auticon has announced with Unicus that they have entered into an agreement under which the two companies will unite.
The transaction is an offensive to unite two innovative social enterprises and global players in the IT industry; the deal unifies more than 465 autistic employees to become the largest autistic-majority company in the world.

NatWest Group and the University of Edinburgh have today announced a new partnership based on challenge-led research and innovation that will improve how data is used to benefit bank customers, students, researchers and policy makers.

The University of Edinburgh has been ranked among the world’s top universities by The Times Higher Education Impact Rankings for its contribution to the UN SDGs, ranking 5th globally for innovation, industry and infrastructure

Bayes Centre community member Snugg, a home energy efficiency company who are developing a platform that connects homeowners, installers, banks and other relevant organisations.

The University of Edinburgh, supported by The Alan Turing Institute, is organising a workshop at the Bayes Centre to discuss Educating Engineers for Safe AI. This is part of a series with other regional workshops taking place in Cambridge and Newcastle.

Bayes Centre Member Snugg , the innovative online service dedicated to
making energy-efficient homes accessible to everyone, has teamed up with EDF, the
UK's largest generator of zero-carbon electricity. The collaboration aims to help
homeowners across England and Wales reduce their carbon emissions and improve
energy efficiency in their homes by connecting them with EDF's network of approved
installers.

Over 200 academics and industry partners came together at the National Museum of Scotland yesterday for Edinburgh Innovations’ annual showcase and dinner, this year on the theme of Digital Frontiers: data and digital technologies.

Bayes Centre Partner Smart Data Foundry has announced a new partnership with Ozone API and the launch of two open banking-focused tools: the Standards Library and the Innovation Atlas, designed to support and accelerate financial innovation in Open Banking.

Bayes Centre community member Environment Systems is an established consultancy with a valued reputation using their recognised expertise in data analysis – specifically geoinformatics and earth observation.
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Bayes Centre Member Snugg , the innovative online service dedicated to making
energy-efficient homes accessible to everyone, has announced that it has received a
significant grant from the Green Home Finance Accelerator (GHFA), a UK Government
initiative funded through the Net Zero Innovation Portfolio (NZIP), designed to promote
the development of green finance products.

The Bayes Centre is delighted to welcome ZZCOMM to its roster of Members.

Bayes Centre community member Research Data Scotland (RDS), a not-for-profit charitable organisation that brings together expertise, resources and capabilities from a range of existing data-led programmes across the Scottish public sector.

Bayes Centre Partner Rovco, a global provider of technology-enabled project solutions to the offshore renewable energy sector, has launched a new, dedicated marine site characterisation business line, to help address a crucial industry shortfall of companies with the all-round skills and expertise to carry out site consenting surveys prior to the construction of new offshore installations.

As part of the Trustworthy Autonomous Systems: Making Systems Answer project, Nayha Sethi, Chancellor's Fellow University of Edinburgh and Dr Louise Hatherall, Postdoctoral Research Fellow are trying to identify focus group participants. Bayes Centre Director, Prof. Michael Rovatsos, is one of the co-investigators on the project.

Autonomous systems involve software applications, machines, and people that are able to take actions with little or no human supervision. 

Fraser Moonie, a well-known name across the international subsea sector, has been appointed as Chief Operating Officer of Rovco.

The University of Edinburgh has recently joined the Turing University Network, demonstrating its continued commitment to advancing knowledge and education in data science and AI.

The Bayes Centre is delighted to welcome its latest Partner The Data Shed, an award-winning data consultancy specialising in data transformation projects, single customer views, managed support services, and more.

In case you were not able to attend the event, or if there are some pitches or talks that you would like to watch again you can do so here.

The University of Edinburgh AI Accelerator programme delivered its Showcase Event, highlighting some of the most exciting young companies in AI.

The University of Edinburgh's recent achievements in data science have placed it among the top 15 universities globally and second in the UK, according to the QS World University Subject Rankings.

The Bayes Centre is delighted to be able to allocate up to £80,000 for a number of small grant awards to enable University staff to work on commercially relevant activities in the field of data science and AI.

Marc Coull and Craig Davis to lead specialised business units

International Women’s Day takes place every year on 8th of March. International Women’s Day celebrates the social, economic, cultural, and political accomplishments of women worldwide. To celebrate International Women’s Day this year, we spoke to three leading women in our Executive Group about their roles at the Bayes Centre and about what this year’s theme #EmbraceEquity means to them.

An afternoon of innovative data-driven solutions, engaging pitches, cash prizes and networking.

The Bayes Centre is recruiting a select group of early-career academics, chosen for their potential to benefit from individual coaching and funding, in pursuit of research commercialisation. This programme is ideally suited to colleagues who demonstrate clearly articulated translational potential but as of yet have had limited real-world opportunities.

Founders of University of Edinburgh-supported start-ups, including many that are seeking growth investment, will be given the opportunity to showcase their companies to an audience of investors, business support groups, and fellow entrepreneurs at two key events taking place next month.

Rovco, global provider of subsea robotics and integrated survey solutions to the offshore wind and oil field decommissioning sectors, has strengthened its team with the appointment of Graham Bell as Head of Geoscience.

Bayes Centre Member FinTech Scotland announces, on its fifth birthday, a further increase in the number of entrepreneurial fintech SME firms as well as a record-breaking new investment funding for the year.

The pilot fund will support projects that improve public understanding of the use of data in research.

Bayes Centre member Snugg has revealed that nearly half (45%) of Edinburgh’s homeowners could make ‘dramatic’ energy efficiency improvements in a comprehensive new study.