The Edinburgh Futures Institute is committed to supporting, promoting, and enabling high-quality research in areas focused on the challenges and opportunities related to data driven innovation that have demonstrable ethical, social, cultural, economic and environmental impact.
The EFI Research team aims to support academic staff by developing strategic areas of research capability, developing and supporting research networks, and providing advice regarding grant applications related to our themes (Creative, Data Civics, Gov-Tech, Financial Services and FinTech, Tourism and Festivals, Future Infrastructure, Ethics of Data and AI).
We also aim to support a training and upskilling program of data-led research methods, managed by the Centre for Data, Culture and Society (CDCS), to allow existing staff and research students at the University of Edinburgh to grow and develop their own approaches to data-led research.
One of our priority areas is to support academics working on strategic research grant applications by providing expert advice on how to design, structure and resource a project and coordinate the submission process. We also support the grant application process by identifying colleagues who can constructively peer review proposals, facilitating networking and collaboration with external partners, providing teaching buy-out for applicants or buy-in for junior researchers who can support the PI in preparing the proposal. You can find the application form here, but please liaise with the EFI Research Manager if you have any specific request.
Our
Research Capability Fund supports researchers by providing practical support, for example access to new data sets, software licences, strategic equipment, digitisation and training. It’s an open call so academics can apply at any time by sending to
efi@ed.ac.uk. The application form is available
here.
We also have two schemes to support projects which are relevant for our research themes: the EFI Research awards, which we now manage in collaboration with the CAHSS College Research Office as a stream within the Challenge Investment Fund. Please liaise with your School Research Office to check their internal deadline.
The second scheme is an open call to support networking activities, events and small pilot projects. Awards are usually up to £2,500 and we tend to confirm the outcome of the application within a week. You can download the application form here and send it to efi@ed.ac.uk.
We support academics at all career stages through our internal affiliation programme, which aims to promote and support researchers who would like to develop their interests in or are already working on areas close to our themes. The guidelines and application forms are available on our Sharepoint here.
EFI research awards 2021/2022
Our EFI Research awards are currently managed in collaboration with colleagues in the CAHSS College Research Office, as a stream within the Challenge Investment Fund (CIF) call. CIF Awards are aimed to support broader College research objectives to further synergies and areas of cross-disciplinary expertise within CAHSS, across College boundaries and/or outside the institution. Applicants whose research projects had a focus on the challenges and opportunities posed by Data Driven Innovation in one of the EFI research themes (FinTech and financial services, Data Civics and the future of public services, Creative Tech, Tourism and Festivals, Ethics of Data and Artificial Intelligence, Critical Infrastructure), were invited to flag this in their application form.
The CIF review panel agreed to fund 6 projects focussing on EFI research priorities and aiming at generating new knowledge and contributing to the solution of significant and complex real-world cultural, societal, economic and environmental challenges. We supported projects exploring a wide range of issues such as the application of data mining and machine learning to study archival materials on Scottish pre-Reformation music, the impact of Covid19 on mental wellbeing, co-designing social security systems for single parents, and the challenges of implementing Virtual Reality faced by museums and tourism organisations. You can find out more about the individual projects below:
James Cook
Lecturer in Early Music, Reid School of Music, Edinburgh College of Art
Exploring Data Driven Approaches to Researching Ephemeral Cultural Heritage
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Based on James’ previous work on Scottish pre-Reformation music, this project will focus on material in existence for Scotland which has been drastically underrepresented in the literature, simply because it is contained in often small, disparate, and complex sources. The project will pilot approaches through three case studies, exploring the application of data mining and machine learning techniques to the surviving archival material relating to music and musicians from three institutions in Historic Environment Scotland’s care. By applying DDI methodologies to the research, interpretation, and curation of important cultural heritage sites under the care of Historic Environment Scotland, the team will build a complete picture of each of the three case study institutions and will begin to develop public-facing data visualisation of the data collected, as well as working with Historic Environment Scotland on using this data for visitor interpretation.
James Cook’s profile page
Glenna Nightingale
Chancellor’s Research Fellow in Nursing Studies, School of Health in Social Science
Investigating mental wellbeing along the lifecourse (1991-2020) and during the COVID-19 pandemic
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The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted on multiple spheres in society, including the overall mental wellbeing in our society. This study will use the UK Household Longitudinal Study (UKHLS) dataset (with ~30 years of data). The survey has been adapted to include COVID-19 related questions from early 2020. This study seeks to identify the factors which impact most on mental wellbeing, to determine the impact of the pandemic on the overall trend of mental health metrics over the years of the UKHLS and to make the findings easily accessible to relevant policymakers and researchers .The proposed research will generate findings that reflect the historical trend in mental wellbeing, investigate the impact of the pandemic on this trend, and identify and quantify the impact of key factors on overall mental wellbeing in the UK. One method of dissemination of findings is via a project dashboard.
Glenna Nightingale’s profile page
Patrick Errington
Early Career Teaching and Research Fellow, School of Literatures, Languages and Cultures
Difficulty and pleasure in comprehending novel extensions of verb-based metaphors assessed using fNIRS
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The objective of this project is to examine how immersion and pleasure are affected by the anticipation of various post-reading tasks (including literary critical analysis), how these then affect reading habits, and how reading habits influence reader wellbeing. This study is at the forefront of emerging fields like neuro-aesthetics, cognitive humanities, and empirical literary studies. In addition to its immediate scientific outputs, this study will provide the basis for an interdisciplinary research programme and the impetus to build a network with external academic and public partners. The team will liaise with experts who are working near this intersection between literary studies, cognitive psychology, linguistics, phenomenology, and mental wellbeing, several of whom have already expressed interest in these projects.
Patrick Errington’s profile page
Hayley Bennett
Lecturer in Social Policy, School of Social and Political Science
Hard to reach? Co-designing social security digital interfaces and automation processes with lone parents using creative and participatory methods
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This project focuses on understanding the experience of lone parents of the complex, multi-level social security system in Scotland, which involves various administrative agencies, funds, and resources using different interfaces. Often designers work on a single agency interfaces (such as Universal Credit). However, this singular view fails to situate the digital and automated experience within the context of multiple benefits and various human and digital information sources. The team will engage with lone parents through our specific project partners, drawing on relationships with partners involved in related work (Poverty Alliance, Edinburgh Advice Bureaux for example) and will produce an engagement report about the suitability and success/limitations of the chosen deliberative and creative methods for engaging with lone parents as well as w creative booklet (such as a Zine) outlining the experiences about the system and how it could change.
Hayley Bennett’s profile page
Kirsten Cowan
Lecturer in Marketing, University of Edinburgh Business School
Integrating Virtual Reality (VR) into Tourist Organisations: Reproducing Museum Identity in Virtual Environments
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The objective of this research is to consider the role of industry adoption of VR focussing on how museums construct narratives in VR. It also aims to investigate obstacles to VR channel adoption faced by tourism organisations, to understand how to strengthen impact. Research suggests VR is the new normal for tourism and the route forward for aiding decision-making. Yet, very few museums and tourist organisations have developed virtual content. Moreover, much research considers a consumer/tourist view rather than a museum view. The project will develop a toolkit for museums to understand the real and perceived challenges of implementing VR as well as what criteria they might consider in storytelling using VR.
Kirsten Cowan’s profile page
Maria Cucciniello and Stephen Osborne
Maria Cucciniello – Senior Lecturer in Service Management, University of Edinburgh Business School; Stephen Osborne – Chair of International Public Management, University of Edinburgh Business School
What can we learn from the Covid-19 Pandemic? A Study of the Vaccination Programme in Scotland from a Service Perspective
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The Covid-19 pandemic has radically challenged how we can best protect the health of the population at the societal and global levels. Vaccination has been generally agree to be the cornerstone of any effective protection programme. The vaccination programme, however, should be seen and analysed not as the logistical delivery of public health products but rather as a public service that is enacted within a complex and interactive public service ecosystem, at the institutional/societal, service and individual levels. This project will further our understanding of divergent policy designs of vaccination, revealing the underlying mechanisms about how different political, cultural and social backgrounds can influence policy designs and uncovering how different policies can influence collaboration and individual behaviours. Our ambition is to produce outputs with meaningful, sustained and measurable impact in society. In this regard, this project can enhance vaccination research vaccination significantly, rather than incrementally.
Maria Cucciniello’s profile page
Research support
In addition to these research projects, we have also supported several events, workshops and initiatives with a focus on Data Driven Innovation, including:
Glenna Nightingale
Chancellor’s Research Fellow in Nursing Studies, School of Health in Social Science
Modelling the spatial correlation in University of Edinburgh halls of residence COVID-19 reported positivity.
The proposed work is to estimate the spatial correlation of COVID-19 incidence across the University of Edinburgh halls of residence with the use of Log Gaussian Cox Process models. The study will also investigate the question of whether there is a higher reported incidence of COVID-19 positivity in University halls which are en-suite. This project will develop special models and use a data to generate knowledge on the spread of COVID-19 within the University residence context and will support public health policy and University Health and Safety policy UK wide
Glenna Nightingale’s profile page
Diana Paton and Rachel Scally
Diana Paton – William Robertson Professor of History, School of History, Classics and Archaeology; Rachel Scally – Daiches-Manning Memorial Fellow, IASH Edinburgh
Building the New Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, c.1860-1879: Philanthropy and Legacies of Slavery in Nineteenth Century Scotland
The project will investigate the building of the new Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, which first opened on Lauriston Place in 1879, and its potential financial links to the transatlantic slave trade. It will conduct a prosopographical analysis of the donors to the building in order to shed light on their wider commercial and family networks, their cultural and philanthropic activities and will analyze how significant these donations were for the new hospital. This project grows out of contemporary debates about how the legacies of empire and slavery should be addressed in Scotland, Britain, and elsewhere. In order to address these legacies it is critical to establish a solid evidentiary base from which to make public history claims. The project will involve biographical and bibliographic research and will utilize sources such as minute books, cash ledgers, correspondence and wills.
Diana Paton’s profile page
Rachel Scally’s profile page
Seongsook Choi, Andrew Cross and David Overend
Seongsook Choi – Senior Lecturer in Interdisciplinary Studies, Moray House School of Education and Sport; Andrew Cross – Impact Coordinator, School of Geosciences; David Overend – Lecturer in Interdisciplinary Studies, Moray House School of Education and Sport
Crossing the line: understanding the interdisciplinary classroom
In preparation for the launch of EFI’s undergraduate programme in September 2023, this project aims to initiate a long-term research strategy that will observe, document and critically reflect on the experience of learners and teachers in the interdisciplinary classroom. This research seeks to understand the experience of students and teachers as they ‘cross the line’ between disciplines. It explores (i) how students learn by making connections between ideas and concepts across different disciplines; (ii) how students apply the knowledge gained in one discipline to a different discipline as a way to deepen the learning experience; (iii) how teachers and professional partners collaborate to serve a common purpose helping students make the connections between different disciplines/subject areas.
Seongsook Choi’s profile page
Andrew Cross’s profile page
David Overend’s profile page
Liz McFall
Chancellor’s Fellow, School of Social and Political Science
The Urban Sociology of Insurance
The project explores the changing relationship between city planning, insurance buildings, insurance brands, and capital and property investment strategies. It considers how the business of property investment propelled the work of big insurers in shaping urban environments through the twentieth century and traces how that began to change as the century closed. The ascendance of the tech industries and the emergence of ‘insurtech’ has been accompanied by a change in the role property and architecture plays in insurance. Architecture, and interior design, still play a central role in branding but insurtech start-ups, and the insurtech branches of legacy insurers, use it to convey lightness, agility, creativity and informality. The project will examine the role of Prudential and Standard Life in reimagining urban environments in the post war period.
Liz McFall’s profile page
Jamie Chambers
Lecturer in Design (Film), School of Design, Edinburgh College of Art
Map of Stories
The proposed work is to develop an open-access, interactive website that will allow visitors (nationally and globally) to explore the strong connections to place within Scotland’s community oral storytelling heritage. The website will create a highly impactful platform for research into new, contemporary digital forms for traditional forms of folk culture and heritage, at a moment of considerable visibility for Scottish storytelling as part of VisitScotland’s global promotional campaign. The site will play a prominent role in encouraging responsible tourism as part of VisitScotland’s Year of Stories campaign, in mapping stories to particular places and locations across Scotland.
Jamie Chamber’s profile page
Josie Booth
Senior Lecturer in Developmental Psychology, Moray House School of Education and Sport
BroSport Potential: Evaluation of a novel sports provision for school pupils from deprived areas.
Youth participation in sport and physical activity has a positive impact on a range of areas of development, as identified by the Positive Youth Development through Sport model. The BroSport Potential programme was developed by a PE teacher at Broughton High School in Edinburgh, and is being delivered in collaboration with UoE Sport and Exercise. This is a unique programme that provides access to sports outwith the school, and supports positive youth development in pupils from deprived areas. After contact from the school, the aim of this project is to evaluate the BroSport Potential programme and understand the development and feasibility of the programme and outcome measures. Data has, and is being, collected by the school for their own purposes. The project proposes to request retrospective access to this data for analysis, and undertake focus groups with pupils and teachers.
Josie Booth’s profile page
