Approach
We have an integrated approach to supporting spin offs, through our highly successful Bright Red Triangle (BRT) service, operating in partnership with Edinburgh College and Queen Margaret University, with BRT named as a top 10 university in the UK and second in Scotland for generating spin-out companies.
Research
We are proud to be the top Scottish modern university for both research power and research impact (REF2021) with a huge range of impact case studies evidencing our contribution to industry, innovation and infrastructure.
Our research themes of health, environment, AI + advanced technologies and culture + communities speak directly to UNSDG goal 9.
We provide advice, knowledge and expertise to industry, the public and third sectors, building strong partnerships with organisations of all sizes in Scotland, the UK and beyond. Public sector organisations, start-ups, SMEs and multinational corporations take advantage of our research through our Innovation Hub.
Our research centres all work closely with external partners, including from industry, with our Tourism Research Centre, Transport Research Institute, Centre for AI & Robotics, Centre for Cybersecurity, Centre for Creative Practice, Centre for Arts, Media & Culture, and centre for Business Innovation/Sustainability.
Our Research Explorer surfaces the breadth of our research in innovation and infrastructure, from “Mobile money innovation and global value chain participation: Evidence from developing countries” (2023) to “Application-level Swarm-based Orchestration Across the Cloud-to-Things Continuum”(2024-26).
Our income from research is key to indicating our performance, and included in our publicly available annual accounts, for example with income from research & knowledge exchange hitting £8.6m in academic year 2023-4.
Teaching
Our Enhance Curriculum Framework, central to our Learning & Teaching Strategy, includes ensuring employability and practice integration are central to our academic provisions, supporting our students to make a real impact in industry.
Every one of our Schools works with partners in industry.
The School of Computing, Engineering & the Built Environment directly supports innovative infrastructure in the built and digital communication environment with intrinsic links with industry across all its areas. Our Building & Surveying courses contribute towards the creation of a built environment that affects the lives of millions of people worldwide, with all students studying Surveying given the opportunity to spend their entire third year on a credit-bearing work placement.
Our School of Arts and Creative Industries is at the heart of the creative industries.
Our Business School aligns its teaching and research to the current and emerging needs of business.
Examples