Edinburgh Futures Institute’s launch

The Edinburgh Futures Institute (EFI) is a Data-Driven Innovation (DDI) Hub, one of six across the city of Edinburgh, that brings together different academic disciplines and groups to tackle current global challenges. The EFI building, the former Royal Infirmary Hospital, has undergone significant redevelopment and refurbishment which included major works by many teams across the University. The award-winning building provides a wonderful new space for our students, educators, researchers, partners and civic society.

For the last 18 months of the construction project, the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences (CAHSS), on the recommendation from Information Services Group (ISG), initiated a project to coordinate all the work being undertaken by different ISG teams as part of getting EFI – the building and its services – ready for opening.

This project provided a simplified communication and coordination route for the construction project management team at AtkinsRealis and for colleagues in EFI, Estates and within ISG Directorates. The project also enabled clear escalation routes when required, IT sponsorship and an IT senior supplier to oversee ISG delivery.

The purpose of the project was to work for EFI to ensure that on completion, any person entering the building could access the spaces they were entitled to use and that they had the services they needed within those spaces. 

To achieve the successful outcome to date, the Project Manager and Business Analyst worked with all the teams to create the project’s “control sheet” which listed and tracked every single space within the building. This was effectively a summarised view of the work that was already being managed and run within the different ISG teams. 

IT Infrastructure Communications Infrastructure Services (ITI CIS) and Learning Spaces Technology (LST), in particular, have been significant contributors to the redevelopment and launch of EFI.

On request from EFI, the Timetabling programme and service team adapted their plans to enable EFI to start using the new room booking service early and to pilot the new desk booking service which removed the need for EFI to change a key service just as the building was fully opening. This had the reciprocal benefit to the Timetabling programme of having live users providing feedback on the new booking service before it was fully rolled-out.

The project worked closely with the DDI Shared membership group to articulate what their partners and members will need, not just within the EFI building, but across the Hub locations. Again, this approach had the mutual benefit of ensuring EFI learned from ways of working the Bayes Centre had already established, while the shared membership group benefited from having the detailed partner and member business requirements articulated. This collaboration work will contribute to the Hubs’ shared success. 

This willingness to work together across teams to secure the best launch for EFI was key to its success. 

Given the significant effort and investment that has gone into creating the EFI space, the team has ensured that there is clear agreement of ownership for maintenance and support on project closure.