City Region Deal

The Data-Driven Innovation (DDI) initiative is a 15-year, £661 million investment and innovation programme launched in August 2018. It secured £270 million in capital funding from the UK and Scottish Governments as part of the £1.3 billion Edinburgh and South East Scotland City Region Deal. The initiative developed a network of six hubs bringing together academic disciplines and external partners to solve some of the world’s most pressing issues.

The hubs connect private, academic, and public organisations to foster innovation opportunities around technology and data. For researchers and innovators, this presents an opportunity to benefit from the scale and resources of large organisations through collaboration, while delivering economic and social benefits in the regions where they reside and work.

The hubs are based at the University of Edinburgh and Heriot-Watt University and contribute 55,000 square metres of innovation space to the city region. Critically, they also provide a focus for increased collaboration across HE Institutions in the region, as evidenced by the joint leadership of the National Robotarium, based at Heriot-Watt University, as well as partnership working with FE Colleges, aligned to the Data Skills Pathway.

Over the past year, DDI has concluded its investment phase, with two final Hub headquarters completed. The Edinburgh Futures Institute has been transformed from the Victorian Royal Infirmary building on Lauriston Place into a centre for modern-day contagion of ideas and dialogue around real-world challenges. It is home to a suite of interdisciplinary centres, external partners, new companies, and students. The new Usher Building has also opened. Based in Edinburgh’s BioQuarter Health Innovation district, this Institute brings together specialists working at the intersection of data, health, artificial intelligence, social care and public health.

A key goal for this past year was ensuring the six hubs work together to maximise their impact as a single outward-facing DDI ‘platform’. By leveraging this innovation platform, the University has enhanced the capacity of the institution and the city region to drive inclusive economic growth, share experience and knowledge, and avoid competition over external engagement.

DDI’s key performance indicators are based on Talent, Research, Adoption, Data, and Entrepreneurship (TRADE). The most recent verified KPIs were signed off by University Court in June 2025.

This marked a successful year for course completions under the talent stream, with DDI surpassing its end-of-programme target by 16 per cent. The programme has now recorded 160,000 completions since 2017.

£187 million in research activity was recorded with a 18 per cent increase compared with 2023/24. The initiative delivered £744 million of activity in total, which represents 81 per cent of DDI’s total research target.

In the adoption stream, the programme generated £17 million of income, surpassing its end of programme by 80 per cent. DDI now has only one further end of programme to achieve, having surpassed the other five.

Finally, DDI supported 89 early-stage data-centric companies in 2024/25, surpassing its unique company end target by 51 per cent. The initiative has also exceeded its end target for follow on funding by 714 per cent, with over £168 million being raised by companies within the region.

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