Collaborating with businesses
In an increasingly competitive and transparent global marketplace, the companies that survive and grow are those that continue to push the boundaries of what is possible. Continuous developments in scientific research are enabling businesses to improve processes and product development, in turn gaining a competitive advantage.
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In order to ensure that the research carried out by the University of Edinburgh and STFC is exploited to the full and has a real commercial and societal impact, we actively encourage collaborative working with SMEs and large corporates. Scientists, engineers and students interact to improve our understanding of the universe and through engaging with companies, we are able to drive technological advancements forward.
Collaborating with the UK Astronomy Technology Centre
Developing partnerships with both small companies as well as large corporates, the UK Astronomy Technology Centre, situated adjacent to the Higgs Centre for Innovation, has extensive experience of leading and working on novel design solutions for ground-base, airborne and space-based systems. We have world leading expertise in remote sensing instrumentation, system calibration, verification and testing and can be called on for industry projects and research alike.
Collaborating with the Institute for Astronomy
The University of Edinburgh’s Institute for Astronomy has extensive expertise in data management and processing, database technology, statistical methods for modelling complex systems, high performance computing, machine learning, and image processing and analysis at very large scale. Collaboration with the Institute for Astronomy can be either through academic consultancy via the University’s Edinburgh Innovations organisations, or through more extended projects.
“Being part of STFC’s community is also really useful for us as we have access to business development support and advice, as well as a network of innovative companies and facilities across the UK. We are kept aware of opportunities available to us as an agri-tech start-up – which can include programmes for both funded and in-kind support.
Additionally, the ESA BIC UK at the Higgs gives us access to PhD students who can be seconded to work with us as part of their PhD at the University of Edinburgh – to have this extra resource without a financial cost to us is tremendous.”