Research centre to make Scotland world leader

Published on Thursday 4 September 2008 09:44

A WORLD-LEADING centre for informatics research, which opened in Edinburgh yesterday, will reinforce Scotland's position as a world leader in the field.

The 42million centre was officially opened by First Minister Alex Salmond yesterday.

The Edinburgh University facility brings together 500 scientists in the fields of computer science, artificial intelligence and cognitive science.

Their interests cover everything from virtual reality and robotics to artificial learning and computational linguistics.

The Crichton Street centre is designed to encourage interaction and collaboration between researchers and intended to promote world-class research.

Mr Salmond said: "Scotland has firmly established its place as a world leader in informatics and the development of this impressive new facility reinforces our commitment to research in this area.

"This 42 million project will act as a hub for the academic, commercial and civil development of a range of informatics disciplines from e-science and medicine to business and humanities."