The partnership, now in its third year, aims to help ensure the sustainability of the SDF, which was set up with a £22.5M grant from UKRI under the Strength in Places Fund scheme in 2020. Members of the Centre contributed to the SDF bid and have remained active collaborators with SDF since its inception.
Under the MIF-funded project, the Centre is helping establish a sustainable research-driven relationship between SDF and researchers built on the use of SDF’s data assets. the partnership between ECFI and SDF have successful delivery four sandpits involved more than 100 researchers across the University of Edinburgh, and funded 10 pilot projects under the scheme, with all projects anticipated delivered by July 2026. Some of these pilot projects have now published their findings and are moving forward with collaborating with SDF on applying for external major grant research grant.
