In the centre of Edinburgh, a magnificent old building is awakening from years of slumber. The main part of the former Royal Infirmary, with its distinctive Gothic clocktower and turrets, has lain empty for nearly 20 years, ever since the hospital moved to pastures new at Little France.  

While the south side of this huge site was gradually transformed into the flashy mixed-use Quartermile development, the old hospital’s original core became derelict. But over the last few years, this category A-listed building has undergone an extensive facelift: original fabric has been restored with new glass-and-steel links created. And now its doors will soon be opened.

It’s the home of Edinburgh Futures Institute, an ambitious new venture from Edinburgh University. Professor Chris Speed has been installed as director, a man who lives up to his surname when you meet him in person. According to its website, EFI’s mission is ‘to make better futures possible’ and it will ‘confront uncomfortable questions’. Hoardings around the site declare that it will also include large new spaces for events and lectures, some of which have already started.

‘We’ve had four events so far,’ says Professor Speed. ‘The Future Of Health with Anthony Fauci [former chief medical advisor to the US president], and the Future Of The Economy, Climate Justice and Artificial Intelligence. We think with a great city and great minds and a great conscientious public, we can face those challenges down. I’m not intimidated by uncomfortable questions but we’re going in thinking we need all the best minds.’ 

Speed is keen to emphasise that it’s all about collaboration. ‘Increasingly, every complicated, wicked, gnarly, knotty problem is a place for multi-disciplines to address,’ he insists. The Institute will draw on staff and students from 21 specialist schools across the university and is due to open in three phases. ‘Phase one, what I call The West Wing, stretches from the Skyscanner end [the successful internet travel company based next door] all the way through to the clocktower. It will open in September. Phase two is from the clocktower to Middle Meadow Walk, and phase three involves landscaping the surrounding spaces, which will open next year.’

A sense of openness and that co-operation will drive this venture forward. ‘The doors here won’t be carded. We want Edinburgh to be the best place for the public, for the different sciences, for different academics from different disciplines, to come together and understand this technology that is round the corner.’

The Institute is also set to become the home of Edinburgh International Book Festival in August 2024, when it leaves its present site at Edinburgh College Of Art (where it moved in 2021 from a long-term base in Charlotte Square). ‘We think it’s a perfect fit,’ says Speed. ‘They have an interesting idea that while they’re all about books, they’re actually about conversations too, and they’re all about histories and futures. So I don’t think Charlotte Square or Edinburgh College Of Art will mind me saying that EFI might be the best home for them, as we both want to convene and hold conversations about ideas.’

But with the biggest auditorium in EFI due to have just under 400 seats, won’t that be a bit small for the Book Festival’s more ambitious needs? ‘That is the conversation we’re having right now. We’ve got a big open space at the back of the main clocktower and you can put marquees there. We’re discussing the types of spaces we have and the spaces they need. But the simple message is let’s hold conversations for the public, writers, academics and students to take part in.’

The institute also aims to power Edinburgh’s creative industries through five innovation hubs: Public Sector, Fintech (emerging financial technology including blockchain and crypto currencies), Tourism, Festivals and Creative Tech. ‘The question is how can creative industries address the data-driven technologies which are emerging? We will do it in various ways. For example, Rockstar North [the Edinburgh-based games developers behind Grand Theft Auto] have gone with AI. We might also ask to what extent are the Fringe being left behind? Can we facilitate through research grants, collaborations, partnerships bringing everybody up to the same level of literacy, the same level of acumen, the same level of support, so that they are making the most of these technologies?’

Another point of focus is working in collaboration with medical research, especially in neurology. ‘We have the Neuropolitics Research Lab that is led by Laura Cram. It aims to understand and establish what is happening in people’s brains, minds and bodies when they are posting comments online, making policy, voting in elections or deciding whether to trust or share “fake” news. Edinburgh likes to visit the tricky troubled places, the wicked problems; we like challenges. If we can help understand how to spot manipulation, we might be less manipulated.’ Professor Speed is also excited by Techscaler, a £50m programme for creating, developing and scaling tech start-ups in Scotland. ‘We connect you with the experts, teach you world-class playbooks, and host spaces for fellow founders and start-up folk to work and hang out. I’ll be hosting this programme and we want to help create zebras: new companies that are both black and white, aiming to be profitable but also to improve society.’

Another more architectural feature of the new institute is also creating an anticipatory buzz for the professor. ‘I hope that the 140-metre-long corridor running through the centre of this building will be a place you are more likely to meet people from every walk of life, from scientists of every community, to the public, to entrepreneurs and leading business people.’ In Edinburgh during the 18th-century Enlightenment, an English tourist remarked that he could stand at Mercat Cross and shake the hands of 50 people of genius in just a few minutes. Perhaps one day that will also be said of EFI’s long corridor.

For more information on Edinburgh Futures Institute and upcoming events, go to efi.ed.ac.uk