Our estates and infrastructure, in other words our physical campus and associated facilities, are critical in helping the University deliver our strategic ambitions and commitments as well as our core operations.

 

Following the development of our University Strategy, Shaping our Future Driving Distinctiveness, we are now in the process of developing a new cross-cutting Infrastructure and Estates Strategy that will help ensure that our future is enabled by vibrant campuses in tune with the needs of our diverse University community. Our estates and infrastructure need to flexible and fit for the future in terms of the changing size and shape of the University, as well as enabling us to live true to our values of professional, inclusive, ambitious and innovative - the Home of Difference Makers.

 

The strategy will be informed by our future focus and strategic direction in relation to research and knowledge exchange; learning and teaching; future working models, and service needs of staff and students. It will consider our current campuses and how they can be adapted/improved, as well as what other collaborations and new opportunities could help us as we move forward, including in particular, how we deliver our sustainability commitments.

 

The strategy will essentially be a programme of planned and prioritised investment across all our Infrastructure and Estates in Edinburgh – and, as such, is wide-reaching in its scope. We are therefore approaching the development of the strategy in a structured way to draw together all the different strands. Originally called Project SOFIE (Shaping our Future Infrastructure and Estates Strategy) we have renamed the project, VISION, as more representative of what the strategy is seeking to enable. The University has set up workstreams for the project, each with a key theme and lead:

​​	​​Workstream​	​​Lead
​	Current Campuses	​Director Property & Facilities
​	New Campus Opportunities & Collaborations​	Director Finance & Operations​
​	​​Future of Research & Knowledge Exchange	Vice Principal Research & Innovation​
​	Future of Learning & Teaching​	Vice Principal Learning & Teaching​
​	​​Future Working Models, Student/Staff Services & Facilities ​	Director People & Services​

To help us develop our options and priorities, we have commissioned NOMAD RDC, a people-centred design consultancy to help facilitate a series of creative workshops and ensure this strategy for our future places and spaces is shaped by the ideas and needs of our whole University community.

Get involved at enuvision.co.uk and on Twitter @ENU_Vision​​