The University of Edinburgh has been handed a major boost for its space data research credentials, writes Scott Wright.
The institution will train 50 space scientists after being named co-host of the Centre for Doctoral Training. Each of the PhD students will work on research projects to help tackle climate change.
Programme lead Ed Mitchard said: “That’s a whole generation of people who we hope will go into industry and academia in the UK to help train more.
"Each of those 50 students will work on a specific problem using advanced machine learning, artificial intelligence and satellite data to come up with 50 solutions to climate change.”
READ MORE: Scottish ‘LiFi’ technology pioneer targets mass market rollout
The university, which will run the six year programme with the University of Leeds, secured the funding on the strength of its growing reputation for space data research. It recently launched a podcast to promote its work across the industry and its ambition for the city to become the space data capital of Europe.
Murray Collins, space lead at the university’s innovation hub, the Bayes Centre, said: “Winning the Centre for Doctoral Training – co-funded by the UK Space Agency and the Natural Environment Research Council – is a huge indication of our expertise in this area.
“Dr Ed Mitchard is a world-leading expert - he and some of our other university colleagues are currently working with the European Space Agency to develop a brand new satellite sensor to measure the biomass of forests. This kind of research will help us map the most carbon-rich forests, and support their conservation. This is vital to mitigating climate change and biodiversity loss".
News from trusted and credible sources is essential at all times, but especially now as the coronavirus pandemic impacts on all aspects of our lives. To make sure you stay informed during this difficult time our coverage of the crisis is free.
However, producing The Herald's unrivalled analysis, insight and opinion on a daily basis still costs money and, as our traditional revenue streams collapse, we need your support to sustain our quality journalism.
To help us get through this, we’re asking readers to take a digital subscription to The Herald. You can sign up now for just £2 for two months.
If you choose to sign up, we’ll offer a faster loading, advert-light experience – and deliver a digital version of the print product to your device every day. Click here to help The Herald: https://www.heraldscotland.com/subscribe/ Thank you, and stay safe.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here