University of Edinburgh and abrdn announce £7.5 million investing innovation centre – Business Insider

The University of Edinburgh and abrdn have formed a partnership to deliver innovation in the investment sector.

This aims to deliver a new Centre for Investing Innovation, with funding of £7.5m over five years from the asset manager. It will be based within the University’s Edinburgh Futures Institute, which is focused on addressing the critical challenges facing society.

Alan Coutts, investment chief operating officer at abrdn, will chair the centre’s strategic opportunities and futures board, with Sotirios Sabanis, director of knowledge exchange at the School of Mathematics, acting as centre director.

Academic and business expertise across multiple disciplines will feed into collaborative research, supporting investment strategy at abrdn and driving investment-related social and environmental sustainability issues.

The partnership has been supported by Edinburgh Innovations, the university’s commercialisation service.

Three core priorities will shape the initial work of the centre: sustainability, thematic investing and technological innovation.

The Edinburgh Futures Institute will be housed in the former Old Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh on Lauriston Place.

When the restoration of this Category-A Listed building is complete, the institute will move into its permanent home.

During academic year 2022-23, while waiting for the building to be ready for teaching, it will deliver teaching activities elsewhere on the university campus.

“The much-loved historic surgical building is being carefully renovated, extended and upgraded to form a major interdisciplinary institute; the largest of its kind in the UK,” read a statement.

Stephen Bird, chief executive at abrdn, commented: “Together we will explore the great societal challenges of sustainable investing and explore new ways of creating financial wellbeing in a rapidly changing world.

“This supports our goal of helping clients to be better investors and it provides an excellent development opportunity for our people to spend some time outside of financial services applying their knowledge and expertise and learning new skills.”

Professor Peter Mathieson, principal and vice-chancellor of the University of Edinburgh, said: “Through our partnership with abrdn, our multidisciplinary researchers will be working with a global asset management business to help shape the very future of investment.

“The University of Edinburgh’s collaborations with commercial partners help deliver innovation and insights that have wide-ranging benefits across society, and I’m proud that we are at the forefront of such industry engagement.”

Abrdn manages and administers £542bn of assets for clients, and has over a million shareholders.

Its investments division manages £464bn on behalf of institutional, wholesale and insurance clients, encompassing pension funds, governments, banks, insurers, companies, charities and foundations, and advisers – with 800 investment professionals in more than 30 locations.

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