The CloudEARTHi project brings together six partners (five Higher Education Institutions and one business partner) with the aim of increasing institutional capacity for innovation and entrepreneurship in the area of using big data in environmental sciences, climate change and circular economy. The project is funded by the European Institute of Innovation and Technology.
The main objectives of CloudEARTHi are to build capacity for innovation and entrepreneurship by:
- Increasing the knowledge and skills of professional services colleagues, academic staff and students through the creation of new resources and deliver a series of learning and skills development opportunities;
- Developing the required infrastructure that enables the change (including creation of a virtual data hub and three physical innovation spaces);
- Supporting the development of low-carbon, circular start-ups by developing new tools and providing direct support to selected companies;
- Enable knowledge exchange and dissemination of project resources and insights across partner institutions and their wider innovation ecosystems (including business, NGOs, social enterprises and governments), and;
- Fostering strong relationships between partner institutions and exploring funding opportunities to support ongoing collaboration to continue to drive greater low carbon, circular innovation and entrepreneurship over the longer-term.
Recent success
CloudEARTHi’s EARTH Centred Business Design framework tool has been shortlisted for the Making an Environmental Difference category by the Scottish Knowledge Exchange Awards.
Being a finalist is a wonderful honour to the work done by Edinburgh Innovations delivering a key output of CloudEARTHi during the last 18 months.
Winners will be announced at the awards ceremony on the 23 March 2023.
Find out more about the Scottish Knowledge Exchange Awards 2023
The EARTH Centred Business Design Framework
The EARTH Centred Business Design is a business framework co-created by Edinburgh Innovations to enable start-ups to embed Circular economy and net zero principles from day one.
The majority of businesses are based on a linear model of production and consumption that do not place global challenges like climate change, resource depletion and pollution at the heart of business practices and decision making.
The Earth Centred Business Design addresses this gap. It is a framework that enables start-ups to embed circular economy thinking into their business model from the outset, to seize associated opportunities and benefits early, to build resilience and to avoid needing to rethink their business model down the line.
Earth Centred Business Design not only enables businesses to reduce their negative environmental and social impacts, but to be a driving force for good, opening up new markets, customer segments and revenue streams by having a net positive impact on people and the planet.
View all finalists for the Scottish Knowledge Exchange Awards 2023
Read the finalists announcement on the Edinburgh Innovations website
Academic contributions
CloudEARTHi runs a conference and a special edition publication. Academics, postdocs and researchers are encouraged to participate in these knowledge exchange opportunities.
The 2023 conference will be held in Alicante, Spain from 23 to 25 of May 2023. Registration and the call for abstract is now open. The 2023 conference will again be a free and hybrid event.
Find out more and register for the CloudEARTHi 2023 conference.
A call for publication is currently open for academic papers to be published in a special issue by Emerald Publishing.
The deadline for submission is 30 April 2023.
Edinburgh Innovations
EI is delivering the project on behalf of the University. It is being led by the Circular Economy/Sustainability Team in EI Business Development with close collaboration and involvement from the Data Driven Entrepreneurship Team within Enterprise Services.