Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond yesterday opened Edinburgh University’s Informatics Forum in an official ceremony.

The £42m Forum will be home to 500 researchers from the University’s School of Informatics.

The Forum brings together scientists whose interests span virtual reality, robotics, artificial learning, intelligent systems, computational logistics and bioinformatics.

Built over six floors around a central glass atrium, the 12,000m2 Forum has an open design to encourage interaction and collaboration between researchers.

This is intended to promote world-class research and underline the school’s reputation for commercialisation.

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The Forum was designed by Bennetts Associates Architects and built by Balfour Beatty, with financial support from Scottish Enterprise.

Mr Salmond undertook a tour during which he saw examples of key research including a robotic hand prosthesis and a miniature humanoid robot.

The First Minister also saw notable aspects of the building, such as its floating staircases and outdoor terraces.

He formally opened the Forum by switching on a digital donor board, on which the names of fundraising donors are illuminated in binary code.

"I am delighted to officially open this new centre of excellence, it will advance Scotland and the University of Edinburgh’s position as a world leader in the new science of informatics and it will also have enormous benefits to both industry and commerce," he said.

Professor Michael Fourman, Head of the School of Informatics, said: "We are delighted to formally open the Informatics Forum. Bringing together our first-rate researchers into this collaborative environment will enable new research, building on the successes of the School to date."

(GK/KMcA)