2 March 2020

The Centre for Service Excellence is taking the lead on the development of a new theme for the Edinburgh Futures Institute.

The Edinburgh Futures Institute (EFI) is an innovative development of the University. In addition to hosting key local development programmes in conjunction with Edinburgh City Council, it is developing a suite of undergraduate and postgraduate programmes. These programmes will bring together knowledge and expertise from across the University to address the wicked problems of social and economic development—with a particular focus on data-driven innovation.

As part of this CenSE Director Stephen P Osborne has been appointed as a Fellow of the EFI to develop a cross-cutting theme on the Service Economy and the Service Society for its postgraduate programme. This will form part of all the Masters-level pathways within EFI. It will address key issues for the future of sustainable economies and societies in a global context. These will include:

  • The nature of services and their contribution to the global economy
  • The role of co-design and co-production in the delivery of services
  • Value creation in the service economy
  • The emergence and significance of social enterprises
  • Active citizenship
  • The co-production of public services

Additionally, CenSE is working with the Edinburgh College of Art to explore the potential for a dedicated postgraduate pathway in Service Management and Design in Phase II of the evolution of the EFI.