Five chances to connect with EIDF in 2027

First thing first - what is EIDF? 

The Edinburgh International Data Facility (EIDF) is a private research cloud built and run by EPCC at the University of Edinburgh. In plain terms, it’s a secure, scalable home for your data and your computing needs - bringing together storage, compute power (including GPUs), and the expertise to help you make the most of them, all in one place.

Whether you’re training AI models, crunching large datasets, running simulations or working with sensitive information, EIDF gives you the infrastructure to do it - securely, predictably and at a scale that grows with your project. It’s used by researchers, businesses and public sector teams alike, and getting started is easier than you might think. You can explore what’s on offer any time at portal.eidf.ac.uk.

Our events are the best way to see EIDF in action, meet the people behind it, and discover how it could support your own work. Here’s what we’ve got planned.

Your 2027 diary

We’ve got a full programme lined up for 2027, and we’d love for you to be part of it. Whether you’ve been with us since day one or you’re just discovering what EIDF can do, there’s plenty to look forward to. We’ll share speakers and topics as each date approaches, but the best thing you can do right now is grab your spot.

The Town Hall (12 May) is our flagship event of the year. This year it’s a hybrid gathering at the Bayes Centre, so you can join us in person or online. It’s free to attend, but places in the room fill up fast - tickets are limited by the venue’s capacity, so if you want to be there in person, don’t leave it too late.

Our drop-ins stay online, on purpose. We want them to be as easy as possible to join, wherever you are and whatever your schedule.

Why come along to a drop-in?

Our drop-ins are relaxed, friendly and genuinely useful - an hour well spent. Come along to:

• See what’s new. We share the latest updates to the portal, our services, and anything fresh we’ve added to the infrastructure.
• Get inspired. Hear from researchers and colleagues doing remarkable things with EIDF, and see what might be possible for your own work.
• Ask us anything. These sessions are built around conversation, so bring your questions - our service leads are there to help.

It’s also a great way to meet others working in your field, spark new collaborations, and feel part of a growing community.

New to EIDF or want to catch up on what you’ve missed? Have a browse through our past sessions - there’s a lot to explore.

One more chance to join us in 2026

Before we get into the new year, we’ve got one final drop-in to round off 2026:

• Wednesday 2 December 2026, 10:00 AM - register here

A taste of what you’ve been missing

Still deciding whether a drop-in is for you? Here’s a flavour of the work our community has shared recently:

September 2026 - AI in action, from climate to historic archives. Kara Moraw showed how the EPSRC-funded Continents project is using AI models like ECMWF’s AIFS to emulate climate simulations at a fraction of the usual compute cost. Bianca Prodan revealed how her team, working with NCAP and the US National Archives, automated metadata extraction from over a million historic aerial photographs - a task that would take a 100-person team a year, now done in about a week. Alistair Grant wrapped up with practical tips for getting stubborn GPU jobs to run.

June 2026 - New tools and services. We launched a handy new cost estimator (no login needed), streamlined our application process, and introduced a reporting and budget-monitoring dashboard. We also unveiled our Confidential Data Workspace, a secure home for sensitive and commercially confidential projects.

March 2026 - Cutting-edge infrastructure. Dr Alistair Grant introduced the EIDF Container Image Registry (ECIR), and we explored how InfiniBand speeds up multi-node GPU work. Bianca Prodan also shared early results from a fascinating project using quantum machine learning for deepfake detection.

November 2025 - Publishing and enhancements. Dr Mario Antonioletti walked us through our free data publishing service and how DOIs keep research accessible and compliant, while Dr Nick Johnson previewed new storage options and encrypted S3.

September 2025 - Community research in action. Rosa Filgueira shared her work on geoparsing historical collections from the National Library of Scotland, and Maurice Jamieson demonstrated the ‘Era’ wellbeing app, built on EIDF infrastructure.

Save your spot

Pick a date, hit register, and we’ll see you there. To stay in the loop on speakers, topics and everything else, join our mailing list, follow us on LinkedIn and if you are ready to apply for your next project head to EIDF portal.

We can’t wait to welcome you.