page_title: University of Edinburgh
section_title: 2000 to present
hierarchical_section_title: University of Edinburgh / History / 2000 to present
caption_attribution_description: English: Front of Edinburgh College of Arts. Dist under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic
context_page_description: The University of Edinburgh, founded in 1582, is the sixth oldest university in the English-speaking world and one of Scotland's ancient universities. The university has five main campuses in the city of Edinburgh, which include many buildings of historical and architectural significance such as those in Old Town. The university played an important role in Edinburgh becoming a chief intellectual centre during the Scottish Enlightenment, contributing to the city being nicknamed the “Athens of the North”.
  The university is a member of both the Russell Group, and the League of European Research Universities, a consortium of 21 research universities in Europe. It has the third largest endowment of any university in the United Kingdom, after the universities of Cambridge and Oxford. The annual income of the institution for 2018–19 was £1,080.6 million of which £285.7 million was from research grants and contracts, with an expenditure of £1,211.9 million.
  The alumni of the university include some of the major figures of modern history, including three signatories of the United States Declaration of Independence and nine heads of state and government.
context_section_description: The Edinburgh Cowgate Fire of December 2002 destroyed a number of university buildings, including some 3,000 m² (30,000 sq ft.) of the School of Informatics at 80 South Bridge. This was replaced with the Informatics Forum on the central campus, completed in July 2008.
  The Edinburgh Cancer Research Centre (ECRC) was opened in 2002 by The Princess Royal on the Western General Hospital site. In 2007, the MRC Human Genetics Unit formed a partnership with the Centre for Genomic and Experimental Medicine and the Edinburgh Cancer Research Centre to create the Institute of Genetics and Molecular Medicine (IGMM).
  The Euan MacDonald Centre was established in 2007 as a research centre for motor neuron disease (MND). The centre was part funded by a donation from Scottish entrepreneur Euan MacDonald and his father Donald.
  On 1 August 2011, the Edinburgh College of Art (founded in 1760) merged with the university's School of Arts, Culture and Environment.
  The Scottish Centre for Regenerative Medicine, a stem cell research centre dedicated to the development of regenerative treatments, was opened by the Anne, Princess Royal on 28 May 2012. It is home to biologists and clinical academics from the MRC Centre for Regenerative Medicine (CRM), and applied scientists working with the Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service and Roslin Cells. On 25 August 2014, the centre reported on the first working organ, a thymus, grown from scratch inside an animal.
  In 2014, the Zhejiang University-University of Edinburgh Institute was founded as a joint institute offering degrees in biomedical sciences, taught in English. The campus, located in Haining, Zhejiang Province, China, opened on 16 August 2016.
  Beginning in 2015, the University of Edinburgh maintains a Wikimedian in Residence.
  In 2018, the University of Edinburgh was a signatory in the landmark £1.3bn Edinburgh and South East Scotland City Region Deal, with the UK and Scottish governments, six local authorities and all universities and colleges in the region. The University committed to deliver a range of economic benefits to the region through the Data-Driven Innovation initiative. In conjunction with Heriot-Watt University, the initiative created four innovation hubs - the Bayes Centre, Usher Institute, Edinburgh Futures Institute, Easter Bush campus, and one based at Heriot-Watt, the National Robotarium. The deal also included creation of the Edinburgh International Data Facility, which performs high-speed data processing in a secure environment.
caption: The Edinburgh College of Art forms (since 2011) part of the 'central' university campus
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