Faculty of Environment, Science and Economy (ESE)
The University of Exeter academic structure comprises three faculties; building on our academic strengths.
External Engagement and Global
The External Engagement and Global Division has been established to enhance the University’s reputation, help to build effective stakeholder relationships, and attract and develop students with the potential to excel. The division focuses on the vision to become a truly global institution, by extending the University’s presence, reach and impact around the world.
These strengths are:
- Faculty of Health and Life Sciences
- Faculty of Environment, Science and Economy
- Faculty of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences
The Joint Centre for Excellence in Environmental Intelligence (JCEEI) sits within the Faculty of Environment, Science and Economy. The Faculty is one of the world’s best universities in interdisciplinary environment and sustainability, and is committed to taking meaningful action on the climate emergency and ecological crisis. We work across fundamental sciences, engineering and business to deliver on the University’s Strategy 2030 to create a sustainable, healthy and socially just future.
The Faculty of Environment, Science and Economy comprises ten departments in physical and environmental sciences, engineering and includes the globally recognised, triple accredited University of Exeter Business School. Our researchers also play an active role within our interdisciplinary Research Institutes (the Environment and Sustainability Institute, the Institute for Data Science and Artificial Intelligence, the Global Systems Institute and the Living Systems Institute).
A genuine commitment to excellence in both research and education has created an innovative and dynamic community that, through our varied research centres and institutes, is committed to explore opportunities for interdisciplinary endeavour, developing international research partnerships across the world and fostering a vibrant atmosphere for intellectual exchange.
Institute for Data Science and Artificial Intelligence (IDSAI)
The University of Exeter’s Institute for Data Science and Artificial Intelligence (IDSAI) provides a hub for data-intensive science and artificial intelligence (AI) activity within the University and the wider region.
The vision of the Institute is to develop innovative approaches to interrogating and understanding data and to create and apply cutting-edge data science and AI methodologies to a multitude of questions across modern society.
The Institute represents a step change in the University of Exeter’s data science capabilities enabling cutting-edge fundamental and applied research, driving new collaborations and creating transformative impact.
IDSAI is a truly interdisciplinary institute, seeking to make use of the rapid advances in computer power, artificial intelligence, machine learning and data science to connect researchers from across all of Exeter’s Faculties, Departments and Institutes, to drive exciting new research and address some of the biggest challenges facing humanity. Areas of particular strength are in climate, environment, sustainability, data-centric engineering, uncertainty quantification and health, as well as leading on the role that data governance and ethics play within all areas of data science and AI. This work is underpinned by research on the philosophy of AI and the extent to which conceptual and ethical assumptions are built into algorithms, promoting important issues around explainable AI, reproducibility and statistical measures of when to trust an AI model.
As one of the partner Universities of the Alan Turing Institute, IDSAI also works closely with the Turing Institute to ensure that it benefits from the very latest developments in data science and artificial intelligence, by enabling Exeter to work with other leading data scientists across the UK and internationally, and to be part of the national conversation around data science. The University has over thirty-five Turing Fellows across the breadth of the University and works with the Turing and other Turing Fellows on projects across the academic spectrum.
As well as bringing together world-leading researchers from right across the University, the Institute is outward looking, seeking to work together with major funders and a broad array of users from industry and government. We already work with international and local partners such as the Met Office, IBM, Black Swan, Engineers Gate, UK Hydrographic Office, ONS, NHS, Plymouth Marine Laboratory, BT, NATS, Airbus Innovations, The White Company, College of Policing, and Exeter City Futures.
Since its foundation in 2018, the IDSAI has played an important role in the establishment of the Joint Centre for Excellence in Environmental Intelligence with the Met Office in 2020, through which strong collaborative projects and initiatives have been developed. Furthermore, in 2021, the University launched its new Research Software Engineering group, a University initiative led by the IDSAI.