A world-leading centre of expertise in data science and artificial intelligence (AI) has been officially opened by HRH The Princess Royal in Edinburgh.

The Bayes Centre (www.bayes.ac.uk) aims to develop and apply data science and AI — drawing meaningful insights from vast amounts of information — for the benefit of society.

Experts from research and industry will seek to make use of large data-sets and a high-speed analytics facility to improve people’s lives.

This might include identifying trends from health-care data to improve disease management, analysing traffic data to improve transport, or enabling businesses to improve their products or services.

The £45 million building can accommodate about 600 researchers, students and entre-preneurs on five floors.

Its architecture — featuring open spaces, a central atrium and open terraces — is intended to foster collaboration among occupants.

It is the first of five data-driven innovation hubs being created as part of the recently announced Edinburgh and South East Scotland City Region Deal.

The new hubs will help business and public-sector organisations to improve products and services through collaboration with researchers and data analysts.

They will also immerse their R&D teams in the university environment to facilitate collaboration. The initiative is supported by Scottish Enterprise, which has part-funded the Bayes Centre.

The building takes its name from Thomas Bayes, who studied logic and theology at the University of Edinburgh from 1719 until 1722 and is best known for devising Bayesian statistics — the mathematical foundation for reliable forecasting, widely used today in the financial markets, forecasting the weather, and to filter e-mail spam.