Scottish innovation throughout history
Scotland and Edinburgh have been home to influential thinkers throughout history until the modern day, and have also been the site of some of the world's most important inventions and discoveries. Did you know?
- Dolly the sheep, the world’s first cloned animal, was born in Edinburgh.
- Edinburgh was the first city to have its own fire service.
- Anaesthetics were first used in Edinburgh when physician Sir James Young Simpson used chloroform on his patients in 1847.
- Publishing is a major creative industry in Edinburgh, with the first Encyclopaedia Britannica having been published here.
- Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor of the telephone, was born and educated in Edinburgh.
The Business School, the University and other organisations in the city continue to innovate and push boundaries within the world of business. Recent innovations include:
- The Royal Society of Edinburgh set up a Business Innovation Forum in 2010 to encourage growth and innovation in Scottish companies (now the Economy and Enterprise Committee).
- The Edinburgh Centre for Carbon Innovation is supporting Scottish SME’s in developing low carbon products and services.
- The University of Edinburgh Business School has a number of specialist research centres, including the Centre for Business, Climate Change, and Sustainability and the Centre for Strategic Leadership, which are conducting innovative research in their particular fields.
- The MSc in Carbon Finance (now the MSc in Climate Change Finance and Investment) at the University of Edinburgh Business School was the first of its kind in the UK.