ROYAL Bank of Scotland has opened a data innovation research unit at the University of Edinburgh, and will base between 10 and 20 staff in this operation depending on project requirements.

The taxpayer-backed bank noted it would, with this opening, “join other industries, academics, and public sector partners in the heart of Edinburgh’s data science community”.

Royal Bank announced yesterday that it had leased space at the Bayes Centre, “the university’s new data innovation hub for solving real-world problems through scientific enquiry, inspiring design and industrial collaboration”. Staff from various functions within the bank, including risk, human resources and finance, will work at the unit, Royal Bank said.

Data specialists from the bank will work with analytics experts and researchers from the university’s schools of business, informatics and mathematics. The Bayes Centre opened last month, aiming to foster links between researchers and various sectors.

Bayes Centre director Michael Rovatsos said: “Our partnership with Royal Bank...presents a unique opportunity to help create better services for [its] customers and understand how data can benefit the financial sector in the UK and globally.”

Royal Bank flagged its hope that embedding staff in the data science community “will stimulate innovation and ideas to improve products and services”.