First Minister Alex Salmond joined University of Edinburgh Principal Professor Sir Timothy O’Shea and Professor Michael Fourman, head of the university’s School of Informatics, on 3 September for the unveiling of the new £42 million Informatics Forum.

The building, which brings together some 500 scientists in fields such as virtual reality, robotics, artificial learning, intelligent systems, computational linguistics and bioinformatics, hopes to promote research and investment, and raise the University of Ediburgh’s profile as a cutting edge centre for scientific development.

The six-storey, 12,000 square-foot development next to Teviot Row House boasts world-class research facilities, as well as extensive exhibition and teaching space, and a new visitors’ centre for the University of Edinburgh.

As part of the unveiling event, the First Minister was given a tour of the building, "introduced" to several of the robotics projects, and finally turned on a display lisiting the building’s donors in binary code.

Speaking at the opening, Mr Salmond said: “Scotland has firmly established its place as a world leader in informatics and the development of this impressive new facility reinforces our commitment to research in this area.

“This project will act as a hub for the academic, commercial and civil development of a range of informatics disciplines ranging from e-science and medicine to business and humanities.”