Edinburgh Napier University

  Closure of business, festivals and cultural activities due to COVID-19 has imposed a significant social and economic loss to the City of Edinburgh. This project modelled the spread of viral infection in the city centre of Edinburgh to see whether this analysis could help identify suggestions on strategies for lockdown, reopening and social distancing for Edinburgh’s festivals. Thus, helping to restart the Edinburgh economy. The collaboration between the University of Edinburgh and Edinburgh Napier University was cross disciplinary. Dr Rik Sarkar led the quantitative modelling with Professor Jane Ali-Knight leading on the qualitative research and development of suggestions. This research was funded by the Driven-Driven Innovation (DDI) Programme at the Edinburgh University as part of the COVID-19 rapid-response funding call. The University of Edinburgh and Heriot Watt University are delivering Data-Driven Innovation as part of the Edinburgh and South East Scotland City Region Deal. Research was undertaken in the Summer of 2020. This research was rapidly undertaken, experimenting with modelling to see how and whether it could be a useful tool in shaping re-opening strategies for festivals. Due to the limitations of the mobility data and the rapidly evolving features and response to the pandemic, these research findings are limited. Suggestions are offered, for the safe festival reopening strategies, however they are not definitive. They
are a creative expert response to the findings from the modelling