In 2025, we spoke with Dr Zakary Campbell-Lochrie, a DDI Fellow and Lecturer in Fire Science at the School of Engineering. We discussed how the Fellowship has accelerated his work with FLARE-X—a global collaboration now competing as a semi-finalist in the prestigious XPrize Wildfire competition.
Data Driven Innovation Fellows
The Data Driven Innovation Fellows 2025
The Data Driven Innovation (DDI) Fellows Programme supports academic and professional services staff at the University of Edinburgh to explore and develop spin-out or startup ventures.
FLARE-X was born from the need for a multidisciplinary response to increasingly catastrophic "megafires." My research at the University of Edinburgh focused on the fundamental physical processes of flame spread. To turn this science into a solution, we formed a global team including the University of Southampton, the University of Texas at Austin, and Texas A&M Forestry.
Current wildfire response is often too slow and relies on manual detection, which means fires are often already unmanageable by the time crews arrive. As climate change increases fire frequency, we need a system that can autonomously detect, verify, and suppress a fire within minutes of ignition.
The DDI Fellowship Programme (link to DDI page webflow) has been vital for bridging the gap between engineering theory and real-world deployment. It provides the framework to integrate massive datasets—from satellite Earth Observation to real-time sensor data—into a scalable platform. This focus on data-driven innovation is exactly what allowed us to advance in the Autonomous Wildfire Response track of the XPrize.
The FLARE-X system uses a two-tier approach:
The University of Edinburgh has a 50-year legacy in fire science, and the Edinburgh Innovations team has been instrumental in helping us navigate the commercial and collaborative complexities of a global competition. The DDI community provides access to experts in robotics and AI which support the future development of similar data driven wildfire tech efforts at The University of Edinburgh.
Don't be afraid to collaborate across borders and disciplines. The wildfire challenge is too big for one lab to solve. Success in these high-stakes competitions takes time and resilience, so if you believe in your research, keep pushing for the connections that will make it impactful.
Edinburgh Innovations: FLARE-X Case Study
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