Accelerating Trustworthy AI: Phase 1 Feasibility Study

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Click here to find out more about the available funding.

About the opportunity

Unprecedented opportunities exist for SMEs to drive the UK’s innovation and adoption of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) technologies. The transformative nature of AI and ML technologies has the potential to revolutionise the UK economy.

Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation, will invest up to £21 million in AI and ML innovation projects across two phases.

£2 million has been allocated for the first phase of this competition to accelerate the adoption of trusted and responsible AI and ML technologies by reducing bottlenecks during the development and deployment stages.

This is a 2-phase competition. For the first phase, funding is available to support feasibility studies for building a consortium to evaluate the suitability of system architectures, specifications, and implementation methodologies.

The second phase of the competition will involve collaborative R&D projects up to 12 months to develop the technologies put forward by consortia.

About the event

We invite you to join us for the online briefing event to introduce and outline the scope of the first phase of the competition, provide further insight into the eligibility criteria, and offer additional guidance on the application process.

Who is the event for and why should you attend?

This competition is aimed towards any SME business or research organisation that seeks to develop trusted and responsible AI and ML solutions.

By attending this webinar you will:

• Find out more about the available funding
• Receive support on the application process
• Get clarifications to any questions via a Q&A session

Overview of competition

Eligibility & Scope:

This competition is open to single applicants, but to lead a project your organisation must be a UK registered:

• micro, small or medium-sized enterprise (SME)
• research organisation (RTO)

Your proposal must clearly:

• Indicate how your solution will contribute towards the development of trusted and responsible AI and ML solutions
• Demonstrate how your solution could accelerate the development or deployment of AI and ML solutions
• Identify at least one user case that is beneficial to micro, small or medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)
• Reveal how you will access data that is relevant to the development of your solution

Your project must undertake a feasibility study to:

• Build a consortium to evaluate the suitability of system architectures, specifications and implementation methodologies
• Propose the development of novel solutions, that accelerate the deployment of trusted and responsible AI and ML technologies
• Produce a technical report outlining the approach you intend to implement in phase 2
• Build a consortium to invite to participate in phase 2 of this competition if successful

*Your consortium will need to include at least 2 SME end-users of your solution, one research organisation and one large organisation. Research technology organisations can also be part of your consortium and you are encouraged to include them.

*Funding for both phases of this opportunity is subject to business case approval by the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) and HM Treasury