Accelerating trustworthy AI: Phase 1 feasibility study

Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation, will invest up to £21 million in innovation projects across two phases of this competition. For this first phase of the competition £2 million has been allocated.

The aim of this competition is to accelerate the adoption of trusted and responsible Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) technologies, by reducing bottlenecks during development and deployment of such technologies.

Funding is available to support feasibility studies for the building of a consortium to evaluate suitability of system architectures, specifications, and implementation methodologies.

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.

Your proposal must:

• clearly indicate how your solution will contribute towards development of trusted and responsible AI and ML solutions
• indicate how your solution could accelerate development or deployment of AI and ML solutions
• identify a user case that is beneficial to micro, small or medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)
• indicate how you will access data that is relevant for the development of your solution

This is phase 1 of a potential 2 phase competition.

• Phase 1: undertake a feasibility study to build a consortium that will help evaluate the technology approach and solution (this phase)
• Phase 2: if successful at phase 1, your consortium will be invited to submit a proposal to request funding for the development of your solution

Phase 2 projects are expected to be 12 months in duration and have project costs between £700,000 and £1.2 million.

Eligibility

Your phase 1 project must:

• have a total grant request between £25,000 and £50,000
• start by 1 May 2023
• end by 31 July 2023
• last up to 3 months
• carry out its project work in the UK
• intend to exploit the results from or in the UK

Up to 40% of project costs can be spent on consortium building activities.

To lead a project your organisation must be a UK registered:

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

Each micro, small or medium-sized enterprise (SME) or research and technology organisation (RTO) can submit up to 2 applications.

You can request 100% funding for your eligible project costs up to a maximum of £50,000. Grant funding in this competition is awarded as Minimal Financial assistance (MFA). This allows public bodies to award up to £315,000 to an enterprise in a 3-year rolling financial period. In your application, you will be asked to declare previous funding received by you to ensure that this limit is not exceeded.

Scope

The aim of this competition is to accelerate the adoption of trusted and responsible Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) technologies, by reducing bottlenecks during development and deployment of such technologies.

Your proposal must clearly:

• indicate how your solution will contribute towards development of trusted and responsible AI and ML solutions
• indicate how your solution could accelerate 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)
• indicate how you will access data that is relevant for the development of your solution

Your project must undertake a feasibility study to:

• build a consortium to evaluate suitability of system architectures, specifications and implementation methodologies
• confirm the commitment of this consortium if successful and invited to participate in phase 2
• 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

The consortium you develop in phase 1 must include at least 2 SME end-users of your solution, one research organisation and one large organisation. RTOs can also be part of your consortium and you are encouraged to include them.

Your project must focus on one or more of the following:

• data pre-processing
• modelling
• evaluation
• deployment

Briefing event

Innovate UK KTN held an online briefing on Wednesday 14th December, 10am-11am GMT: click here to watch the recording.

If you want help to find a project partner, contact Innovate UK KTN’s Robotics and Artificial Intelligence team.