Contracts for Innovation: AI tools for education
Organisations can apply for a share of £994,000 to develop AI Education tools for assessment of progress and feedback for pupils using an AI code library.
Opportunity Details
When
Registration Opens
09/09/2024
Registration Closes
09/10/2024
Award
Projects can range in size from total costs of £50,000 up to £200,000, inclusive of VAT. Contracts for Innovation competitions involve procurement of R&D services at a fair market value and are not subject to subsidy control criteria that typically apply to grant funding.
Organisation
Innovate UK
This is a Contracts for Innovation competition funded by The Department for Education (DfE).
The aim of this competition is to develop tools which use generative AI to support teachers with assessing progress and providing feedback, known as formative assessment. These tools must support high quality education through evidence based teaching and learning approaches. These must align with relevant standards such as the National Curriculum or Early Years Foundation Stages (EYFS). Successful applicants will have access to a quality assured library of educational content and code optimised for use with large language models.
On average, teachers spend around 6 hours a week on marking, representing a significant proportion of teacher workloads. However, evidence from the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) shows that individualised instruction and high quality feedback can significantly boost pupil progress. High quality AI tools have the potential to reduce the amount of time that teachers spend marking, whilst supporting effective feedback and tailored teaching which drive pupil progress.
There may be a potential for future funding to allow successful projects to undertake piloting, testing and validation of new or improved products, processes or services in environments representative of real-life operating conditions.
Only the successful applicants from this competition will be invited to potential future funding rounds.
Any adoption and implementation of a solution from this competition would be subject to a separate, possibly competitive, procurement exercise. This competition does not cover the purchase of any solution.
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To lead a project, you can:
- be an organisation of any size
- work alone or with the subcontracted skills and expertise of others from business, research organisations, research and technology organisations, or the third sector (charities, social enterprises and voluntary groups)
Contracts will be awarded to a single legal entity only. The majority of the project work and key deliverables must be completed by the lead applicant and be carried out in the UK. Subcontractors can be used, but only for specialist skills.
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Projects must:
- start by 11 November 2024
- end by 31 March 2025
- last up to 5 months
- have costs of between £50,000 and £200,000, inclusive of VAT
You must not start your project until your Contract has been approved by Department for Education (DfE).
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The aim of this competition is to develop tools which use generative AI to support teachers with assessing progress and providing feedback, known as formative assessment. These tools must support high quality education through evidence based teaching and learning approaches. These must align with relevant standards such as the National Curriculum or Early Years Foundation Stages (EYFS). Successful applicants will have access to a quality assured library of educational content and code optimised for use with large language models.
These tools must support high quality education, aligned with the relevant standards. Successful applicants will have access to a quality assured library of educational content and code optimised for use with large language models.
Your project must:
1. Develop a formative assessment or feedback tool which is based on generative AI or large language model capability.
2. Develop a tool which is aligned with the relevant standards such as Early Years Foundation Stage, or National Curriculum in England if KS1-4, or 16-19 study programmes or T-Levels.
3. Develop a tool based on a quality assured library of educational content and code optimised for use with large language models.
4. Develop a tool which supports teachers with assessing learning or providing feedback to students.
5. Ensure that tools developed are safe, and compliant with relevant equality data protection and IP law.
6. Agree that any products developed will participate in any future DfE pilot approaches to monitoring AI safety in education.
Further details on each of these requirements are available on the Innovation Funding Service site at the link below.
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An online briefing event was held on Monday 9 September: click here to watch the recording.
If you would like help to find organisations to work with, or on AI in general, contact Innovate UK Business Connect’s AI team.