The Alan Turing Institute was awarded £38.8 million over five years in 2018 through UKRI’s Strategic Priorities Fund. AI for science and government (ASG) is delivered in partnership with the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and in collaboration with a number of other research councils.
The biggest challenges that our societies face – from the COVID-19 pandemic to social and economic instability, overpopulation, and the climate emergency – involve complex interconnections between environmental, healthcare, social, economic, political and engineering systems. Addressing these grand challenges therefore requires both deep disciplinary expertise and ways to convene and combine expertise from different disciplines, strongly connected to problem owners.
Traditionally, this has been a substantial challenge. However, by providing the tools and methods to handle, combine and model large, disparate datasets, modern data science and AI tools have the potential to transform this process, with myriad benefits to society. The vision of ASG is to demonstrate – via a diverse range of activities organised and presented as an integrated whole – how AI and data science can be used to effectively address significant societal challenges and transform health, science, engineering, and government.
Find out more about the vision, achievements, impact and legacy of AI for science and government in the programme’s final report (PDF), and you can also explore the themes, projects, events and associated programmes below.