Our strategy

Changing the world for the better with data science and AI.

Our principles

In support of our goals, the following set of principles will guide everything we do as part of Turing 2.0. They will help the Turing fulfil its purpose by driving our culture and delivering on the promise that data science and AI hold for the public good. They apply to how individuals and teams at the Turing work, as well as how the Turing operates as a responsible leader in the overall landscape. 

  • Lead responsibly 

  • Build confidence, ensure independence 

  • Enable impact, at scale 

  • Drive interdisciplinarity 

  • Move with agility 

  • Continually Innovate

  • Embed equality, diversity and inclusion 

  • Collaborate and convene 

  • Learn and help others learn 

  • Democratise access 

Our strategic approach

Data science and AI technologies will continue to evolve in unpredictable ways, and the speed of these developments will make it increasingly difficult to connect the people, ideas and data required to make progress against important societal issues. 

The Turing will, therefore, provide an end-to-end, interdisciplinary pathway in data science and AI that enables impact at scale and major progress against societal challenges.  

  • Transitioning towards a challenge-led approach to science and innovation, introducing a new focus on translating research excellence into societal impact and broader UK commercial success. 
  • Supporting our challenge-led approach by maintaining and developing the foundations of world class data science and AI research. 
  • Reinforcing our existing skills and training programmes and concentrate our efforts to target gaps in the talent pipeline, notably the transfer of skills across academia, industry, government and third sector. 
  • Working to deliver for society through distilling high-profile, fast-moving and confusing developments in data science and AI into trusted advice and enabling the use of data science and AI to improve the delivery of public services.

 

Digital society and policy

Data science and AI offer many opportunities to improve people's lives in the ‘digital society’. For example, these technologies might be used to provide more inclusive, fair and robust public services and tackle longstanding problems such as low productivity. Using our unique position and established expertise, we can tap into the enormous potential for data science and AI to drive a new generation of services which are efficient, smart and responsive to both complexity and uncertainty. Similarly, these technologies can help build resilience and tackle long-running policy problems, for example through real-time monitoring of the economy, financial systems, and supply chains.   

The Turing will draw and expand on its established research and partnerships in public policy and data-driven economics to drive this work forward. We will focus on developing data science and AI to serve society and to improve measurement of the economy. We will build frameworks to tackle cross-cutting issues of standards, regulation, ethics and policy. We will develop methodologies to understand public attitudes to technology, incorporate that understanding into AI research and innovation, and foster ways of helping the public to understand and navigate this complex landscape.   

Our core capabilities

To drive advances in the Grand challenge areas, multi-faceted core capabilities are required to provide the underpinning infrastructure, this will involve: 

Core capabilities

Foundational capability in data science and AI

Building our foundational capability in data science and AI in support of the above Grand Challenges.

Core capabilities

Open-source infrastructure

Expanding our work in the development and provision of open-source infrastructure that is accessible to all.

Core capabilities

Research software engineering capability

Growing our core research software engineering capability to continue to contribute skills in research software engineering and data science in support of national priorities.

Skills for the future

To remain a science and AI superpower the UK has to invest in skills and people. The data, data science and AI skills gap is well documented and the Turing alone cannot solve all the problems in the skills pipeline. 

What we will do is fill some of the gaps, and in keeping with our approach of accelerating the transfer of skills across academia, industry, government and third sector, we will continue to grow our flagship programmes and build new capability where needed. 

Placements and knowledge exchange

Over the next five years we will extend our existing flagship programmes: Data study groups, Connections, Enrichment, Internships, to work on AI and data science problems identified under our Grand Challenge areas, and covering all career levels.

We will also launch our newly developed Turing Research Fellowship programme (for postdoctoral-level researchers) and develop an offer for apprenticeships to support entry into the field of data science and AI.  

Data science and AI training

We will scale existing initiatives such as our Data science and AI educators programme, which build skills and capacity through our ‘train-the-trainer’ approach for potential instructors and domain experts, our Research software engineering and research data science courses, as well as courses on AI ethics and governance (Turing Commons).  

We have recently launched an Online learning platform, which includes courses on responsible AI.  

Capacity building initiatives

Our first steps will include working with others in this space (eg, Catapults and Innovate UK, Data Skills Task Force) drawing on work already done, to create business leader personas, including pain points and challenge and support networks, in order to design suitable learning interventions.     

Driving an informed public conversation

Public perceptions of data science and AI range from futuristic science-fiction to very real distrust and concern about the fairness and transparency of algorithms being applied in public life.

Addressing concerns around AI requires the development of frameworks, codes of practice, tools, laws and regulations to ensure that ethical principles and public voices are built into every stage of the design, development, and implementation of AI systems.  

Finally, it is important that the complex data science and AI landscape itself is easier to navigate and understand, both to those working in it and those looking to connect to it.

An informed national voice

The Turing can provide balance, speaking to both the technical, and social and ethical dimensions of these technologies, presenting both the positive opportunities, as well as the risks.

We want to ensure high quality and reliable information about data science and AI reaches across all parts of society. This will in turn improve AI literacy in support of all our goals.

Building frameworks, informing regulation

The Turing can drive a new generation of governance and regulation for data science and AI that ensures fairness, safety, and the protection of public interests across the digital economy and society. For information visit our AI Standards Hub.

Connecting the ecosystem

As the national institute, the Turing is uniquely placed to support with linking up different groups. We will seek to provide a bespoke and appropriate offer to the range of audiences and stakeholders which have a vested interest or are directly impacted by the advancement of this technology.

In hearing the needs, concerns and expectations of the wider ecosystem, we can reflect this in the research we undertake and the activities that we pursue, including our AIUK conference

Advisory groups

The Turing would like to thank the members of the Advisory Groups which were stood up during this strategy development to help shape and direct the future vision and approach of the Institute.

Science & Innovation Advisory Group

Prof. Tom Rodden, Chief Scientific Advisor, Department of Digital, Culture, Media and Sports (Chair), Prof. Ulrike Tillmann, Director, Isaac Newton Institute, Prof. Richard Samworth, Director Statistical Laboratory, University of Cambridge, Alex Van Someren, Chief Scientific Advisor, Government Office for Science, Dr Ruth Boumphrey, Chief Executive Officer, Lloyd’s Register Foundation, Dr Danijela Horak, Head of Machine Learning, R&D, BBC

Skills Advisory Group

Prof. Dame Wendy Hall, Regius Professor of Computer Science, University of Southampton (Chair), Frank Kelly, Trustee; Professor of the Mathematics of Systems, University of Cambridge, Iain Styles, Professor of Computational Life Sciences in the School of Computer Science at the University of Birmingham. Chair, Turing Skills Group, Vivienne Blackstone, Senior Manager, Artificial Intelligence and Robotics, EPSRC, Jon Rowe, Programme Director for the Data Science for Science and Humanities programme, Alan Turing Institute, Graham Cormode, Professor of Computer Science, University of Warwick, Darren Seymour-Russell, Growth and Strategy Lead, Responsible AI, Data Science, Associate Director Accenture, Jane Goff, Skills and Training Initiative Lead Defence Science and Technology Laboratory, Kate Hazeldene, Leads delivery of AI widening participation scholarship projects; Course programme manager, Office for Student

Engagement & Ecosystem Advisory Group

Tabitha Goldstaub MBE, Chair, AI Council (Chair), Dr Kanta Dihal, Lecturer in Science Communication, Imperial College London, Tania Duarte, CEO, We and AI, Stefan Janusz, Head of AI Narratives, Office for AI, Dr Shakir Mohamed, Research Scientist, DeepMind, Kerry Sheehan, Head of Service Development and Innovation, Civil Service, Dr Stephanie Hare, Researcher, broadcaster and author, Amanda White, Director of Communications and Policy, HDRUK, Katie Matthews, Interim Chief Executive, Poet in the City, Cassie Smith, Head of Legal, Trust and Ethics, HDR UK, Jonathan Lenson, CEO, Milltown Partners

The Turing will remain open to feedback and responses from the community on the approach outlined in the strategy, understanding that our long-term vision must remain adaptive to changes in the wider landscape. At this time any queries should be directed to [email protected].