£100M competition launched to back UK AI innovators
The UK Government has announced the launch of a £100 million Sovereign AI R&D Procurement Scheme and the opening of national competitions designed to support British AI companies to tackle national public sector challenges.
The move, announced by Chancellor John Healey MP at the G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors meeting in North Carolina, backs innovative British AI providers to develop solutions to some of the UK’s biggest challenges, including cutting NHS waiting lists, improving patient care, and strengthening cyber and national security.
The scheme marks a major step to ensure British AI companies can start and scale in the UK and is part of the Government’s aim to expand the computing infrastructure that will power future national growth and help the UK capture more of the economic and technological benefits of AI.
Successful companies will keep the AI models they create and allow them to continue to develop those innovations and develop commercial products for customers both in the UK and globally.
The first four competitions launched are: NHS Productivity Challenge, Driving Compute Efficiency, led by the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade; Integrate AI at pace across Defence mission environments; and Agent security and resilience testing in partnership with the National Cyber Security Centre.
The competitions are the first to be launched under the Sovereign AI R&D Procurement Scheme.
Sachin Agrawal, Managing Director for Zoho UK, commented: “For the UK to become a global leader of AI innovation and regulation, then sovereign AI should sit at the heart of its strategy in order to ensure greater control over who has access to data and what they can do with it. This is also something clearly growing in demand and is likely to become more prevalent in all markets as the AI industry continues to mature, and AI systems become more autonomous.
“Advanced models have been seen to go rogue and produce their own cyberattacks, and the UK cannot afford to rely on platforms built without clear knowledge and use of its regulatory standards in mind, which will be easier to manage if AI models powering critical services are trained and governed within UK jurisdiction.
“The UK government has a responsibility to put clear controls in place to support and equip British AI companies with the resources needed to support public services like the NHS, ensure innovation happens safely under UK jurisdiction, and that UK public data is protected.
“It’s reassuring to see that the UK Government is also planning to open up the AI Economics Institute to international cooperation with G7 countries. This will only help align AI best practices across borders, benefiting all. The current phase of AI is moving past hype to outcome focused application, but this must be done safely and securely to drive trust and protection for citizens and businesses alike.”
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