Organisations can apply for a share of £12 million to
transform accountancy, insurance and legal services, under the
Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund.
UK Research and
Innovation has up to £12 million to invest in projects
that look at ways of applying artificial intelligence (AI) and
data technologies to improve service industries.
We are focusing on 3 specific sectors:
- accountancy
- insurance
- legal services
Meeting challenges, becoming more competitive
Industries such as accountancy, insurance and legal services face
competition from overseas. There are also challenges including
identifying and preventing fraud, meeting audit requirements,
assessing risk and reviewing large quantities of text.
AI and data technologies could help to meet these challenges and
make services more efficient, productive and competitive.
This competition is part of the next-generation services
challenge, a £20 million fund to develop novel products and
services that will transform the UK’s services industries.
The investment is under the government’s Industrial Strategy
Challenge Fund. This seeks to bring together world-leading
research and businesses in the UK to take on the major industrial
and societal challenges of our time.
There are 2 competitions
There are 2 competitions in this area. These are for:
- large collaborative projects addressing sector-wide
challenges across supply chains or regulators
- smaller projects looking specifically at applying AI and data
techniques. Applications could be from a single business or a
consortium
Projects should show how they would address challenges that could
delay or adversely impact adoption. This includes issues of
ethics, privacy, bias and transparency.
Themes we are particularly interested in include
machine-supported decision-making, human concepts such as
reasonableness and justice in AI, and combining social science
with science and engineering.
Large consortia projects
- the competition opens on 18 June 2018, and the deadline for
applications is at midday on 15 August 2018
- projects must be led by a business, charity, public sector
organisation or a research organisation and must include an SME
- projects must cover more than one of the target service areas
and include regulators, users, service providers and technology
providers
- we expect total costs to be between £2 million and £4 million
and for projects to last up to 2.5 years
- businesses could attract up to 70% of their project costs
Small projects
- the competition opens on 18 June 2018, and the deadline for
applications is at midday on 15 August 2018
- projects should be led by a business and must include an SME.
Only SMEs can work alone on a project
- we expect total costs to be up to £400,000 and for projects
to last between one and 2 years. Projects with costs of £200,000
or more must be collaborative
- businesses could attract up to 70% of their project costs
