Accelerating Trustworthy AI: Phase 1 Feasibility Study (UK)

Deadline: 25-Jan-23

UK registered businesses can apply for a share of up to £2 million in grant funding to form consortia to deliver feasibility studies.

Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation, will invest up to £21 million in innovation projects across two phases of this competition. For this first phase of the competition £2 million has been allocated.

Scope

• The aim of this competition is to accelerate the adoption of trusted and responsible Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) technologies, by reducing bottlenecks during development and deployment of such technologies.
• Your project must undertake a feasibility study to:
  • build a consortium to evaluate suitability of system architectures, specifications and implementation methodologies
  • confirm the commitment of this consortium if successful and invited to participate in phase 2
  • propose the development of novel solutions, that accelerate the deployment of trusted and responsible AI and ML technologies
  • produce a technical report outlining the approach you intend to implement in phase 2
• The consortium you develop in phase 1 must include at least 2 SME end-users of your solution, one research organisation and one large organisation. RTOs can also be part of your consortium and you are encouraged to include them.

Themes

Your project must focus on one or more of the following:

• data pre-processing
• modelling
• evaluation
• deployment

Funding Information

• Your project’s total grant request must be between £25,000 and £50,000.
• Grant funding in this competition is awarded as Minimal Financial assistance (MFA). This allows public bodies to award up to £315,000 to an enterprise in a 3-year rolling financial period.

Eligible Projects

• Your proposal must:
  • clearly indicate how your solution will contribute towards development of trusted and responsible AI and ML solutions
  • indicate how your solution could accelerate development or deployment of AI and ML solutions
  • identify a user case that is beneficial to micro, small or medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)
  • indicate how you will access data that is relevant for the development of your solution
• This is phase 1 of a potential 2 phase competition.
  • Phase 1: undertake a feasibility study to build a consortium that will help evaluate the technology approach and solution (this phase)
  • Phase 2: if successful at phase 1, your consortium will be invited to submit a proposal to request funding for the development of your solution
• Phase 2 projects are expected to be 12 month in duration and have project costs between £700,000 and £1.2 million.

Ineligible Projects

• They are not funding projects:
  • that do not clearly demonstrate a contribution to the development or deployment of trusted and responsible AI and ML solutions
  • that involve primary production in fishery and aquaculture
  • that involve primary production in agriculture
  • with activities relating to the purchase of road freight transport
  • not allowed under De minimis regulation restrictions
  • not eligible to receive Minimal Financial Assistance
• They cannot fund projects that are:
  • dependent on export performance, for example giving an award to a baker on the condition that they export a certain quantity of bread to another country.
  • dependent on domestic inputs usage, for example if they give an award to a baker on the condition that they use 50% UK flour in their product

Eligibility Criteria

• Your Project
  • Your project must:
    • start by 1 May 2023
    • end by 31 July 2023
    • last up to 3 months
    • carry out its project work in the UK
    • intend to exploit the results from or in the UK
  • Up to 40% of project costs can be spent on consortium building activities, which may include:
    • workshops
    • meetings
    • travel and subsistence
    • subcontracting to engage and build a consortium of organisations
  • Under current restrictions, this competition will not fund any procurement, commercial, business development or supply chain activity with any Russian and Belarusian entity as lead, partner or subcontractor. This includes any goods or services originating from a Russian and Belarusian source.
  • You will be made ineligible if you exceed the Minimal Financial Assistance limit. You must submit a completed declaration as part of your application.
• Lead Organisation
  • To lead a project your organisation must be a UK registered:
    • research and technology organisation (RTO)
    • micro, small or medium-sized enterprise (SME)
• Subcontractors
  • Subcontractors are allowed in this competition.
  • Subcontractors can be from anywhere in the UK and you must select them through your usual procurement process.
  • You can use subcontractors from overseas but must make the case in your application as to why you could not use suppliers from the UK.
  • You must also provide a detailed rationale, evidence of the potential UK contractors you approached and the reasons why they were unable to work with you.
  • They expect all subcontractor costs to be justified and appropriate to the total eligible project costs. They will not accept a cheaper cost as a sufficient reason to use an overseas subcontractor.
• Number of Applications
  • An micro, small or medium-sized enterprise (SME) or research and technology organisation (RTO) can submit up to 2 applications.
• Previous Applications
  • You cannot use apreviously submitted application to apply for this competition.
  • They will not award you funding if you have:
    • failed to exploit a previously funded project
    • an overdue independent accountant’s report
    • failed to comply with grant terms and conditions

for more information, visit Innovate UK.