Department for Science, Innovation and Technology

Gulf states like Saudi Arabia and Qatar are natural partners to the UK because of their ambition, openness to innovation, and strength in science and technology. This week, Secretary of State Peter Kyle has been in both countries to fuse Britain’s deep science and technology expertise with the Gulf’s drive and enterprise. In Saudi Arabia, Peter Kyle visited: 💕 King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Center's Heart Centre to see cutting-edge tech revolutionising cardiac care. 💡 Two facilities in the King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (KACST) - The Garage | الكــراج, home to 300+ start ups and the Advance Manufacturing Hub that helps businesses with construction projects. 🏙️ SDAIA | سدايا to see AI and data shaping smarter city management in Riyadh, as well as the Estishraf Platform, which uses advanced analytics to unlock £10 billion in government savings and revenue. And in Qatar, Peter Kyle: 💻 Received a demo of Qatar Computing Research Institute ‘FANAR’—a breakthrough Large Language Model that can parse English and Arabic variants. 🔬 Visited the state-of-the-art Sidra Medicine to discuss how the UK and Qatar collaborating on research of neurological diseases. 🤝 Met Qatar’s PM and Minister of Foreign Affairs Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim bin Jaber Al Thani to strengthen UK-Gulf science and tech ties. By working together, we can push forward innovation that benefits us all, from the UK’s decade of national renewal to Saudi Arabia and Qatar’s ambitious economic plans.

📣 Applications are open for the new £4 million AI Metascience Fellowship programme. We welcome proposals on the impact of AI on: 📈the scientific labour market 🧬the pace of scientific progress ❔ethical considerations of AI in research Successful applicants will receive a share of the funding and attend a residential all expenses paid summer school at the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. Apply now 👇 https://lnkd.in/eb6EnQAr

It’s been a big week for AI. First, let’s talk AI Paris Action Summit. I had a brilliant couple of days meeting government and industry from around the world to discuss the opportunities and benefits of AI. I was there to represent the UK, telling people all the great things we’re doing to harness the power of the technology and investing in the infrastructure of the future. That’s exactly what our AI Opportunities Action Plan is all about – driving AI adoption across the country to boost economic growth and transform our public services. But we can only achieve that by working with the people transforming the world with AI right now. Demis Hassabis, Mitchell Baker and Karim Beguir – it was a pleasure to discuss those ambitions. We’ve also made new commitments this week to put AI at the heart of our economy: 🔬 Launched an £85 million Research Venture Catalyst programme, supporting 3 UK projects by Aston University's MEMetic, Pharos AI and Bind Research tackling cancer, clean water access and accelerating drug discovery using AI and more 💻 Expanded UK involvement in the European High-Performance Computing by committing £7.8 million to fund UK researchers and businesses’ participation in EuroHPC research, meaning British AI and high-performance computing researchers can work unobstructed with their peers across Europe. 📖 Published a new Civil Service AI Playbook to give technical experts across the public sector guidelines and practical tips to help build tech to speed up decision making and transform services for working people And it doesn’t stop there. Our ambition is for the UK to be the best place to build frontier AI. That’s why we’ve signed a new agreement with AI giant Anthropic on AI opportunities - a pivotal moment in our journey to harness AI to build a modern and efficient government as we drive forward our Plan for Change. Their AI assistant, Claude, is just one avenue we could explore to help UK government agencies enhance public services. But as we look for ways to innovate, the job of government is to ensure its citizens are safe and protected. With that in mind, our UK’s AI Safety Institute has now become the AI Security Institute - strengthening protections against the risks AI poses to national security.  They’ll also launch a new criminal misuse team, which will work jointly with the UK Home Office Office, to conduct research on a range of crime and security issues which threaten to harm British citizens. The work of the AI Security Institute won’t change, but this renewed focus will ensure our citizens – and our allies - are protected from those who would look to use AI against our institutions, democratic values, and way of life. With more international collaboration, increased government investment and a revitalised AI Security Institute – we can boost public confidence in AI and drive its uptake across the economy, so we can unleash the economic growth that will put more money in people’s pockets. 

Meet the winners of the £82 million Research Ventures Catalyst programme 👋    Three innovative British research projects will receive a mix of government funding and co-investment to advance their work:     PharosAI (in partnership with King's College London Queen Mary University of London Barts Health NHS Trust Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust) will use their share to combine decades of NHS data onto a secure platform, enabling scientists to accelerate cancer detection, diagnostics, and treatments.   Aston University's MEMetic are using nature-inspired technology to remove specific substances from water to improve its quality, helping billions without safe drinking water.   Bind Research will use AI during large-scale experiments to speed up drug discovery by identifying and designing drugs for proteins that were once considered impossible to target.    The RVC programme delivers flexible funding models to support this cutting-edge research and will help innovators and businesses scale, without outdated financial barriers.    Find out more about the projects: https://lnkd.in/eRRqFUci

Secretary of State Peter Kyle met with Dario Amodei to sign an agreement that deepens the government’s collaboration with AI giant Anthropic research. This partnership will see both sides working closely together to realise the technology’s opportunities, with a continued focus on the responsible development and deployment of AI systems. This will include exploring how Anthropic's AI assistant Claude could help UK government agencies enhance public services, with the goal of discovering new ways to make vital information and services more efficient and accessible to UK residents, as well as using AI to drive new scientific breakthroughs. The UK will also look to secure further agreements with leading AI companies as a key step towards turbocharging productivity and sparking fresh economic growth – a key pillar of the government’s Plan for Change. Read the full Memorandum of Understanding between the UK and Anthropic on AI opportunities: https://lnkd.in/e53fbM8G

Safeguarding Britain’s national security is a key pillar in our Plan for Change.    The update to AI Security Institute reflects its focus on serious AI risks with security implications, such as how the technology can be used to develop chemical and biological weapons, carry out cyber-attacks, and enable crimes such as fraud and child sexual abuse.   Advancing our understanding of these risks to build up a scientific basis of evidence will help policymakers to keep the country safe as AI develops.

Apprenticeships make a hugely positive impact to individuals, businesses and the wider economy. This #NAW2025, we asked apprentices at Oxfordshire Advanced Skills how their apprenticeship is giving them #SkillsForLife in cutting-edge science and tech roles 👇 Kyle Ellis - First year apprentice with Amazon “I’ve always wanted to work in this industry, because I’ve always had a passion for anything with engines, electronics, robotics. So for me it felt like the right path to go down with my career.” Razvan Moldovan - First year apprentice with Amazon “The best thing about being an apprentice, is that I get to earn while I learn as well. I get my skills developed and my passion is engines and anything electrical, so that’s why I’m here.” Madeleine Barry - Mechatronics apprentice “Really getting that experience, rather than just sitting in a classroom. It’s a lot more fun, and I think it’s a better way to learn.” Jamie Newell - Mechanical apprentice at STFC “It means you don’t have to split between learning and earning money. It means you can do both at the same time, and it means you save a lot of time. I’ve kind of always wanted to do something like this.”

What does... 🥪 reducing the number of airplane sandwiches going to waste 🗣️ personalised speech therapy exercises 💤 improving diagnosis for paediatric sleep disorders All have in common? They’re examples of how UK companies are using AI to improve productivity and efficiency across a variety of sectors. The government’s AI Opportunities Action Plan is our commitment to supporting businesses and building the right infrastructure to accelerate AI adoption across the UK. We asked top UK business and industry leaders what they thought of the plan 👇 Yola Jones, Co-Founder of Seluna Ltd Layla Hosseini-Gerami Co-founder of Ignota Labs Angie Ma, Co-Founder of Faculty Phil Blunsom Chief Scientist at Cohere Yun Bing Co-Founder of Beautiful Voice Barney Hussey-Yeo Founder of Cleo

New records reveal 14 more ways AI is being used to enhance public services 🔎 Examples include Natural England using satellite images and machine learning to track changes in natural habitats - speeding up decisions around planning and land use while better protecting nature. And Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) are using AI to better predict the weather and streamlining MOT garage inspections, to keep standards high. Details of these projects show the potential of AI to improve public services and help cut down inefficiencies. Find out more 👉 https://lnkd.in/g-CsjhHC

To celebrate International Day of Women and Girls in Science we asked six women, working at the top of the industry, what their advice would be to someone considering a career in STEM 👇   Hilary Newiss, British Science Association “My advice to young women starting out in their career is follow your interests and don’t be sidetracked by what you think society demands of you.”   Gina Neff, University of Cambridge “If you’re considering a career in STEM I would say go for it, to get a broad multidisciplinary training and remember that there's no single one path to being a leader in STEM.” Natasha McCarthy, Royal Academy of Engineering “There's lots of great jobs in the sector, there's a huge need for talent and skills and we need people who are going to bring their thoughts and their inspiration into some of the big challenges of our time”   Helen Margetts, The Alan Turing Institute “I trained initially as a computer scientist and then I retrained as a social scientist, but that kind of cross disciplinary training means that I can operate at the disciplinary boundary. And that is where the most exciting research takes place.”   Alison Noble, University of Oxford “If you're curious, you're creative, you love working in teams then STEM could be the right career for you.” Sue Daley OBE, techUK “Don’t be fearful that you need to be a technology expert - there are many different careers in the tech sector that are open to people with non-technical backgrounds. We need all of those people to ensure the tech sector is diverse, so come and get involved.”