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UKRI announces up to £3.5 million to help speed up development and adoption of AI and data technologies in accountancy, insurance and legal services.

UK Research and Innovation has announced £3.5 million to support projects developing new accountancy, insurance and legal services based on artificial intelligence and data technologies.

It is estimated that the service sector accounts for 80% of the UK economy. Financial and professional services alone are worth £190 billion to the economy and employ 2.2 million.

New technologies, such as AI and data analytics, have the potential to transform these industries, helping to improve the service they provide to customers and ultimately remaining globally competitive.

This funding is from the UK government’s £20 million Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund Next Generation Services Challenge, which aims to explore how new technologies could transform these services.

Further information:

The competition aims to speed up responsible development and adoption of artificial intelligence and data technologies in accountancy, insurance and legal services through better access to data.

Applications are sought from multi-disciplinary teams including the social sciences and science and engineering and from teams that include regulators, users, service providers, and technology providers.

Only projects developed at an innovation lab event are eligible to apply for funding. Register to take part in the innovation lab by 4 September

Projects must:

• have particpated in the innovation lab taking place between 14 and 16 October 2019
• identify and develop a data access method to allow an artificial intelligence application for one or more of the 3 sectors
• address incentives, opportunities and ongoing business models for sustainable data access
• consider broader, non-technical issues around data access, including ethics, bias and privacy

Competition Information:

• the competition opens on 14 October 2019, and the deadline for applications is midday 20 November 2019
• businesses of any size may apply
• we expect projects to attract a maximum grant of £1.15 million and contribute at least equal funding

To find out more about this competition and how to apply, click here.