EPSRC has announced the Turing AI Pioneer Interdisciplinary Fellowships: outline applications

The newly established fellowships are aimed at established researchers from across UKRI remit who are looking to build skills and capability in Artificial Intelligence (AI) relevant to their domain with a view to addressing a defined research challenge in their field.  As such, applicants with a background in core AI research are not eligible to apply. Broadly, fellows are expected to (a) upskill themselves and their teams in AI methodologies and (b) collaborate with (non-)academic partners to deliver wider societal and economic impact. In particular, the funder encourages collaboration with an established AI specialist/researcher to capitalize on the career development and AI focus of the project: please refer to the “Collaboration with an AI expert” section of the call page.

While the funder indicates proposals from all councils’ remits are welcome, they note that the proposals in the following domains supporting government missions/challenges are particularly welcome: engineering biology; frontier physics; materials science; medical research; quantum technology. 

The fEC value of the projects can be up to £2,187,500, and EPSRC will fund 80% of the fEC. Project duration can be up to three years, with a fixed start date of 1 October 2026. While the funder states that researchers should be established, they also note that there are no standardised eligibility criteria for this fellowship due to the diversity of career paths in AI. With regards to the eligibility, please refer to the EPSRC Eligibility page, and the “Scope” section of the call page.