UK Government announces £100 Million fund for AI in life sciences and healthcare
The UK Government has launched a new scheme to support the application of AI in life sciences and healthcare, with a £100 million fund to focus on areas where AI is hoped to make a difference in curing previously incurable diseases.
The AI Life Sciences Accelerator Mission, unveiled by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, looks to leverage the UK’s secure health data and AI infrastructure. The mission feeds into the Life Sciences Vision, which identified eight key healthcare challenges that various pharma and healthcare stakeholders are collaborating on to solve - such as cancer, dementia and mental health.
According to the Government, the fund will help advance the use of AI in life sciences by investigating how AI can help tackle conditions set out in the Life Sciences Vision, with some of the highest disability and mortality rates. It is hoped that AI can provide a means to materially improve treatments by:
- Using the UK’s health data to pinpoint those at risk
- Ensuring that the right patients are participating in the right trials
- Providing better data on how well new therapies work
The fund is directed at regions within the UK with particular clinical needs, either in a clinical setting, or as a way to free up healthcare professional time. The goal is to test and trial the new technologies within the next 18 months.
The Government will be inviting proposals bringing together academia, industry and clinicians to develop innovative solutions, once the full business case has been prepared and released.
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