The UK’s largest public research funder, UK Research and Innovation, on Thursday 19 February unveiled its first artificial intelligence strategy, backed by a record £1.6 billion of investment over four years to position AI at the centre of British science and innovation policy.

The funding, confirmed in the recent Spending Review settlement, represents UKRI’s biggest single investment area for 2026 to 2030 and is directly targeted at the AI sector. It includes activity the body will deliver on behalf of the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, with final allocations subject to detailed delivery plans.

The strategy sets out six priority areas, including advancing core technologies, transforming research through AI, developing skills and talent, accelerating innovation for economic growth, championing responsible AI and building data and infrastructure capacity. UKRI said it would expand doctoral and fellowship routes co-designed with businesses and support recognised career frameworks for research software engineers, data scientists and ethics specialists.

Professor Charlotte Deane, executive chair of the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council and senior responsible owner for the UKRI AI programme, said the UK had “a world-class tradition in mathematics and computer science” and that the new plan would “turn that research excellence into national advantage”. She added that UKRI would back “the full innovation pathway from fundamental research to prototypes to scale-up”.

The announcement coincides with the AI Impact Summit in India, where Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy is leading the UK delegation. Lammy said the government was “backing its pioneering AI leadership with more than £1.6 billion in investment to make sure the best of British expertise develops the next wave of AI innovations”.

UKRI highlighted existing AI-backed projects spanning rail infrastructure, online safety and healthcare, including systems to detect faults on railway lines in real time and tools used in more than 40 clinical trials into neurodegenerative diseases. Previously announced allocations to be delivered through the strategy include up to £137 million for AI-enabled scientific discovery and £36 million to upgrade the University of Cambridge’s DAWN supercomputer.

Kanishka Narayan, the UK AI minister, said combining the country’s AI capabilities with its research base would “accelerate both the pace and possibility of scientific endeavour”.

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