Pre-call announcement: Canada-UK Artificial Intelligence Initiative

12 September 2019         19 August 2019 (Compulsory intention to submit)           Webinar in July

Pre-call announcement: Canada-UK Artificial Intelligence Initiative

https://mrc.ukri.org/funding/browse/canada-uk/artificial-intelligence-initiative/?utm_medium=email&utm_source=govdelivery

The Canadian agencies include the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR); the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC); and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC).
The four councils involved in this UKRI initiative include the AHRC; ESRC; EPSRC; and, the MRC.
The ESRC is coordinating this initiative.

This is a unique collaboration which will require each project to include a principal investigator (PI) based in Canada and a PI based in the UK who will share equally leadership and project management responsibilities.
The Canadian and UK applicants will develop a common research plan and jointly prepare the full proposal.
Proposals will be required to demonstrate a significant degree of, or novel approach to, interdisciplinarity with research that cuts across at least two of the following research domains:

  • social sciences and humanities
  • health and biomedical sciences
  • natural sciences and engineering (including computational and/or mathematical sciences).

In addition to promoting interdisciplinary AI, this call will support the development of responsible AI while establishing new partnerships and enhancing infrastructure and training between researchers in Canada and the UK.
The outputs and outcomes of the research should allow for uptake by relevant stakeholders where possible.

The total amount available for this funding opportunity is approximately CAN $14M (£8 million), enough to fund approximately 10 projects.

  • Canadian funding agencies: The maximum amount available for Canadian researchers is CAN $173,333 (£102,000) per year for up to three years, for a total of CAN $520,000 (£305,000) per project.
  • UKRI: The maximum amount available for UK researchers is a total of £625,000 (C$1.1 million) per project at 100% full economic cost (fEC).

Note: Canadian applicants are only eligible to receive funding from the Canadian agencies and UK applicants are only eligible to receive funding from UKRI.

Full initiative details will be available in the coming weeks.
UK and Canada contacts for questions given on the website