Alan Turing Institute

Summer 2023 marked the 5-year anniversary of the partnership between the Alan Turing Institute and the University of Leeds, through LIDA, which was celebrated with a well-attended event bringing together colleagues from the ATI and researchers at Leeds to review the fantastic work achieved to date, as well as looking to future activity and engagement.

Speakers were Professor David Hogg, Professor Mark Birkin, Dr Luisa Cutillo, Professor David Westhead, Dr Evangelos Pournaras, Professor Charisma Choudhury and Associate Professor Michelle Morris, with Daniel Lovelock, Senior Academic Engagement Manager from the ATI.

The University of Leeds continues its partnership through LIDA as part of the new Turing University Network (TUN), which in itself will serve to support the goals of the ATI as set out in the new strategy: advancing world-class research and its application to national and global societal challenges, building skills for the future and helping to inform public discussion. The TUN enables Universities that have an interest and expertise in data science and AI to hear about research taking place across other member institutions and in turn increase the opportunity to collaborate and form new connections. We look forward to hearing more about the work being undertaken within the network and exploring areas for potential engagement.

The ATI has been undergoing a period of change with the appointment of new CEO Jean Innes who succeeds Sir Adrian Smith who steps down in September. This follows the release of the new ATI Strategy in March this year, which is centered around the use of data science and AI for social good, the very same basis for the work the LIDA strives to achieve through interdisciplinary research. There is a focus on three Grand Challenges: Environment and Sustainability, Defense and National Security and Transformation of Healthcare. LIDA has secured HEIF funding to support Turing related activity over the 2023-24 year at Leeds, including events and workshops, and supporting staff and students to attend Turing-led events. We look forward to sharing details with our networks in due course.

There has also been a change to the Turing Fellowship scheme. The ATI will now call for new Fellows on an annual basis and each call will have a research focus on areas of priority for which successful applicants will be expected to actively contribute to for the duration of their Fellowship. Fellowships renewed at Leeds in July 2023 were Professor Eric Atwell, Associate Professor Michelle Morris, Dr Peter Tennant, Dr Luisa Cutillo and Professor Nik Lomax.

Congratulations to Hussain Mahfouz (Institute for Transport Studies) who successfully applied for the Turing Enrichment Scheme. The scheme provides the opportunity for individuals to complete a 6 or 9-months placement at the Turing in London.

Luisa Cutillo has just been awarded the Alan Turing Institute UK-Italy Trustworthy AI Visiting Researcher Programme (~3.4K) on Integrating RNA-Seq Data Analysis with Data Science and AI for Healthcare Transformation. This collaborative effort will involve researchers from the Applied Mathematics Institute "Mauro Picone" of the National Research Council of Italy in Naples. This is a 2-week research exchange program that will be concluded in February 2024.

Professor David Westhead remains as the current University Academic Lead and Kim Wright is the University Turing Liaison. You can reach us for all Turing information, queries and to sign up to the Turing newsletter at turing@leeds.ac.uk.

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