Manchester Prize: open for applications
A landmark prize, awarding £1 million every year to the boldest and most cutting-edge solutions that use AI for public good.
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Manchester Prize (image generated by AI).
The Manchester Prize, an initiative of the UK Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT), will award £1 million every year for 10 years to a team of innovators with the most cutting-edge AI solution for public good.
The first Manchester Prize, running from December 2023 to March 2025, is seeking innovation from UK-led teams with breakthrough ideas for overcoming challenges in the fields of energy, environment and infrastructure.
Up to 10 finalist teams will initially receive £100,000 each, a generous package of non-financial support, and access to free compute to develop their innovation. One finalist will win the £1 million grand prize in early 2025.
Key dates
- The entry phase opens to entrants on 7 December 2023.
- Eligible teams can enter the Manchester Prize at any time until 12:00 GMT on 1 February 2024 by visiting the Manchester Prize website.
- Finalists for the next phase will be announced in April 2024.
Visit Manchester Prize website to find out about the prize, if you’re eligible to participate and how to enter.
The challenge statement
The first Manchester Prize will be awarded to the most innovative and impactful AI solution which demonstrates social benefit by overcoming challenges in the fields of energy, environment and infrastructure.
Solutions could include:
- reducing energy costs for consumers by using AI to model household energy use and identify targeted interventions, such as retrofitting and replacement
- supporting emergency service response by bringing together a range of spatial data about the road and built environment to improve last mile routing
- improving the response to extreme weather conditions by using AI and earth observation data to predict areas vulnerable to flooding, or to support better real-time spatial data of events such as wildfires and flash floods
- reducing disruption to public services through predictive modelling of infrastructure resilience, with automated scheduling of maintenance, such as deploying teams to fix potholes or other traffic obstructions
- enhancing food security by using earth observation and soil data to monitor and improve farming productivity and crop yield
- improving efficiency and reducing resource consumption in manufacturing by using AI to optimise or automate energy-intensive processes
We encourage solutions that demonstrate advances in technical capabilities such as generalisation, uncertainty quantification, interpretability, data-efficient AI and physics-based AI.
Winners will be judged according to the criteria of innovation, impact, long-term viability, feasibility, and safety and ethics.