Manchester Prize
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).
Update: 21 May 2024
Manchester Prize successful finalists (Round 1) published.
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.
Manchester Prize: how to enter
Round One
The entry phase for Round One is now closed. Finalists for the phase were announced on 21 May 2024. The £1 million winner of Round One will be announced in April 2025.
Round Two
Round Two of the Manchester prize will be announced in due course. More information will be available at www.manchesterprize.org..
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.
Last updated 21 May 2024 + show all updates
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Round 1 successful finalists announced.
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First published.