Report
Northern Ireland response to the AI Council AI Roadmap
The Northern Ireland Innovation Stakeholder Group has submitted a Northern Ireland specific response to the AI Council’s AI Roadmap. The Stakeholder group, of which Matrix is a contributing partner, also involves key sector bodies such as Ulster University, Queens University, InvestNI, the Department for the Economy, Digital Catapult NI, Belfast Met, Strategic Investment Board, Belfast City Council, AI NI collaborative network and the AI Collaboration Centre Advisory team.
The response can be condensed into 7 key priority areas:
- NI AI Strategy should be integrated and co-ordinated with the national AI strategy through a collaborative framework
- Establishment of a national framework for AI talent development through all levels of education from Primary through to Higher and Further education
- Develop a formal pathway for regional engagement and investments in NI from publicly funded AI assets (e.g. Turing Institute, ODI, Ada Lovelace, Hartree Centre, Catapults)
- Map UK AI capability and opportunities for regions to support growth (e.g. Citizen Engagement, Public Sector adoption, AI in Health, Cyber)
- National AI strategy should leverage NI AI initiatives including City Deals to lead or collaborate on AI Roadmap outcomes
- Develop engagement mechanism to increase levels of diversity and underrepresented groups within AI research and Innovation
- Align Government support through UKRI “levelling up” to scale and retain research excellence and translational capability into industry
