£15m Artificial Intelligence centre launched

The new hub – called the Industrial Centre for Artificial Intelligence Research in Digital Diagnostics, or iCAIRD – brings together a Scottish collaboration of 15 partners from academia, the NHS, and industry.

Earlier diagnosis

iCAIRD will focus on using artificial intelligence, or AI, to enable better and earlier diagnosis of disease and more efficient treatment for patients.

The initiative will seek to create jobs in the fields of AI and digital technology in healthcare. 

Scottish collaboration

Centred at the University of Glasgow’s Clinical Innovation Zone at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital, iCAIRD bring together teams across Scotland – in Aberdeen, St Andrews and Edinburgh. Its teams will endeavour to enable joined-up academic and commercial technology development, alongside academic researchers locally and nationally.

The UK Government has invested £10m in the project through UK Research and Innovation, as part of its Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund.

Major investment

Partner companies, including Canon Medical Research Europe and Philips, will provide more than £5m of additional funding.

The initiative builds on significant investment across Scotland, including Health Data Research UK and the national Picture Archiving Communication System for radiology. 

Streamlining

Visiting Professor David Harrison, who is based in St Andrews, is the Principal Investigator for the project. He said the project aims to make processes more streamlined and modern for the NHS, for the benefit of patients.

Founding partners

The founding iCAIRD partners are Bering, Canon Medical Research Europe, Cytosystems,  DeepCognito, Glencoe Software, HDRUK Scotland and Scotland’s National and Regional Safe Havens, Intersystems, Kheiron Medical Technology.

Also involved are NHS Grampian, NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde, NHS National Services Scotland, NVidia, Philips, University of Aberdeen, the University of Edinburgh, University of Glasgow and University of St Andrews.