UK Government Launches £50k AI Challenge for Public Services

The UK Government has opened applications for its Civil Service AI and Data Challenge, inviting civil servants to pitch innovative AI solutions for public services in a Dragons’ Den-style competition. Winners receive £50,000 in funding and technical support to develop their ideas further.

Context and Background

Technology Minister Ian Murray announced the initiative as part of the government’s Plan for Change, targeting £45 billion in productivity savings through AI and technology implementation. The challenge is open to all civil servants across departments, professions, and grades, encouraging solutions for everything from reducing healthcare waiting times to tackling benefit fraud and accelerating net zero initiatives.

Previous competition winners have demonstrated significant real-world impact. One successful project used AI and aerial imagery to map England’s peatland surface features, creating detailed maps that help policymakers monitor erosion and restoration efforts. This technology now maps all peatland across England, with findings published through the England Peat Map portal.

The competition has attracted hundreds of applications across government departments, with past proposals including projects to optimise prison space allocation and detect modern slavery operations.

Looking Forward

Applications close on 5 November 2025, with winners receiving comprehensive support from NTT Data, the competition’s technology sponsor. David Filmer from NTT DATA UK&I emphasised the programme’s collaborative approach, noting that participants can either submit original ideas or join existing project teams.

The initiative reflects the government’s commitment to harnessing AI innovation across all sectors of public service delivery, from healthcare efficiency to environmental protection and fraud prevention.

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