The Alan Turing Institute has announced a new science and innovation programme designed to protect the UK’s critical national infrastructure against cyber-attacks.

The scheme aims to defend the UK’s assets from hostile threats in areas such as energy, transport and utilities.

The programme will address major challenges in defence and national security, environment, and health through high-impact missions which will develop new capabilities and are designed to ensure the UK benefits from advances in AI and data science.

The institute said it will deepen existing partnerships with the national security and defence communities nationally and internationally to build strategic advantage in AI, in areas such as AI security, protective sensing, and strategic threat assessment.

The institute’s existing work in this area includes the Defence Artificial Intelligence Research Centre, the AI for Cyber Defence Research Centre, and the Centre for Emerging Technology and Security.

Responding to the government’s calls for the institute to meet evolving national needs, it said it has commissioned former RAF Air Commodore Blythe Crawford CBE to explore how the institute can best support the scale of government AI ambitions in defence, national security and intelligence.

Crawford, who recently served as commander of the UK’s Air & Space Warfare Centre, will work alongside the Turing’s defence and security experts and make recommendations to its board in November.

In July, the then science and technology secretary Peter Kyle called on the Alan Turing Institute to refocus on defence and security.

In a letter addressed to the institute's president, Dr Douglas Gurr, Kyle emphasised the importance of strengthening the UK's AI capabilities for national security, asking the national institute for data science and AI to prioritise this area in its operations, according to the BBC.

“The Turing Institute has made major changes to transform into an institute that’s tightly focused on adding unique value for the UK, making a clear step up on our work in defence and national security and tackling pressing challenges in environment and health,” said Dr Doug Gurr, chair of the Alan Turing Institute. “I’m hugely excited to see what the Turing will achieve over the coming years, putting digital, data, and AI science and technologies to work for the benefit of all UK citizens.”

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