After a nationwide search and entries from all corners of the UK, the Manchester Prize has awarded £1 million to ten teams of advanced AI innovators at Manchester’s Whitworth Gallery.
The Manchester Prize is a multi-million-pound challenge prize from the UK’s Department for Science, Innovation and Technology to reward UK-led breakthroughs in artificial intelligence for public good.
Announced by former Chancellor Jeremy Hunt last Spring and launched in November 2023, The Manchester Prize calls on innovators, academics, entrepreneurs and disruptors to submit their ideas, particularly related to energy, the environment and infrastructure. It received almost 300 entries from UK-led teams, with ideas ranging from renewable energy solutions to advanced materials manufacturing, agritech innovations to transport management tools.
Water sector finalists include:
- gAIn Water (by UKCRIC) – gAIn Water leverages advanced predictive AI technologies to integrate real-time sensor data from the UK’s water network with environmental and demographic inputs, including weather, soil conditions, pipe integrity, and population trends. This facilitates precise water demand forecasts, timely alerts for system failures, and identification of potential supply shortages. The system dynamically optimises water flow and maintenance schedules to significantly reduce leaks and lower energy consumption, offering measurable benefits to water utilities, governing bodies, and communities across the UK.
- Sapphire: Improving river and bathing water quality (by HR Wallingford) – Increasing urbanisation and changes to rainfall patterns due to climate change are putting greater pressure on the UK’s wastewater network, impacting water quality in our rivers. Sapphire, created by HR Wallingford, will be an AI tool to help reduce water pollution from storm overflows, agriculture, and urban spaces. It will integrate observed data and computer model outputs into an AI platform, incorporating more sources of pollution, and producing faster results than traditional methods. It aims to enable water companies to better understand the impact of storm overflows and manage flows more effectively, ultimately resulting in better water quality across the nation.
The ten finalists revealed will each receive prizes of £100,000 to develop their solutions in the next eight months, as well as a package of support including up to £90,000 for compute, investor readiness, support scaling up, and access to a supporter network to advance their ideas to working prototypes capable of winning the £1 million grand prize in spring 2025.
Viscount Camrose, Minister for AI and Intellectual Property said:
“This prize puts brilliant British AI innovation at the heart of addressing some of our biggest shared challenges. A decade-long commitment by the government, we are supporting our peerless AI talent with an annual £1 million grand prize to bring through the next wave of game-changing technological solutions.
“I look forward to seeing our finalists develop their solutions further over the coming months, as we look to harness the incredible potential of AI to bring about transformative change in the fields of energy, the environment, and infrastructure.”
Dr Hayaatun Sillem CBE, CEO of the Royal Academy of Engineering and Manchester Prize judge said:
“British innovators have been pivotal to the advancement of computer and information technology that has transformed the world we live in. AI has the potential to support productivity, improve delivery of public services, make our national infrastructure work better, and accelerate the transition to a net zero economy. Choosing only ten finalists from such a diverse field of applications was tough; picking a winner will be even harder. I’m looking forward to seeing how the ideas develop in the next few months.”
To find out more about the Manchester Prize and follow the progress of all ten finalists, visit manchesterprize.org
