David Barber to lead national research lab to make AI more accessible

David Barber, of the Gen AI Hub and UCL Centre for AI, will lead the new lab

Hub director David Barber will lead a new lab to develop innovative, open-source AI systems to help secure the UK’s position as a global leader in AI.

The newly announced Science of Fundamental AI Research (SOFAIR) Lab will be led by University College London, with partner universities of Cambridge, Oxford, and Edinburgh.

SOFAIR is part of a £60m scheme funded by the UKRI-Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) to create two UK labs dedicated to rethinking how AI works, learns and can be made more open, efficient and useful.

The SOFAIR Lab will focus on developing next-generation open-source AI technologies that are more widely accessible. It will bring together researchers from across computer science, mathematics, statistics and neuroscience to explore new AI architectures.

The Gen AI Hub, which is also funded by EPSRC, shares some of the characteristics of SOFAIR. Established in 2024, it brings together experts in Generative AI, from industry and academia, to collaborate on projects that explore how AI can be developed for a range of applications.

Professor Barber said the success of the Gen AI Hub provided a solid foundation for the development of SOFAIR:

“The successful bid for a new Lab in the Science of Fundamental AI Research was greatly enhanced by the experience we gained from the Hub. 

“The Hub helped surface the ideas and challenges required to make progress in frontier AI and helped us forge new friendships and collaborations across the UK, with many of the Hub members joining the Lab as colleagues.”

Congratulations to David and the entire SOFAIR team on this successful bid, which marks an exciting new chapter for AI research in the UK.

More details of the announcement and the objectives of SOFAIR can be found on the UCL website.