Manchester Prize Challenge Areas

The Manchester Prize focuses on AI solutions with social benefits, targeting key areas in energy, environment, and infrastructure. The challenge embraces a range of innovative applications of AI, examples include:

Energy Cost Reduction for Consumers:

Objective: Use AI to model household energy usage.

Approach: Identify targeted interventions, like retrofitting or equipment replacement, to lower energy costs.

Support for Emergency Services:

Objective: Enhance emergency response efficiency.

Approach: Compile various spatial data regarding roads and built environments to improve critical last-mile routing.

Response to Extreme Weather Conditions:

Objective: Bolster responses to natural disasters like floods, wildfires, and flash floods.

Approach: Utilise AI alongside earth observation data to predict vulnerable areas and provide better real-time spatial data during such events.

Public Services Disruption Reduction:

Objective: Minimise interruptions to public services.

Approach: Predictive modelling of infrastructure resilience and automated maintenance scheduling, such as timely fixing of potholes and managing traffic disruptions.

Enhancing Food Security:

Objective: Improve agricultural productivity and crop yield.

Approach: Leverage earth observation and soil data to monitor and enhance farming practices.

Manufacturing Efficiency and Resource Reduction:

Objective: Increase efficiency and reduce resource consumption in manufacturing.

Approach: Apply AI to optimize or automate processes, particularly those that are energy-intensive.

Technical Capabilities Encouraged:

The prize particularly welcomes solutions that demonstrate advancements in AI capabilities like generalisation, uncertainty quantification, interpretability, data-efficient AI, and physics-based AI.

Evaluation Criteria:

Solutions will be assessed on their innovation, impact, long-term viability, feasibility, and adherence to safety and ethical standards.

The Manchester Prize represents a significant opportunity for innovators using AI to address critical challenges in society. If you are interested, get in touch with Inventya’s grant writers for a free consultation!

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