̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge - Philanthropy

Celebrating an outstanding fundraising achievement

ps748 — Thu, 07 Nov 2024 10:53:02 +0000

Six years after launching its ambitious target of raising £500 million to support students the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge has surpassed this major milestone.

UK's only research institute dedicated to understanding early cancer receives £11 million donation

Anonymous — Tue, 02 Apr 2024 08:00:07 +0000

Located on the Cambridge Biomedical Campus – the largest bioscience ecosystem in Europe – the Institute brings together world-leading expertise from across diverse fields including biology, physics, mathematics, epidemiology, medicine, and computer science under one roof with one goal: to predict and prevent cancer.

̽��ֱ��donation will support the redevelopment of the Hutchison building, home to the Early Cancer Institute. This will enable the Institute to scale up its work, creating the cutting-edge laboratory space needed for its research teams to advance their early detection efforts and expand the Institute's research capabilities, attracting more world-class scientists and clinicians to join its teams.

̽��ֱ��building will be renamed the Li Ka Shing Early Cancer Institute in honour of Hong Kong-based philanthropist Sir Ka-shing Li and the enduring partnership between the Li Ka Shing Foundation and the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge in progressing the fight against cancer. Sir Ka-shing Li generously donated to the original Hutchison building in 2002, and then – in 2007 – to the Li Ka Shing Centre, which houses the CRUK Cambridge Institute.

Commenting on the renaming of the building in his honour, Sir Ka-shing Li said: "I am greatly encouraged that much advancement has been made towards cancer diagnosis, treatment and prevention. It is also evident now that early detection of cancer will yield the best chance of successful treatment and quality of life for the patient.

"It is a great privilege, therefore, to support the transformation of the Hutchison building to become a centre of excellence and a fitting home for the national Early Cancer Research Institute and a first of its kind in the UK. This inspirational journey with Cambridge ̽��ֱ�� spanning over two decades fulfils my lifetime commitment to build the good of science, and I am truly gratified by this partnership."

Researchers at the Institute are focusing on cancers that are hard to treat, such as lung, oesophageal and liver cancers, and acute myeloid leukaemia. Detection and treatment methods have changed very little for these types of cancer over the past few years, and outcomes are often poor. Detecting and treating cancer earlier will dramatically increase survival rates and reduce healthcare costs across all tumour types.

By working across disciplines to understand the fundamental biology of how cancer develops and evolves, researchers at the Institute are making pioneering early detection research advances and translating these into clinical practice. They have used the power of theoretical physics methods to identify blood cancer years before the patient has symptoms, while biology and chemical engineering experts have collaborated to develop a method to detect and destroy early lung cancer.

̽��ֱ��Institute’s director, Professor Rebecca Fitzgerald, pioneered the capsule sponge – a new test that can identify ten times more heartburn patients with Barrett’s oesophagus, a pre-cursor to oesophageal cancer. ̽��ֱ��device aims to catch the disease when it is easier to treat, thus helping more people survive.

Fitzgerald, also Professor of Cancer Prevention, remarked on the gift’s far-reaching impact, highlighting the importance of the redevelopment in helping researchers make life-saving scientific advances: "This extraordinary gift will provide the cutting-edge research facilities necessary to help our researchers develop pioneering early cancer detection innovations and take these from bench to bedside with even greater speed and focus, resulting in fewer cancer-related deaths worldwide."

Professor Richard Gilbertson, the Li Ka Shing Chair of Oncology said: "It is fitting that the home of this exceptional centre for research into the early detection of cancer should be renamed the Li Ka Shing Early Cancer Institute. From his inaugural gift to establish the Li Ka Shing Centre to house the Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute, to the endowment of a new Professorship of Oncology, Sir Ka-shing Li has been a generous and constant partner in the ̽��ֱ��’s pioneering work to help create a world free of the fear of cancer."

̽��ֱ��Vice-Chancellor, Professor Deborah Prentice, said: "New technologies are ensuring that ideas developed here in Cambridge can be used to benefit patients around the world, and we must ensure that as many people as possible are able to benefit from our cancer research. We are very grateful for Sir Ka-shing Li’s longstanding generosity, which has allowed us to make extraordinary progress in understanding this terrible disease. As our work continues, we look forward to developing novel ways of diagnosing cancer earlier and treating it more precisely and effectively."

̽��ֱ�� ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge’s Early Cancer Institute – the UK's only research facility dedicated to understanding early cancer – has received a landmark £11 million donation to support its vital work in the fight against cancer.

This extraordinary gift will provide the cutting-edge research facilities necessary to help our researchers develop pioneering early cancer detection innovations... resulting in fewer cancer-related deaths worldwide.

Rebecca Fitzgerald

Li Ka Shing Foundation

Sir Ka-shing Li at the opening of the MRC Cancer Centre in the Hutchinson Building, 18 May 2022

̽��ֱ��text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Images, including our videos, are Copyright © ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge and licensors/contributors as identified. All rights reserved. We make our image and video content available in a number of ways – on our main website under its Terms and conditions, and on a range of channels including social media that permit your use and sharing of our content under their respective Terms.

Yes

̽��ֱ��King breaks ground on Cambridge’s New Whittle Laboratory

sc604 — Tue, 09 May 2023 14:26:07 +0000

His Majesty was in Cambridge to break ground on the New Whittle Laboratory, where he also met with staff and researchers, leaders from the aviation industry and senior government representatives.

̽��ֱ��New Whittle Laboratory, a £58 million facility, will be the leading global centre for net-zero aviation and energy. Its mission is to halve the time to develop key technologies to support a sustainable aviation industry.

Alongside the ground-breaking, senior figures from government and industry gathered for an international roundtable as part of an initiative led by Cambridge and MIT. This will present insights based on global aviation systems modelling capabilities developed through the Aviation Impact Accelerator, a project led by the Whittle Laboratory and the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership.

Today, it typically takes six to eight years to develop a new technology to a point where it can be considered for commercial deployment in the aerospace and energy sectors, recent trials in the Whittle Laboratory have shown this timeframe can be accelerated by breaking down barriers that exist between academia and industry.

̽��ֱ��New Whittle Laboratory will incorporate the Bennett Innovation Laboratory – made possible through a philanthropic gift from the Peter Bennett Foundation – to bring together a critical mass of talent, giving them the right skills, tools, culture and working environment to solve complex multidisciplinary challenges. It will also be home to the UK’s National Centre for Propulsion and Power, built around a fast feedback model pioneered in Formula One, to cut the time to develop technologies from years to months.

Participating organisations in the roundtable included the UK Government, UK Aerospace Technology Institute, the US Federal Aviation Administration, NASA, EU Clean Aviation Joint Undertaking, Airbus, Boeing, Rolls-Royce, and the Sustainable Markets Initiative.

As ̽��ֱ��Prince of Wales, His Majesty previously visited the Whittle Laboratory in January 2020, and March 2022, to encourage the acceleration of sustainable aviation, as well as hosting an industry roundtable in February 2020 in London with the Sustainable Markets Initiative and World Economic Forum to explore solutions for decarbonising air travel.

Professor Rob Miller, Director of the Whittle Laboratory, said:

“We need to completely transform the innovation landscape in the aviation and energy sectors if we are to reach net zero by 2050. ̽��ֱ��new Whittle Lab has been designed as a disruptive innovation laboratory targeting the critical early stages in the lifecycles of technologies, where there are windows of opportunity to translate scientific strengths into global technological and industrial leadership.

“ ̽��ֱ��Lab is designed to work at the intersection of cutting-edge science and emerging engineering applications, providing fast feedback between the two, and dramatically cutting the time to deliver zero-emission technologies.”

Grant Shapps, the UK Government’s Energy Security Secretary, said:

" ̽��ֱ��UK is leading a revolution in aviation, looking to new technologies to cut emissions.

"Having established the Jet Zero Council three years ago by bringing together government, industry and academia, I strongly welcome the Whittle Laboratory being at the forefront of that endeavour today.

"This will further help the best minds from the fields of energy and aviation push ever-further and faster with the latest innovations in order to solve the problem of environmentally friendly and affordable flying."

Mark Harper, the UK Government’s Transport Secretary, said:

“Having already invested £165 million into the production of sustainable aviation fuels, this Government is determined to harness the economic benefits of flying while supporting industry and academia to create cleaner skies for the future.”

“ ̽��ֱ��breaking ground of Whittle Laboratory is great news for the UK's world-leading aviation sector, representing another step towards the UK hitting our Jet Zero goals.”

Peter Bennett, ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge alumnus, philanthropist and founder of the Peter Bennett Foundation, said:

“To tackle the most complex challenges, we need to take a whole systems approach, where innovative technologies can be explored within the context of the realities that may impact their roll out. Rigorous testing using models such as the Aviation Impact Accelerator expedites the process of innovation and implementation.

“We need new ways to work together at speed, which is why the Bennett Innovation Lab will bring together global experts from government, industry and academia, enabling radical collaboration. I believe by using Cambridge’s convening power, this can make a real difference, fast.”

Grazia Vittadini, Chief Technology Officer at Rolls-Royce, said:

“ ̽��ֱ��Whittle Laboratory and Rolls-Royce have worked together for 50 years. Over this time the partnership has delivered hundreds of technologies into Rolls-Royce products. Deep technology partnerships like this are critical if the UK is to maintain its role as a science superpower and to create high value jobs in the UK. ̽��ֱ��New Whittle Laboratory offers an exciting opportunity to raise this ambition by bringing together cutting-edge science and engineering application in one building with the aim of meeting the challenge of net zero flight by 2050.”

Jim Hileman, Vice President and Chief Engineer, Sustainability and Future Mobility at Boeing said:

"Boeing's partnership with the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge is central to the effort of making aviation carbon neutral. As well as helping us to find technology solutions, it is bringing together different companies and academic disciplines from across the sector to drive change at the system level. We are excited by the way in which the New Whittle Laboratory has been designed to break down silos, bringing together a wide range of disciplines to take on the most challenging net zero aviation problems.”

Eisaku Ito, Chief Technology Officer at Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, said:

“At Mitsubishi Heavy Industries we have a goal to achieve carbon neutrality by 2040, through our Mission Net Zero initiative. But we know that we can only reach this through accelerating the pace of innovation, and scaling up the development of net zero technologies. We have benefited from a strategic research partnership with the Whittle Laboratory since the 1980s, so we are excited to see work begin on this new facility that will become an important global centre for collaboration and disruptive innovation.

“We look forward to continuing our relationship with the Whittle Laboratory over the coming decades, and we want our engineers to think of the new Lab as their European home – a unique environment where they can participate in a culture that brings together the best global ideas, expertise, software, tools and testing facilities that can help solve the challenge of climate change.”

For more information on energy-related research in Cambridge, please visit Energy IRC, which brings together Cambridge’s research knowledge and expertise, in collaboration with global partners, to create solutions for a sustainable and resilient energy landscape for generations to come.

His Majesty ̽��ֱ��King visited the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge today, in his first public engagement following the Coronation.

Lloyd Mann

̽��ֱ��King at the groundbreaking for the New Whittle Laboratory

̽��ֱ��text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Images, including our videos, are Copyright © ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge and licensors/contributors as identified. All rights reserved. We make our image and video content available in a number of ways – as here, on our main website under its Terms and conditions, and on a range of channels including social media that permit your use and sharing of our content under their respective Terms.

Yes

Cambridge partners with Schmidt Futures in new software engineering network

Anonymous — Wed, 19 Jan 2022 10:39:36 +0000

Schmidt Futures and its partner institutions are establishing the Virtual Institute of Scientific Software (VISS), starting with a network of four centres based at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge, Georgia Institute of Technology, the Johns Hopkins ̽��ֱ�� and the ̽��ֱ�� of Washington.

This interdisciplinary virtual institute will address the growing demand for software engineers with backgrounds in science, complex data and mathematics who can build dynamic, scalable, open software to facilitate accelerated scientific discovery across fields.

While science has become increasingly reliant on complex programming and technology, many researchers lack the training or experience in software engineering, tools and methods to produce effective, reliable, and scalable solutions. As a result, successful research and scientific discovery is sometimes delayed as researchers looking to conduct further experiments struggle to adapt unstable and outdated programming.

VISS seeks to improve the quality of research, accelerate advancements and encourage scalable open-source solutions by providing scientific researchers with access to full-time professional engineers and state of the art technology to develop high quality, maintainable and adaptable software.

“Schmidt Futures’ Virtual Institute for Scientific Software will accelerate the pace of scientific discovery through the development of robust, well-engineered software, supporting longer-term platforms and systems, encouraging best practices in open science, and providing access to techniques such as high-end computing, massive databases, and machine learning,” said Elizabeth McNally, Executive Vice President, Schmidt Futures.

Cambridge's Institute of Computing for Climate Science (ICCS) will apply its existing expertise in climate sciences and artificial intelligence with the research teams from Schmidt Futures’ Virtual Earth Systems Research Institute (VESRI) to address the specific computation and research software needs in the area of climate modelling.

̽��ֱ��centre represents a collaboration between Cambridge Zero, the Departments of Computer Science and Technology, Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, and ̽��ֱ�� Information Services. ̽��ֱ��other three centres will be dedicated to a range of scientific focus areas, including astrophysics, life sciences, engineering and climate.

“With this truly visionary new institute, Cambridge will blend its world-leading climate science, software engineering and computer science expertise,” said Vice-Chancellor Professor Stephen J Toope. “This interdisciplinary powerhouse will enable the development of next-generation climate models. We are delighted to be partnering with Schmidt Futures and engaging with the international research community to inform the response to our most urgent global challenge.”

̽��ֱ��ICCS will be led by Emily Shuckburgh (Academic Director; Cambridge Zero), Dominic Orchard (Co-director; Computer Science/Software Engineering), Chris Edsall (Co-director; Engineering), and Colm-cille Caulfield (Co-director; Science). All have a long-term research agenda to improve understanding of our changing climate through the development, implementation, maintenance, and dissemination of models for scientific computing, data assimilation and analysis.

Being part of the ̽��ֱ��, ICCS will also have a significant education and training component, through the commitment towards sharing its scientific insights openly and broadly. ICCS will play a key role in Cambridge Zero, the ̽��ֱ��'s climate change initiative, that is identifying routes to the creation of a sustainable, zero-carbon future for all.

Over the coming months, ICCS will build a team of researchers and software engineers who share the vision of the power of modern computer science, data science and software engineering for addressing the pressing challenges of our changing climate.

Director of Cambridge Zero and Academic Director of ICCS, Dr Emily Shuckburgh, said “ ̽��ֱ��Institute of Computing for Climate Science will be the first of its kind, supporting the application of the latest developments in computer science and data science to climate modelling. It is tremendously exciting to launch this Institute, which will be the core of an international network of climate research initiatives supported by Schmidt Futures, and will help drive forwards the frontiers of climate science.”

̽��ֱ��interdisciplinary network of centres, which will benefit from the experience of the Schmidt Software Academy at Caltech, will have an initial lifespan of five years.

Adapted from a release published by Schmidt Futures.

Software engineers will bridge the gap between modern science and scalable complex software at four leading universities.

̽��ֱ��Institute of Computing for Climate Science will be the first of its kind, supporting the application of the latest developments in computer science and data science to climate modelling

Emily Shuckburgh

Sir Cam

Centre for Mathematical Sciences

̽��ֱ��text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Images, including our videos, are Copyright © ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge and licensors/contributors as identified. All rights reserved. We make our image and video content available in a number of ways – as here, on our main website under its Terms and conditions, and on a range of channels including social media that permit your use and sharing of our content under their respective Terms.

Yes

New centre to foster global conversations about ethical issues raised by science

plc32 — Thu, 09 Dec 2021 12:00:00 +0000

Major scientific breakthroughs deepen our understanding of nature and ourselves. Such discoveries have the potential to transform our everyday lives.

Yet the same science that holds promise for progress often raises concerns and questions for society.

Who bears responsibility for the societal and ethical implications of scientific discoveries? When and how should wider public views be brought into discussion about the direction of scientific research, its benefits and risks? How can members of the public, ethicists and scientists be empowered to take part in meaningful and constructive dialogue? And what can we do to help researchers negotiate a path through these complexities?

̽��ֱ��new Kavli Centre for Ethics, Science, and the Public at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge will tackle these critical questions.

Announcing the launch on 9 December 2021, Professor Anna Middleton, inaugural Director of the Kavli Centre for Ethics, Science, and the Public at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge, said: “From the discovery of DNA to the development of the first artificial intelligence, and to the sequencing of 20% of the world’s COVID-19 virus today, Cambridge is at the cutting edge of science, and has been for centuries. This is truly a place where the big questions get explored. Through collaboration with experts in popular culture we will find the evidence base to drive conversations with everyday people around the ethical issues raised by science, so that all of us can share in decision making around the implications of science for society.”

̽��ֱ��Kavli Centre will foster global conversations and pursue fundamentally new ways to build and create new spaces and mechanisms for interaction on the ethical issues associated with scientific discovery. It will create a programme of innovative research and public engagement on broad scientific domains, initially focusing on three rapidly changing fields: genome editing, artificial intelligence and big data. 

̽��ֱ��Centre is a unique collaboration between the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge and Wellcome Connecting Science, with funding from ̽��ֱ��Kavli Foundation. Building on the close relationship between the ̽��ֱ�� and Wellcome Connecting Science, it will work with international partners and have a global view.

Cynthia Friend, President of the Kavli Foundation: “This is an exciting and innovative endeavour. Ensuring the public is meaningfully involved in ethical considerations born from scientific discovery is important. ̽��ֱ��vision, creativity, and global community of the Cambridge team impressed us.” 

Alongside inaugural Director Professor Anna Middleton, the Kavli Centre will be supported by Dr Richard Milne as Deputy Director and Lead for Research, and Dr Catherine Galloway as Lead for Innovation and Translation. 

̽��ֱ��Kavli Centre for Ethics, Science, and the Public will be hosted within the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge’s Faculty of Education as its primary base, with a physical presence at Wellcome Connecting Science premises on the Wellcome Genome Campus near Cambridge. 

Today also sees the launch of a sister Kavli Center for Ethics, Science, and the Public at UC Berkeley in the USA. With a similar mission but an independent programme to its Cambridge counterpart, the Berkeley centre will initially address artificial intelligence, genome editing and neuroscience. ̽��ֱ��two centres may collaborate on key projects or events. 

̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge announces the launch of the Kavli Centre for Ethics, Science, and the Public, to engage publics and scientists with the ethical implications of scientific discovery and its impact on society.

̽��ֱ��Kavli Centers for Ethics, Science, and the Public

Wellcome Connecting Science

Anna Middleton, Director, Richard Milne, Deputy Director and Lead for Research, Catherine Galloway, Lead for Innovation and Translation - Kavli Centre for Ethics, Science, and the Public

Yes

Department of Chemistry to be named in honour of Dr Yusuf Hamied

Anonymous — Tue, 01 Dec 2020 00:33:57 +0000

Dr Hamied’s leadership gift endows both a fund to attract and support the world’s brightest academic talent in chemistry, including exceptional early career researchers in disciplines such as synthetic organic chemistry, and outstanding doctoral students from the UK and around the world through the new Hamied Scholars Programme.

For much of his life, Dr Hamied has been a leader in industry and philanthropy, focusing his attention on education and healthcare. He is currently the non-executive chairman of Cipla, a global pharmaceutical company started by his late father, Dr K A Hamied, in Mumbai. Yusuf Hamied’s major achievements include the pioneering supply of HIV/AIDS medicines to developing countries at a low cost, saving countless lives. To help patients during the COVID-19 pandemic, Cipla is again providing medicines to healthcare organisations at affordable prices, making treatment more accessible.

̽��ֱ��Vice-Chancellor, Professor Stephen J Toope said: “Yusuf Hamied has demonstrated an unequivocal commitment to changing and improving lives since his time at Cambridge. I am profoundly grateful for his remarkable gift to the Department of Chemistry, which will benefit generations of students and researchers.”

Among Dr Hamied’s many honours are an honorary fellowship of Christ’s College in 2004; the Padma Bhushan, one of the highest Indian civilian awards in 2005; an honorary fellowship of the Royal Society of Chemistry in 2012; and an honorary Doctorate of Science from the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge in 2014. In 2019, he was elected an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society and a Fellow of the Indian National Science Academy.

Dr Hamied has retained close links with Cambridge over the past 66 years, as a supporter of his College — Christ’s — and the Department of Chemistry. In 2018, he endowed one of the world’s oldest academic Chairs in Chemistry, now known as the Yusuf Hamied 1702 Chair. His academic mentor and supervisor, Nobel Laureate Lord Alexander Todd, held the Chair during Dr Hamied’s time at Cambridge as an undergraduate and PhD student.

“Cambridge gave me the foundation of an education in chemistry, taught me how to live and showed me how to contribute to society," said Dr Hamied. "As a scholarship student myself, I am delighted to be able to support future generations of students. I will always be indebted to this great institution and everything it stands for.”

Head of Department, Dr James Keeler, said: "We are extremely thankful to Dr Hamied for his visionary support for Chemistry at Cambridge which will allow us to respond flexibly to future opportunities. His gift will ensure we continue to attract outstanding scientists who will make the discoveries that help tackle some of the most pressing challenges in global society.”

Following a generous benefaction from alumnus Dr Yusuf Hamied, the Department will be named the Yusuf Hamied Department of Chemistry until 2050. His transformational gift ensures that chemistry at Cambridge will continue to be world-leading in both teaching and research.

Yusuf Hamied has demonstrated an unequivocal commitment to changing and improving lives since his time at Cambridge. I am profoundly grateful for his remarkable gift to the Department of Chemistry, which will benefit generations of students and researchers

Vice-Chancellor Professor Stephen Toope

Yusuf Hamied

Yes

COVID-19 pandemic will have ‘profound’ impact on philanthropy, says Bill Gates

Anonymous — Wed, 09 Sep 2020 08:58:37 +0000

̽��ֱ��co-founder of the Gates Foundation said the scale and urgency of the pandemic has prompted philanthropists to engage in more active collaboration, not only with businesses and government but also with each other.

As an example, he cited the COVID-19 Therapeutics Accelerator involving the Gates Foundation, Mastercard, Wellcome and the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, founded by Priscilla Chan and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

Gates said that philanthropists are “uniquely positioned to ensure an equitable response to a challenge, in Covid’s case to ensure that diagnostics, therapeutics and vaccines reach the billions of people who need them, at an affordable cost.

“Philanthropy is also very good at moving quickly, finding new innovations, trying out things that governments will be very slow to do or might not see, and that will give us a lot of really great tools to deal with the Covid crisis.”

Regarding emerging markets, Gates said that philanthropists “are very keen to increase opportunity for young people in areas like education, health and entrepreneurship. A lot of these really innovative philanthropists are first- or second-generation wealth builders, so they are able to take the latest approaches and leapfrog and improve on practices and really set examples that governments and other philanthropists can benefit from.”

He said there is a “lot of potential” in online giving, because digital platforms have “made it easier for everyone, not just the wealthy, to give to worthy causes” – and that it is “important to think about how this retail giving complements long-term philanthropy as it will continue to grow.”

̽��ֱ��Centre for Strategic Philanthropy was launched in June 2020, with a focus on the impact of strategic philanthropy both within and from emerging global growth markets. Founding patron Badr Jafar is CEO of Crescent Enterprises and is a member of the Advisory Board of Cambridge Judge Business School.

̽��ֱ��COVID-19 pandemic will have a “profound” impact on philanthropy through forging more active collaboration and ensuring more equitable responses, Bill Gates said in an interview with Badr Jafar, founding patron of the Centre for Strategic Philanthropy at Cambridge Judge Business School.

Centre for Strategic Philanthropy: A Conversation with Badr Jafar and Bill Gates

Yes

New programme to accelerate AI research capability at Cambridge

sc604 — Tue, 23 Jun 2020 23:55:43 +0000

Supported by a donation from Schmidt Futures, a philanthropic initiative founded by Eric and Wendy Schmidt, the Accelerate Programme for Scientific Discovery will level the playing field for young researchers, providing them with specialised training in these powerful techniques, which have the potential to speed up the pace of discovery across a range of disciplines.

̽��ֱ��programme will initially be aimed at researchers in STEMM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics and medicine), but will grow to include arts, humanities and social science researchers who want to use machine learning skills to accelerate their research.

̽��ֱ��Accelerate Programme will be led by Professor Neil Lawrence, DeepMind Professor of Machine Learning.

“Machine learning and AI are increasingly part of our day-to-day lives, but they aren’t being used as effectively as they could be, due in part to major gaps of understanding between different research disciplines,” said Lawrence. “This programme will help us to close these gaps by training physicists, biologists, chemists and other scientists in the latest machine learning techniques, giving them the skills they need while accelerating the excellent research already taking place at the ̽��ֱ��.”

“As the intellectual home of Alan Turing, the father of artificial intelligence and modern computer science, Cambridge has long fostered technological innovation and invention,” said Vice-Chancellor Professor Stephen Toope. “This programme will help ensure that Cambridge continues to be a beacon for the very best young global researchers, and that we’re giving them the tools they need to thrive.”

̽��ֱ��five-year programme will be designed and delivered by four new early-career specialists, who will work with researchers from the Department of Computer Science and Technology as well as collaborators from industry. In the first year, the specialists will provide structured training in machine learning techniques to 32 PhD students and postdoctoral researchers, with training provided to a total of 160 PhD students and postdocs over the first five years of the programme. ̽��ֱ��specialists will also have the opportunity to pursue their own research interests as part of their fellowships.

̽��ֱ��programme will also benefit from in-kind support from DeepMind. ̽��ֱ��world-leading British AI company, founded by Queens’ College alumnus Demis Hassabis, has assisted in the development of the programme, and will offer programme participants guest lectures from DeepMind's research team and the opportunity to apply for internship positions.

“Machine learning and AI have the potential to revolutionise any number of fields, but there simply aren’t enough scientists with machine learning skills in those fields at the moment,” said Professor Ann Copestake, Head of the Department of Computer Science and Technology. “This programme will combine Cambridge’s research depth and breadth with the unparalleled expertise in machine learning research we have here in the Department, to build a new type of research culture equipped to face the challenges and opportunities of the 21^st century.”

“We are delighted to support this far-reaching program at Cambridge,” said Stuart Feldman, Chief Scientist at Schmidt Futures. “We expect it to accelerate the use of new techniques across the broad range of research as well as enhance the AI knowledge of a large number of early-stage researchers at this superb university.”

One of the goals of the Accelerate Programme is to build a network of machine learning experts across the ̽��ֱ��. ̽��ֱ��PhD students and postdoctoral researchers who are trained through the Programme will share their knowledge with colleagues, building up capacity throughout Cambridge at scale.

Cambridge’s AI expertise has recently been expanded with the appointment of Dr Ferenc Huszár, who joins the ̽��ֱ�� from Twitter, Dr Carl Henrik Ek, who is joining from the ̽��ֱ�� of Bristol, and Dr Nicholas Lane who is joining from the ̽��ֱ�� of Oxford.

A new initiative at Cambridge will equip young researchers outside computer science with the skills they need to use machine learning and artificial intelligence techniques to power their research.

This programme will help ensure that Cambridge continues to be a beacon for the very best young global researchers, and that we’re giving them the tools they need to thrive

Vice-Chancellor Professor Stephen Toope

Photo by Maxime VALCARCE on Unsplash

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Yes