The
Alan Turing
Institute
Annual Report
2022-23
# **Annual Report 2022-23** A new chapter
**Section 1** 3 Highlights of the year **Section 2** 47 Trustees’ and strategic report **Section 3** 71 Financial statements
## Section 1
|1.1|Chair’s report||4|
|---|---|---|---|
|1.2|Institute Director’s report||6|
|1.3|Research highlights of the year||10|
|1.4|Partnerships and collaborations||22|
|1.5|Equality, diversity and inclusion||26|
|1.6|Skills and training||29|
|1.7|Engaging with key audiences||32|
||1.7.1 Working with policy makers||33|
||1.7.2 Public engagement||37|
||1.7.3 Convening academia, industry and government||41|
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## **Section 1.1**
## Chair’s report
**It gives me great pleasure to introduce this year’s annual report, my first as Chair of the Board at The Alan Turing Institute.**
First, I wish to pay tribute to the unwavering support of our partners, and the leadership of Adrian Smith, our outgoing Institute Director and Chief Executive. Adrian’s guidance and wisdom have been vital to the Institute, affirming its position as a trusted voice with formidable knowledge and world-class research expertise. Under Adrian’s stewardship, the Institute has been instrumental in helping the UK to begin to unlock its full potential in data science and artificial intelligence (AI).
Building on the hard work of Adrian and our wider community, we were pleased to launch our new strategy this year. It marks an exciting new chapter for the Institute, setting out a bold vision for our role in shaping the future of data science and AI
with a renewed focus on tackling the hardest and most important challenges in three key domains: defence and national security, health and the environment. It also underlines our commitment to developing the underpinning infrastructure for these challenges, such as foundation models (see page 43 for more on our work in this area). Our goal is to ensure that data science and AI have a positive, transformative effect on society and the economy.
This annual report sets out our key achievements for 2022-23 – a year which saw our successful, multidisciplinary AI for science and government (ASG) programme come to an end. Whether it’s healthcare or homomorphic encryption, online harms or digital twins, the Institute is already at the forefront of an exciting, data-driven transformation in science and innovation. However, we must continue to cultivate a diverse and inclusive community of researchers and practitioners, steering these technologies toward a path that benefits all of society.
“Our new strategy marks an exciting new chapter for the Institute, setting out a bold vision for our role in shaping the future of data science and AI.”
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I am confident that the year ahead will be another year of great achievement. The data science and AI landscape is a rapidly changing one, under increasing political, public and media scrutiny, and it is vital that the Institute continues to provide leadership with a focus on the UK priorities for public good.
It is a real privilege to help steer the Institute during the next phase of its journey. I would like to express my gratitude to the Board of Trustees, and the wider team at the Institute, for their dedication and support.
**Doug Gurr** Chair of the Board of Trustees
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## **Section 1.2**
## Institute Director’s report
**It has been a privilege to lead the Institute, particularly at a time of such profound potential societal change driven by data science and AI.**
Since I joined the Institute as Institute Director and Chief Executive in 2018, I have been impressed by the Institute’s ability to respond to the changing landscape by bringing together world-class researchers, across a range of disciplines, in a truly open and collaborative way.
I have seen the Institute establish itself as a powerful research organisation and a trusted brand. Our impact has been achieved through collaborative research and high-profile partnerships. I am proud of how we have been able to grow the Institute by nurturing positive relationships across academia, industry, government and the third sector.
I can now reflect on how the Institute has delivered real-world impact and innovation. Some of this impact can be seen in our range of highlights in this year’s annual report, from studying creatures living on the seafloor, to developing a more accurate measure of the nation’s health, to powering population models with synthetic data.
Several of these case studies focus on our AI for science and government (ASG) programme. ASG has successfully delivered against its mission by involving 400+ researchers, working with 200+ partner organisations from across the UK and beyond, to provide tangible benefits to society. During this time, ASG-funded researchers have also published more than 600 scientific papers and policy reports.
We are now building on the Institute’s progress and reputation. Supported by our Board, led by our new Chair of the Board of Trustees, Doug Gurr, and the wider community, we have delivered an
“...we have delivered an ambitious new strategy (Turing 2.0). Our aim is to harness data science and AI and direct its energy towards solving some of the thorniest challenges we face as a society.”
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ambitious new strategy (Turing 2.0). Our aim is to harness data science and AI and direct its energy towards solving some of the thorniest challenges we face as a society. We think there is untapped potential for the public good and a national institute is key to unlocking it. I am confident that this ambition and potential will be recognised in the Quinquennial Review of the Institute.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone across the Institute, our partners and the community for their energy, expertise and dedication. It has been a pleasure to witness firsthand the cross-disciplinary working, as well as the spirit the Institute fosters and the impact this creates.
Finally, as data science and AI continue to revolutionise the world we live in, I wish my successor well in the stewardship of the Institute and I look forward to seeing the Institute’s impact continue to grow as it embarks on an exciting new chapter.
**Adrian Smith** Outgoing Institute Director and Chief Executive
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## **Strategic partners**
The Turing’s unique position at the interface of academia, business, the third sector and the public sector distinguishes us from other research institutions. In addition, it creates a wealth of potential collaborative opportunities, in particular through our dynamic relationships with our strategic partners.
These relationships not only contribute to what sets the Turing apart from many other research organisations, but also drive our innovation and impact. As well as delivering ambitious programmes of research, our strategic partnerships seek to build meaningful connections between academic excellence and real-world challenges in business, government, skills and engagement.
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## **Founding and university partners**
The Turing’s founding partners are the University of Cambridge, University of Edinburgh, University of Oxford, University College London, University of Warwick and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC).
Answering a national need for investment in data science research, they formed the Turing as a joint venture in 2015, following an open competition run by EPSRC.
The Turing's university network, expanded from our five founding universities, enables us to conduct even more ambitious and collaborative research, skills programmes and public engagement.
Through the Turing Network Development Awards (TNDAs), the Turing has built relationships with a further 25 universities (see page 45 for more information).
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## **Section 1.3**
## Research highlights of the year
Developing a more accurate measure of the nation’s health
Revealing hidden details of the ocean floor
Demoing a digital twin of the UK energy system
Pioneering new approaches to verifying the fairness of AI models
Informing UK security policy through evidence-based research
Enabling researchers to work safely with sensitive data
Harnessing the power of data in cities around the world
Championing next-generation encryption techniques for the finance sector
Understanding online abuse of Premier League footballers
Powering population models with synthetic data
**10**
“It gives me great pleasure to introduce the Turing’s research highlights of the year – just a taste of our successes in 2022-23. These case studies showcase the diversity of the Turing’s portfolio in collaboration with our industry, academic and government partners, generating real-world impact across marine biology, finance, health, security, online harms, data infrastructure and more. With the recent release of our Institute strategy, which has a renewed scientific focus on societal grand challenges, the next year will see us doubling down on truly interdisciplinary research and innovation in data science and AI to change the world for the better.”
**Mark Girolami** Chief Scientist, The Alan Turing Institute
## **Research highlights of the year**
## Developing a more **accurate measure** of the nation’s health
**To develop targeted policies for improving people’s physical and mental wellbeing, governments and local authorities need accurate, ongoing data on the population’s health.** With this in mind, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) in 2022 rolled out its **Health Index** , which provides annual scores for England’s health at national and local authority level. The Turing played a key role in the development of the index, carrying out an in-depth statistical analysis to ensure that it is as accurate as possible.
The index’s annual score is calculated by combining data on over 50 different aspects (‘indicators’) of health, covering specific conditions (e.g. rates of cancer, dementia and anxiety) as well as factors such as air pollution, drug misuse and road safety. The overall score gives a measure of England’s health over time (there are plans to implement the index across the rest of the UK), while the individual scores for local authorities allow the comparison of geographic
areas. The score can also be separated into its individual indicators to explore what may be driving a particular health pattern.
The Turing’s **statistical analysis** , led by **Anna Freni Sterrantino** , assessed the appropriateness of the indicators selected by ONS, and the methods for incorporating them into the index. ONS took on board the Turing’s recommendations by, for instance, adjusting how each indicator is weighted so that it does not exert too much or too little influence on the overall score. The Turing-ONS team has also engaged with experts on other indices – such as the United Nations Development Programme’s **Human Development Index** – to gather advice on how results from the Health Index can be communicated to support policymaking.
Read the paper: **Assessments and developments in constructing a National Health Index for policy making, in the United Kingdom**
“It’s so important that we get the methods behind the Health Index right, and that’s exactly the type of information we got from the Turing’s critical review.”
## **Greg Ceely**
Head of Health Surveillance Analysis, Office for National Statistics
**Related programmes and teams** Health and medical sciences AI for science and government
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**Research highlights of the year**
## **Revealing hidden details** of the ocean floor
**The water surrounding the UK is teeming with interesting creatures. ‘Sea pens’, for example, are otherworldly structures that often resemble old-fashioned quill pens.** They live in the mud on the ocean floor and are actually made from lots of smaller animals called polyps. Sea pens are also particularly sensitive to changes in their environment, which makes them a good potential indicator of the health of these muddy ecosystems.
To start building a picture of long-term changes in sea pen distribution and abundance, researchers at the government’s **Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science** (Cefas) are looking back at over 15 years of video footage of the ocean floor off the north-east coast of England. This was collected by the research ship _Cefas Endeavour_ , towing an underwater sledge fitted with cameras and lights. Sea pens can be identified manually in the footage, but with hundreds of hours of recordings to process, Cefas recognised the need for an automated method. So it engaged with the Turing via a **Data Study Group** (DSG)
– our collaborative ‘hackathons’ that allow organisations to pose real-world challenges to multidisciplinary teams of researchers.
Over two weeks in December 2022, the DSG team developed a prototype machine learning algorithm that Cefas estimates can detect and classify sea pens with up to 95% accuracy compared to manual identification. The team also developed a second algorithm that enhances the image quality of the footage by automatically altering the contrast, frame by frame. This can be used on any video footage of murky marine environments and is currently being explored by other teams at Cefas, including a project called LobsterCAM that observes the underwater behaviour of lobsters.
“Studying the creatures living on the seafloor is essential to advancing our understanding of this fragile habitat. Our collaboration with the Turing has given us a potentially game-changing automated tool for this task, which we hope to deploy in support of new research in the near future as we help the UK government to ensure the health and productivity of our marine ecosystems.”
## **Anna Downie**
Ecologist at Cefas and Challenge Owner of the Turing-Cefas Data Study Group
**Related programmes and teams** Data science for science and humanities Research engineering Skills
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## **Research highlights of the year**
**Related programmes and teams** Data-centric engineering
## Demoing a digital twin of the **UK energy system**
**A crucial part of the UK government’s drive to reach net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 is going to be decarbonising our energy system – shifting from fossil fuels to renewable sources of energy.** The complexity of the energy system makes developing policies aimed at achieving this a difficult task, but a technology that promises to help is digital twins: computer models that use real-world data to simulate physical objects and processes.
This year, the Turing was involved in the development of a **demonstrator for what a digital twin of the UK** . **energy system might look like** Commissioned by the former Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), and built in collaboration with **Energy Systems Catapult** and **Cityscape Digital** , the interactive demonstrator is aimed at showing non-technical policy makers how they could use a digital twin to predict and understand the impacts of their decisions.
The tool allows policy makers to experiment with different scenarios for government investment in green technologies such as heat pumps, rooftop solar panels and electric vehicle chargers. The user can travel forwards to 2050 to find out how the policies impact uptake of these technologies (and
how this affects progress towards net zero), zooming from a 2D national map down to a 3D representation of a street showing individual home energy upgrades. **John Moriarty** , then a Strategic Lead in the Turing’s data-centric engineering programme, led the technical development of the demonstrator, which built on code developed for an existing . Turing project called **RangL**
This proof of concept is not designed to be used in the real world, but Energy Systems Catapult has since secured funding to enhance the demonstrator and bring it another step closer to a digital twin that policy makers could use to support their decisions.
Read the report: **BEIS energy system digital twin demonstrator**
Watch: **video walkthrough of the demonstrator**
“The Turing enabled us to demonstrate how the UK government could use a digital twin to predict the long-term impact of its energy policies. It’s an exciting glimpse of a technology that could help us to achieve net zero.”
## **Eloise Thatcher**
Systems Engineering Manager, Energy Systems Catapult
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## **Pioneering new** to **approaches** verifying the fairness of AI models
**By supporting, or even automating, decision-making processes, machine learning algorithms can save companies time and money. But they also come with a risk: biases in these AI models can lead to discriminatory decisions.** For example, commerciallyused facial recognition systems have been shown to work **less accurately on women of colour,** while automated recruitment systems can perpetuate existing prejudices, such as a **negative bias against hiring women** .
For companies to gain the trust of their employees, clients and the wider public, it is crucial for them to be able to prove that their AI models have been developed in as fair a way as possible. A team of researchers led by the Turing’s **Ali Shahin Shamsabadi** has now developed a unique framework that can provide companies with **a certifcate that verifes the fairness of their model** .
The framework – essentially a pair of algorithms – is applied at the model’s training stage, i.e. when the model ‘learns’ from training data. This avoids potential issues associated with auditing models that have already been trained, such as the auditor testing the model using a dataset that is unrepresentative of the training data. The framework is also completely confidential: the company does not need to reveal its model or training data to the auditor, thus protecting its intellectual property. This is achieved through a cryptographic technique known as ‘zero-knowledge proofs’, which allow a party to prove statements about its data without revealing the data.
When tested on a type of AI model called ‘decision trees’ (widely used in sensitive domains such as healthcare and finance), the method could certify fairness in less than two minutes. The researchers are now developing similar certification for two other key aspects of AI decision-making: training data collection and model deployment.
**-** Read the paper: **Confdential PROFITT: Confdential PROof of FaIr Training of Trees**
“This is all about trust. Our framework will allow companies to obtain a certificate that shows they are using AI in a fair and ethical way.”
**Ali Shahin Shamsabadi** Research Associate, The Alan Turing Institute
## **Research highlights of the year**
**Related programmes and teams** Artificial intelligence
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## **Research highlights of the year**
**Related programmes and teams** Defence and security
## **Informing UK security policy** through evidencebased research
**In June 2022, the Turing launched the Centre for Emerging Technology and Security (CETaS).** Based within our defence and security programme, CETaS aims to inform UK security policy through evidence-based, interdisciplinary research on emerging technology issues.
CETaS conducts independent, policy-focused research and analysis on a wide range of security-related topics, engaging with diverse stakeholders across government, academia and the private sector. It advises on the risks and opportunities presented by new technologies, and makes recommendations for future policy.
Since its launch, CETaS has published research reports on **-** topics including **the future of open source intelligence for - UK national security** , potential uses of **privacy enhancing technologies for intelligence and surveillance** and the **-** use of **machine learning and human machine teaming in intelligence analysis** . The Centre has also published shorter analysis pieces on **the use of disinformation**
**- ’ in the Russia Ukraine confict** , **Russia s information - landscape** and the **security risks posed by AI voice** . **cloning technology** Through engagement with senior policy makers, these outputs have directly informed UK government understanding of the threats posed by, and available responses to, emerging forms of disinformation and deepfake technology.
CETaS has developed an influential network of stakeholders from across the UK security and technology community. In January 2023, the Centre convened a workshop in partnership with the UK government, focused on understanding and mitigating the long-term national security risks posed by nascent AI technologies. The workshop brought together a select group of international experts from academia, the private sector and civil society organisations, as well as senior government officials responsible for AI policy development. The discussion produced new insights regarding the potential risks from AI, as well as possible policy responses.
“Over the last year, CETaS has championed a research agenda that speaks directly to the needs of national security leaders, as well as giving the UK an influential voice in international debates. Providing analysis that drives action, CETaS has become an invaluable partner.”
## **Paul Killworth**
Government Deputy Chief Scientific Adviser for National Security
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## Enabling researchers to **work safely with sensitive data**
**Answering the big research questions often requires the use of sensitive data, in domains like health, finance, and defence and security.** In order to glean insights from this data while honouring the need for security and privacy, researchers are increasingly turning to ‘trusted research environments’ (TREs) – secure computing environments that allow authorised researchers to work safely with sensitive data.
For the past five years, the Turing’s **data safe haven** project has been developing digital infrastructure that allows our researchers to deploy cloud-based TREs for their work. This year, the team made its project **open source** – a major milestone that allows others to freely adopt and adapt the Turing’s code and documentation to deploy and manage a TRE of their own. The TRE code comes with a number of security controls, which can be configured to suit the project’s sensitivity level. One institute that is already making use of this open resource is the University of Nottingham, which has deployed the TRE infrastructure and made it available to any researchers working with sensitive data.
By opening up this resource, the Turing team is saving other institutes from having to develop their own TRE infrastructure from scratch, while also encouraging collaboration in this space. Key to the development of the project has been the Turing’s **research application management team** , which is helping to connect our work to other UK teams building and using TREs. The Turing is also now a partner in the **SATRE** project, which is working towards a standardised template for UK TREs to ensure that there is a consensus around the essential properties of a safe and user-friendly computing environment.
## Read more: **The Turing data safe haven on GitHub**
“The University of Nottingham needed a secure computing environment for research involving sensitive data, but it would have been a massive undertaking to create our own from the ground up. Being able to adopt the Turing’s infrastructure has saved us a lot of time and money, and we are already using it for multiple health and engineering projects.”
## **Sam Cox**
Senior Research Software Engineer, University of Nottingham
## **Research highlights of the year**
**Related programmes and teams** Tools, practices and systems Research engineering AI for science and government
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## **Research highlights of the year**
**Related programmes and teams** Urban analytics AI for science and government Research engineering
## **Harnessing the power of data** in cities around the world
**By 2050, nearly 70% of the global population will live in urban areas – more than six billion people.** Local authorities are increasingly recognising that, in order to improve the lives of city dwellers, they need detailed data on a city’s buildings – the homes, offices, shops and schools where we spend most of our lives. A pioneering Turing project called **Colouring Cities** is making this possible through the creation of a network of platforms that use interactive maps to collate, store and visualise buildings data for cities around the world.
The project began life as **Colouring London** , publicly launched by University College London in 2018. Anyone can sign up to ‘colour in’ buildings by adding data across categories including building size, age, usage, planning status and energy efficiency – data that has historically been fragmented and difficult to access. Alongside manual input, the platform – which has been managed by the Turing since 2020 – also uses automated methods to supplement this data. The result is an information-rich map (more than five million edits and counting) that promises to help decision
makers better monitor the urban environment, exploring, for example, buildings’ sustainability and resilience to climate change.
Thanks to the project’s open-source code, the platform is now being adopted and tested by researchers in nine countries including **Columbia** , **Germany** , **Greece** and **Indonesia** , with each version being tailored to suit local needs. A highlight from the past year was the launch of **Colouring Australia** , which has been incorporated into a major national initiative: the **Australian Housing Data** . **Analytics Platform** In summer 2023, the Turing team will be releasing Colouring Britain, with the ultimate aim of collecting buildings data across the UK.
Read more: **Colouring London and the Colouring Cities Research Programme**
“The buildings data collected by Colouring Athens will help urban planners and policy makers to identify areas of Athens that can be improved, empty buildings that can be maintained and reused, and cultural heritage that needs to be protected.”
## **Athina Vlachou**
Urban architect and former project lead of Colouring Athens
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## **Championing nextgeneration encryption techniques** for the finance sector
**Every year, as much as $2 trillion of illegally obtained money foods into the fnancial system.** Money laundering is a global problem and banks’ efforts to tackle it can be hampered by the difficulty of sharing financial data, which is often highly sensitive and subject to privacy regulations such as GDPR.
However, a cutting-edge encryption technique called homomorphic encryption (HE) promises to allow banks and other financial institutions to share data more easily while preserving privacy. This year, the Turing collaborated with HSBC on a project to **fnd out just how widespread this technique is** .
The magic of HE is that it allows analysis to be performed on data while it is still safely encrypted. This means that a collaborator can make use of the data without being able to access the raw information, making it a more secure process for all involved. One application of HE could be in **identifying money launderers** : banks could use it to more effectively
share information about suspicious customer activity, allowing them to pool their intelligence and track down criminals.
At the request of HSBC, researchers in the Turing’s finance and economics programme carried out an in-depth review of HE’s current usage in the finance sector. The resulting paper identifies several countries that are leading the way in exploring HE (including the UK, Canada and South Korea) and one application that has already been implemented in the real world – **a collaboration between Duality and Oracle in the US** . There are still technological and regulatory obstacles to overcome before HE can be widely deployed, but the Turing and HSBC are now working on an HE tool with potential financial applications.
Read more: **Homomorphic encryption: the future of secure data sharing in fnance?**
“Homomorphic encryption will make it easier for organisations to share sensitive data for the greater good. Our collaboration with HSBC is helping to scope out its huge potential in the finance sector.”
## **Carsten Maple**
Turing Fellow and Professor of Cyber Systems Engineering at the University of Warwick
## **Research highlights of the year**
**Related programmes and teams** Finance and economics
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## **Research highlights of the year**
## **Understanding online abuse** of Premier League footballers
**In the UK, almost 70% of people have witnessed harmful content online. The sheer magnitude of the problem means that regulators and policy makers are increasingly in need of AI-powered tools to automatically detect and monitor toxic online content.** A tool that’s leading the way is the Turing’s **Online Harms Observatory** , a platform created by the public policy programme’s **online safety team** that this year shone a light on one of the most targeted groups: Premier League footballers.
The team’s report, published in August 2022 in collaboration with Ofcom, found that **seven out of ten Premier League footballers face abuse on Twitter** . Over a five-month period during the 2021-22 football season, the tool – which is powered by a machine learning model – detected almost 60,000 abusive tweets. The report’s authors call for **social media platforms to step up their eforts to tackle online abuse** , and for supporters to flag any abusive content they
encounter. The report received widespread media attention in outlets including _**BBC Sport**_ and _**The Guardian**_ , and its launch was accompanied by a panel discussion featuring Gary Lineker, Manchester United player Aoife Mannion and Chair of Kick it Out, Sanjay Bhandari.
The team is now adapting its Observatory for other groups in the public eye, including MPs, journalists and female footballers, and it plans to expand the tool to other social media platforms and forms of online harms, such as misinformation and extremism. By engaging with decision makers in Ofcom and UK government, the researchers aim to inform future policy around online harms and help make the internet a safer place for all.
Read the report: **Tracking abuse on Twitter against - football players in the 2021 22 Premier League season**
“The Online Harms Observatory has alerted us to the vast levels of social media abuse experienced by Premier League footballers. Tools such as this are important for the government’s work around online safety because they provide data on the extent and types of harm that people suffer online.”
## **Daisy Aitken**
Security and Online Harms Research Lead, Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, UK government
**Related programmes and teams** Public policy AI for science and government
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## **Powering population models** with synthetic data
**Researchers need access to human population data in order to model everything from transport patterns and spread of disease to consumer behaviour and household energy use.** Privacy considerations mean that real-world datasets for these types of applications are often hard to come by, but researchers can now use ‘synthetic data’ instead. This anonymised, artificially generated data retains the original data’s statistical properties, but contains no sensitive information linked to real people.
A new Turing-developed tool – the **Synthetic Population Catalyst** (SPC) – aims to make it vastly easier for researchers to access synthetic population data. Using a computational process that typically takes just seconds to run, it combines real-life data from a variety of sources – including UK census data and health surveys – and outputs a synthetic dataset for
any user-specified county in England or Wales. The dataset zooms right down to the individual level, including variables related to personal health, household type, employment status and social interactions. If researchers need a specific variable that is not covered by the basic version of the SPC, they can also work with the SPC team to incorporate it into the output – they just need the necessary data source.
As a fully documented, open-source tool, the SPC can be readily adapted across multiple domains. One Turing project is using synthetic populations generated by the tool to feed a model for analysing the **individual health impacts of - climate change related extreme heat** . Another project, currently based at the Technical University of Denmark, is using SPC-generated data to find out why obese people are more susceptible to COVID-19 and other viral diseases, with the aim of identifying underlying socio-economic factors that could be targeted to improve population health.
## Read more: **The Synthetic Population Catalyst on GitHub**
“My research into the links between obesity, health and poverty wouldn’t be possible without the data provided by the Synthetic Population Catalyst. The Turing’s crossdisciplinary approach to developing this tool means that it will be useful across so many different domains.”
**Karyn Morrissey** Professor of Applied Economics at Technical University of Denmark and former Turing Fellow
## **Research highlights of the year**
**Related programmes and teams** Urban analytics AI for science and government
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Section 1.4
Partnerships and collaborations
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The Turing forged a number of new connections this year across the UK defence and security landscape
## **Section 1.4**
## Partnerships and collaborations
techniques such as deep reinforcement learning to further our understanding of – and capacity to attack and defend – computer systems and networks.
## **Defence and security partnerships**
Defence and security continues to be a key research area at the Turing, and we this year progressed several partnerships and collaborations in this space:
- Also founded this year was our **Centre for Emerging Technology and Security** (CETaS) – read more on page 16.
- In August 2022, **MI5 and the Turing made public their ongoing partnership** , which brings together expertise from both organisations to apply AI research to UK security challenges. Unveiling this partnership will enable closer working between MI5 and the Turing as we help to ensure that MI5’s use of AI keeps pace with national security threats.
- Funding for our **Applied Research Centre for Defence and Security** (ARC) has also been extended for three years. This centre focuses on tackling defence and security problems that require a rapid turnaround time, providing its partners with usable outputs such as software code and proof-of-concept demonstrators.
- As part of the UK government’s Defence AI Strategy, the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl) and the Turing this year launched the **AI Research Centre for Defence** (ARC-D). The centre will focus on the underpinning problems associated with enabling advances in AI capability in defence contexts, in areas such as ethics and humancentric AI.
## **Lloyd’s Register Group**
The Turing and the Lloyd’s Register Group (LRG) have announced a collaboration to **accelerate** . **the digitalisation of the maritime industry** This will provide maritime companies adopting digital and AI-enabled technology with a fast and cost-effective way to assure and test their systems, using resources and expertise from both organisations. Streamlining the testing process
- We also launched the **AI for Cyber Defence research centre** (AICD), which will use
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for digital maritime technology will rapidly speed up digitalisation in this sector, incentivising safe practice and improving affordability by reducing competitive advantage risks. This work strengthens our existing relationship with the Lloyd’s Register Foundation (owners of the LRG), which has been a strategic partner of the Turing **-** since we together established the Turing’s **data centric engineering programme** in 2015.
## **Turing Research and Innovation Cluster in Digital Twins**
Since its inception in 2015, the Turing has established one of the largest concentrations of digital twins research in the UK, in areas from aerospace and civil engineering to urban modelling and agricultural monitoring. To build on this activity, we this year founded the **Turing Research and Innovation Cluster in Digital Twins** (TRIC-DT).
Announced as part of AI UK 2023, the TRICDT aims to democratise access to emerging digital twin technology by providing, as a national service, open and reproducible computational and social tools for digital twin development and deployment. The TRIC-DT will support the creation of specialised expertise and new digital twin infrastructure, unlocking barriers that previously hindered their use. It will also work closely with partner organisations to solve significant societal challenges and generate tangible benefits in three interrelated areas: environment and sustainability,
## infrastructure and health.
## **Active Travel England**
The Turing has been commissioned by the government’s Active Travel England to create new software and data science techniques to **support local authorities in delivering walking, wheeling and cycling schemes** that will benefit the environment, economy and residents’ health. Running for two years, the collaboration will provide councils with new tools to map out proposed schemes and predict their local impact, helping Active Travel England to develop evidencebased schemes that offer the most benefits for residents. This work will help to accelerate progress towards the government’s objectives on active travel, including for 50% of short trips in urban areas to be made by walking, wheeling and cycling by 2030.
## **BridgeAI**
The Turing has been announced as a key partner in **BridgeAI** – a £100m programme funded by Innovate UK that has the mission to drive the adoption of AI and machine learning across four sectors of the UK economy with high growth potential for AI: transport, construction, agriculture and the creative industries. In doing so, BridgeAI aims to increase AI-driven productivity and efficiency, supporting businesses and boosting the UK economy.
The Turing’s role will be to provide independent scientific advice to organisations that are encountering challenges around AI adoption. We will mobilise the UK data science and AI community to accelerate the development of AI capabilities in the four target sectors through the delivery of online training tools, bespoke guidance and access to resources such as _**The Turing Way**_ and the **AI Standards Hub** .
## **Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation**
Our four-year **Trustworthy digital infrastructure for identity systems** project, funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, continued its work on developing solutions to enhance the privacy and security of national digital identity systems. As the project nears its end in December 2023, work has shifted further into the development and implementation of technological components aligned with the needs identified by countries in the Global South. This has involved research spanning privacy-enhancing technologies, threat and risk modelling, AI and synthetic data generation.
The project also hosted its second **Trustworthy digital identity international conference** , which united about 100 global experts in the field and heard perspectives from North and South America, Asia and Europe on the opportunities and challenges around digital identity systems. **-** Read the key talking points in the **post event report** .
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A collaboration with the abrdn Charitable Foundation and the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology is using camera traps to automate moth monitoring
## **CSIRO**
The Turing has signed a three-year memorandum of understanding with CSIRO – Australia’s national science agency – to promote international collaboration in education and research in
machine learning and AI. This agreement will bring together researchers from the UK and Australia from diverse academic backgrounds to tackle global challenges, with an initial focus on the areas of cyber security, environment and sustainability, and managing natural resources. Through new projects, workshops, the joint supervision of students and postdoctoral fellows, and researcher and student exchange between the Turing and Data61 – CSIRO’s data and digital specialist arm – this agreement aims to use the latest in AI thinking to benefit both nations.
## **abrdn Charitable Foundation / UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology**
There is growing evidence that insect populations around the world are in sharp decline, so being able to monitor changes in their numbers is more important than ever. The Turing this year embarked on a two-year project with the abrdn Charitable Foundation and the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology that is using cutting-edge computer vision to track moth biodiversity.
The project, which began in March 2023, will use **traps equipped with lights and cameras**
**to attract and photograph moths** in countries including Japan, Singapore and Costa Rica. Usually, the images have to be collected from the traps before they can be analysed, but Turing researchers are working on a streamlined machine learning model that will sit on a small Raspberry Pi computer in each trap and automatically detect and classify moths, transmitting the data to wherever it is needed and speeding up the discovery process.
## **Norwegian Artificial Intelligence Research Consortium**
We strengthened our ties this year with the Norwegian Artificial Intelligence Research Consortium (NORA), **signing an operational alliance memorandum** that formalises our existing relationship at both a strategic and working level. NORA is a Norwegian collaboration between eight universities, three university colleges and five research institutes within AI, machine learning and robotics. The agreement will facilitate researcher exchange between the Turing and NORA and enable us to work jointly on areas of mutual interest. It will also provide opportunities for students at the two institutes – we have already hosted three PhD students from NORA as part of our Enrichment scheme.
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## **Section 1.5** Equality, diversity and inclusion
The Turing has continued to work towards its equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) commitments this year, through our three roles as a national body, a research institute and an employer.
**26**
Anjali Mazumder, the Turing’s AI and Justice and Human Rights Theme Lead, led a panel session at AI UK 2023 on ‘How to do better in data science and AI’
## **Section 1.5**
## Equality, diversity and inclusion
“Involving more people and perspectives in polar research is essential to ensuring we develop the most robust and inclusive plans to protect our polar regions. We hope this project will bring to life what polar researchers do and encourage children to think this is something they could do too.”
## **Our role as a national body**
The Turing has continued to show leadership through transparently reporting on our progress against our **EDI strategy and action plan** . In January 2023, we published our second **EDI annual report** , providing a thorough update on EDI activity between October 2021 and September 2022 and a snapshot of the diversity of Turing staff, students and the wider community.
**Premdeep Gill** Polar Portals project lead
In August 2022, the Turing’s public engagement team delivered a **new funding call** that resulted in seven new projects aimed at widening understanding and participation in data science and AI, specifically for those left out of the conversation – see page 39 for a particular highlight. The Turing is also funding **Polar Portals** – a project run by the **Polar Impact** network that is connecting pupils from high-deprivation schools with ethnically and socially diverse polar scientists through novel and creative methods, such as a . **postcard design competition** By increasing the number of children seeing themselves represented in polar science, the goal is to show that this is a career option for everyone, regardless of background.
## **Our role as a research institute**
Research conducted at the Turing continues to intersect with themes of equality, diversity and inclusion. Highlights featured elsewhere in this report include a new approach to verifying the fairness of AI models (page 15), a tool to monitor abuse on social media (page 20) and a project to uncover how children understand and engage with AI (page 36).
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In addition, the Turing has continued work to diversify our research community and broaden the talent pipeline into data science and AI. In October 2022, we welcomed our first two Daphne Jackson Fellows. **Daphne Jackson Fellowships** offer professionals wishing to return to a research career after a break of two or more years the opportunity to balance an individually tailored retraining programme with a challenging research project in a suitably supportive environment.
Between July and September 2022, the Turing **Health Data Science Black** hosted its first **Internship Programme** participant: **Ibrahim Animashaun** , who worked as a research data scientist in our research engineering team. The Turing has committed to supporting two further interns in the coming year.
We also continue to provide thought leadership in the EDI space. At AI UK 2023, sessions and workshops included: ‘Where the women are: WiDEning STEM’, ‘Public health AI: transforming health and reducing inequalities’ and ‘How do we do better in data science?’. In addition, we have offered development opportunities to the research community. In March 2023, in collaboration with EPSRC, we delivered two workshops for **Turing AI Fellows** on how to foster more inclusive research cultures.
## **Our role as an employer**
In March 2023, the Turing published its first **gender pay gap report** alongside an action plan detailing our key objectives in this area, including
increasing the proportion of women in research and leadership roles, and tackling the barriers faced by women at work.
We also launched our first internal, year-round EDI learning and development programme, available to everyone in the Turing community. This programme has been designed to equip people with awareness, knowledge and understanding of issues of inequality and discrimination, and the skills and tools needed to challenge and remove these barriers.
Our four EDI Network Groups have remained active over the last year, supporting our community and pushing internally for positive change.
The **Race Equality Network Group** ran a series of events for Black History Month 2022, including talks by Naila Murray from Meta’s AI research team on the challenges of computer vision, and Nicole-Rachelle Moore, the British Library’s curator for its Caribbean collections, on her nonlinear career trajectory. The group also hosted a ‘Navigating the news’ session to explore how we can engage with the issues we care deeply about while looking after our own wellbeing.
The **Disability and Wellbeing Network Group** published a work wellbeing plan in May 2022, which supports Turing staff in having conversations about their wellbeing with colleagues. The group also marked Mental Health Awareness Week 2022 (the theme was loneliness) with activities including a workshop about the benefits and risks of social media, a use-it-as-you-
like ‘wellbeing hour’ for all staff, and blogs from members of the Turing community on coping with loneliness. In December 2022, the group launched a campaign in recognition of International Day of Persons with Disabilities, sharing information and staff blogs about non-visible conditions.
Launched in March 2022 on International Women’s Day, the **Gender Equality Network Group** has been focused on creating guidelines to make the Turing a safer, more equitable place to work for women. After internal discussions and consultation with the EDI Advisory Group, the Network Group agreed to initially focus on the menopause, and initiatives are currently in development. In March 2023, the group, in partnership with the EDI team, also hosted a series of workshops to gather feedback on the gender pay gap action plan.
The **LGBTQ+ Network Group** marked Pride Month 2022 with a visit to the new Queer Britain museum in London, a talk by a former Turing Enrichment student on ‘Sex, gender, binaries and categories: frictions in data about humans’, and a ‘Lunch and Learn’ session by EDI Strategic Lead, Amy Gallimore, on the identities behind the LGBTQ+ acronym. The group has also raised awareness internally of LGBTQ+ identities. To mark International Pronouns Day, for example, the group published recommendations for adopting an inclusive use of pronouns, which have received a positive response.
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Section 1.6
Skills and training
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## **Section 1.6**
## Skills and training
Building skills for the future is one of the Turing’s key goals. Across different research sectors and career stages, we aim to provide the technical and professional skills in data science and AI that are increasingly needed to solve problems in industry and society.
In November 2022, the Turing held its inaugural **CDT conference** . Across two days in Manchester, we convened 110 PhD students from 24 CDTs across 16 UK universities to hear speakers from industry and academia. The event provided attendees with greater insight into national PhDlevel research and post-PhD career options. A second conference is being planned for November 2023 to extend the opportunity to more students.
## **Convening PhD students nationally**
The **Turing Connections** initiative aims to
develop and improve the skills and practices of national data science and AI PhD students by both providing opportunities to engage with other PhD students from around the UK and raising awareness of real-world research challenges and applications. These aims are supported through engagement with the national Centres for Doctoral Training (CDTs), which fund students to support their research through technical and transferable skills training. This year, the Turing Connections network grew from 30 to 48 CDTs, with more set to join in late 2023. The initiative has so far offered a range of activities to PhD students, including industry engagement, skills workshops, career insights, presentations and networking sessions.
## **Solving environmental and sustainability challenges**
**- in** In December 2022, the Turing held its first **person Data Study Group** (DSG) event since the pandemic. These two-week, collaborative ‘hackathons’ bring together talented researchers with organisations from industry, government, the third sector and academia to tackle realworld problems. This event, which had around 50 participants, featured four challenges encompassing marine biology, manufacturing, urban noise and transportation. A particular highlight was the challenge with the government’s Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture
Our Data Study Groups continue to bring researchers and organisations together to tackle real-world problems
PhD students enrolled in our 2022 Enrichment scheme
**110**
Postdoctoral Enrichment Awards granted to researchers from 40 UK organisations
## **112**
new Turing Internship Network partners from the government, private sector and third sector
**15**
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Science (Cefas), which developed an algorithm for detecting creatures on the ocean floor called sea pens – see page 13 for our full case study.
This year, the Turing also launched a pilot project combining our **Turing Internship Network** with the DSG programme to amplify their joint impact. This funded nine PhD students to work with ten charities and NGOs in the environment and sustainability sector on various challenges, including AI detection of individual tiger stripe patterns to counter trade in tigers and tiger skins. The initiative culminated in an **online DSG event in February 2023** , with 45 researchers working with six of the organisations to advance the work carried out by the interns. We will be publishing the reports from this DSG later in 2023.
“This initiative has shown me how I can apply the skills that I have developed throughout my PhD across different areas of science. This has really given me confidence for the future.”
**Eliza Duncan** University of Exeter student and participant in our Turing Internship Network and Data Study Group joint programme
## **Democratising access to data science and AI training**
The Turing this year publicly launched its **Online Learning Platform** , which provides free access to courses in data science, AI and related topics. Our goal is to offer accessible and application-focused training at scale to researchers and industry professionals at every experience level, from those with basic knowledge of data science and AI, to those who are already working on complex problems in these fields. Launched at AI UK 2023, the platform currently has eight courses on topics including ‘How data lies’ and ‘Assessing and mitigating bias and discrimination in AI’.
Most of our current courses have their origins in an open funding call that the Turing’s skills team ran with our strategic partner Accenture in 2022 to develop training materials focused on the responsible AI principles of transparency and fairness. We allocated over £180k to seven teams from universities, consultancies and the private sector, who each delivered a course for the platform. Other sources for current and future courses include Turing summer schools and Turing-led projects such as the **Turing Commons** and the **AI Standards Hub** .
## **Setting standards for data science**
The Turing is a founding member of the **Alliance for Data Science Professionals** , a group of STEMrelated UK societies and institutes that is working to establish industry-wide professional standards for data science. The ultimate aim of the alliance is to ensure an ethical and well-governed approach to data science so that the public, organisations and governments can have confidence in how their data is used. It is looking to address critical issues such as data breaches, the misuse of data in modelling, and bias in AI.
This year, the alliance has convened over 100 stakeholders, spanning industry, universities and training providers, to define the standards for certification of data science professionals and to ensure that data science and AI training meets the needs of the current and future workforce. The resulting standards have now been adopted throughout the accreditation and recognition processes of the alliance members. At an event at the Royal Society in July 2022, an inaugural cohort of 13 data scientists received certification against the new standards – the first cross-professional body certification of its kind internationally.
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## **Section 1.7**
## Engaging with key audiences
1.7.1 Working with policy makers
1.7.2 Public engagement
1.7.3 Convening academia, industry and government
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**Section 1.7.1**
## Working with policy makers
ensure that organisations around the world have a common basis for governing AI technologies, thus improving the safety and trustworthiness of AI systems across the various contexts and sectors in which they are deployed, such as healthcare, transport and financial services.
The Turing, via its public policy programme, works alongside governments, regulators and international organisations to explore how data science and AI can improve policy-making, and how these technologies should be governed and regulated.
The Turing is leading the Hub in partnership with the British Standards Institution and the National Physical Laboratory. In its first few months, the Hub created a **searchable database** of over 300 AI-related standards that have either already been published or are under development, and kicked off a **series of events** – including webinars, workshops and training sessions – to foster new collaborations and share skills for engaging with AI standardisation. The Hub is also supporting the UK regulatory bodies that will make decisions on how AI should be governed, establishing a recurring working group – the AI Standards Forum for UK Regulators – to address regulators’ needs and challenges in this space.
With over 55 Turing-based researchers, 90-plus research projects and collaborators from more than 20 universities, the programme has gained national and international recognition. Over 100 public sector organisations have reached out to the programme since it was launched in May 2018, including government departments, regulators, non-ministerial departments, agencies and public bodies, local authorities, police forces and international organisations.
## **Launching the AI Standards Hub**
In October 2022, the Turing launched the **AI Standards Hub** – a UK government initiative (part of its National AI Strategy) that aims to increase the country’s engagement in the development of international standards for AI. These standards will
The AI Standards Hub aims to increase the UK’s engagement in the development of international standards for AI
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Turing researchers have published recommendations for how data science can be used to build resilience into government
## **Making recommendations for resilient government**
Resilient governments are able to respond effectively to shocks, like pandemics or economic crises, with minimal disruption to the way they operate. Directors of the public policy programme, Helen Margetts and Cosmina Dorobantu, are exploring how data science can be used to build resilience into government. In August 2022, they published an article in _Nature Human Behaviour_ (co-authored with Ben MacArthur, the Turing’s Deputy Programme Director for Health and Medical Sciences) **sharing three recommendations for data science reform in** . **government**
First, the researchers recommend that governments take an inclusive approach to designing, developing and deploying data collection processes, which means being transparent about how data is collected and actively involving citizens in the process. Second, they suggest using ensemble modelling to inform decision-making – an approach that can produce more accurate results by integrating different types of models and data, from different domains. Third, they recommend that instead of creating unexplainable ‘black box’ models, governments should focus on developing models that provide causal information about the factors that influence model outputs, helping policy makers to understand the impacts of their decisions.
## **Modelling the labour market**
Accurate modelling of the labour market is a key challenge for policy makers. In particular, they need to understand why people move from one job to another, and how to encourage workers to move into jobs that are beneficial for the economy. Turing researchers Kathyrn Fair and Omar Guerrero have developed cutting-edge computational models to help policy makers meet this challenge, and this year published new research **showing that their models can anticipate labour market changes in response to simulated shocks** , such as a dramatic decrease in wages in certain occupations.
Developed in collaboration with the UK government’s former Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS), the models create thousands of simulated employees from real, anonymised labour data and use them to explore a network representing movements in the job market. The researchers are now tailoring the models’ open-source code to help the government run its own simulations. These could enable policy makers to navigate uncertainty in labour markets around, for example, transitions towards green jobs or increasing automation, or to assess the effectiveness of interventions like upskilling or wage increases for moving people along paths to suitable employment.
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## **Advising the Council of Europe**
The Council of Europe (CoE) this year created a **Committee on AI** (CAI), which has the goal of developing a legal framework aligning the design, development and deployment of AI systems with CoE standards in human rights, democracy and the rule of law. The Turing’s Director of Ethics and Responsible Innovation Research, David Leslie, was appointed as a Specialist Advisor to the CAI, continuing his collaboration with the CoE that dates back to 2020. David, with the support of his Turing team, is providing independent, expert advice to the CAI as it develops its framework, in particular on what kinds of AI governance and assurance processes will be needed to support the operationalisation of the framework so that it has real-world impact.
“The development of AI technologies is moving at an accelerating pace, so we urgently need international legal frameworks to align the production and use of these systems with the priorities of fundamental rights and freedoms. The Council of Europe’s work will help ensure
## that AI systems are designed and implemented in a way that benefits, not hinders, humanity.”
**David Leslie** Director of Ethics and Responsible Innovation Research, The Alan Turing Institute
## **Understanding economics via the human brain**
Existing economic indicators can guide policy makers on which industries to invest in to increase growth. New methods for economic analysis developed by Turing researchers Hardik Rajpal and Omar Guerrero can now also **help to suggest what form these investments should take** , providing more detailed recommendations for policy-making. For instance, the analysis might indicate which relationships between groups of industries need to be strengthened in order to improve their overall economic output.
The researchers’ modelling approach – developed by transferring insights from mathematical frameworks designed for understanding the human brain – provides in-depth analysis of production processes involving complex networks of suppliers and distributors. A key takeaway from this work is that previous methods of economic analysis may have overly focused on novelty and
Insights from studies of the human brain are helping Turing researchers to analyse complex production processes
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Our work with primary school children in Scotland culminated in a trip to the Scottish AI Summit in Glasgow in March 2023
creativity in production processes whilst sidelining redundancy. Just as in the brain, where having multiple neural pathways transmitting the same information guards against damage to one pathway, robust production processes rely on, for instance, multiple suppliers for the same products. This redundancy can prevent production networks from becoming fragile in the face of global supply issues.
## **Putting children at the heart of AI ethics**
Children are increasingly interacting with AI technologies, whether through toys, educational resources, smartphones or the internet – often without realising they are doing so. However, there has been little research into children’s experiences of AI. A better picture of the ways in which children understand and engage with these technologies will help policy makers and developers to build AI systems that prioritise children’s rights and wellbeing.
A project within the public policy programme led by Ethics Research Fellow, Mhairi Aitken, is **engaging directly with primary school children across Scotland** to find out what they think about AI and how they would like to see it developed. Collaborating with the Scottish AI Alliance and Children’s Parliament, the team ran full-day workshops in schools in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Stirlingshire and Shetland, which culminated in a trip to the **Scottish AI Summit** in Glasgow in
March 2023, where 13 ‘AI investigators’ from the four schools presented their thoughts and findings in front of over 400 people.
The project team – which also includes Janis Wong, Sabeehah Mahomed and Morgan Briggs – is now planning further engagement with these schools until the end of 2024, and aims to use its findings to inform the delivery of Scotland’s AI Strategy.
“People often make assumptions about what matters to children, but unless you ask them you don’t actually know. Throughout these workshops, the children have consistently engaged in insightful, thoughtful and often surprising discussions around AI and children’s rights. They have been a joy to work with, and I have learnt so much.”
## **Mhairi Aitken**
Ethics Research Fellow, The Alan Turing Institute
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Section 1.7.2
Public engagement
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Sarah Sharples delivered a Turing Lecture on the science and policy challenges of self-driving cars
## **Section 1.7.2**
## Public engagement
## **A new home for The Turing Lectures**
## **#TalkDataToMe: a new video series for curious minds**
Our flagship event series, **The Turing Lectures** , began a new chapter this year. We returned to in-person lectures (the first since the pandemic), and moved them to the Royal Institution’s (RI’s) beautiful theatre – home to the RI’s televised Christmas Lectures.
In September 2022, we launched **#TalkDataToMe** , a YouTube series and social media campaign that aims to help the public understand trending topics related to data science and AI. So far, the series has featured explainer videos on **non-fungible tokens** (NFTs), **the lack of diversity in STEM** and . **the privacy risks of our smart devices**
The lectures, which were also streamed online, included **Sarah Sharples** (the UK government’s Chief Scientific Adviser for the Department for Transport) on the science and policy challenges in making self-driving cars a reality, and King’s College London climate scientist **Tamsin Edwards** on how machine learning is helping researchers to predict sea level rise. We were also delighted to host our first Turing Lecture for children, with nature filmmaker **Tom Mustill** explaining how AI could one day allow us to talk to whales.
Hosted by Tabitha Goldstaub (chair of the UK government’s AI Council), the series uses interviews with Turing researchers to provide accessible, trustworthy and unbiased information about newsworthy issues, to help counter some of the myths and misinformation that proliferate online. We are especially aiming to reach people who might not usually engage with science – an audience that may have grown up with AI, but that may struggle to access reliable information on the technologies they regularly interact with. Future episodes may address topics including generative AI, deepfakes and cyber security.
These three lectures, which had a total attendance of over 1,900 people, were planned in collaboration with the RI’s demonstrations team. This allowed us to treat audiences to live demos, including a VR driving simulator, a miniature melting glacier and a giant subwoofer that filled the theatre with whale song.
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## **Giving a voice to under-served groups**
As part of our mission to boost understanding of and participation in data science and AI in the general population, we this year announced funding for **seven innovative public engagement projects in England and Wales** . Our aim is to help researchers to connect with under-served groups who may not otherwise have the opportunity to engage with conversations around these topics.
The funded projects include the **Greater Manchester People’s Panel for AI** – a 2022 initiative from Manchester Metropolitan University that trained members of the community in key aspects of data, AI and ethics, and then allowed them to interrogate AI-focused businesses and researchers, with the goal of making product and project design fairer and more inclusive. The four businesses and researchers that took part in the sessions are **already making changes to their products and projects** , and the Manchester Met team has developed a **best practice guide** to support other institutes in setting up their own people’s panels.
## **Exploring the Industrial Revolution in Leeds**
One of our flagship research projects was the inspiration for the **Living with Machines** exhibition at Leeds City Museum, which explored how the Industrial Revolution transformed life and work in Leeds and the surrounding area. Through paintings, historical documents and contraptions ranging from sewing machines and dobby looms to potato peelers and tricycles, visitors could find out how this period of technological upheaval gave us football leagues, fast fashion and the nine-tofive working day, and what parallels we can draw with today’s ever-changing world of tech.
The exhibition, which welcomed more than 42,000 visitors between July 2022 and January 2023, was based on our **Living with Machines** project – a five-year collaboration between the Turing, the British Library (who co-curated the exhibition with Leeds City Museum) and five UK universities. This project is using AI-powered tools to analyse newspapers, books, maps and census records to shed new light on the human impact of the Industrial Revolution.
The Living with Machines exhibition at Leeds City Museum was inspired by our research project of the same name
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Turing Fellow Diego Oyarzún explored ethical dilemmas in biology at our Cabaret of Dangerous Ideas event in Edinburgh
## **Combining AI and stand-up comedy**
What do you get if you combine top academics, thought-provoking research and a comedian compère? Answer: the Cabaret of Dangerous Ideas (CoDI). Already an established event on the Edinburgh comedy scene, we partnered with CoDI to deliver two events with a data science and AI twist, hosted by comedian Susan Morrison and featuring Turing researchers.
At **The Stand Comedy Club in Edinburgh** in April 2022, Mhairi Aitken pondered whether the perks of having a smart speaker in her life are worth the invasion of privacy, while André Santos explained why you should (probably) trust a machine over your bank manager. A couple of months later at **The HiFi Club in Leeds** , talks included: ‛White men can’t teach!’ (Eric Atwell on the dangers of bias in university textbooks) and ‛Baskets behaving badly’ (Alex Dalton on how to break bad supermarket buying habits). Following the success of these shows, we’ll be partnering again with CoDI in July 2023 to host a show as part of London Data Week.
> Turing Podcast episodes published **[9]** this year, totalling 14,300 downloads
Pieces of global media coverage mentioning the Turing
## **3,948**
## **Data science and AI during the football World Cup**
During the 2022 football World Cup in Qatar, we collaborated with _The Guardian_ to analyse Twitter abuse of England players, finding that **Harry Kane was the most abused player** . The analysis, carried out by the Turing’s online safety team, followed on from our previous study of Premier League footballer abuse (see page 20).
In the run-up to the tournament, members of the Turing’s research engineering team also adapted an existing **algorithm for playing Premier League fantasy football** to predict the scorelines of World Cup matches. The algorithm and its predictions received high-profile media coverage from outlets including _**New Scientist**_ and _**MailOnline**_ . **We predicted that Brazil would win the tournament** , but they were knocked out in the quarter-finals by Croatia. The project provided an engaging way for us to create conversations around the abilities and limitations of data-driven models.
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# **Section 1.7.3** Convening academia, industry and government
**41**
## **Section 1.7.3**
## Convening academia, industry and government
that included 3D-printed plastic hearts, a digital twin of the BAE Systems Hawk jet, and an interactive shoe sketcher that provided a glimpse into the future of shopping. For the first time, we also ran an **AI UK Fringe** , with 10 events around the UK giving people a chance to be part of the AI UK buzz with local colleagues.
## **AI UK 2023**
Our **AI UK** event returned in March 2023 for a two-day national showcase of how data science and AI can be used to solve real-world challenges. This was our first in-person AI UK – over 1,300 attendees from across academia, industry and government joined us at the Queen Elizabeth II Centre in Westminster, London, for more than 30 sessions from over 150 speakers, across
three stages. All sessions were also streamed for 600 virtual attendees, making this a truly hybrid event. Popular sessions included the launch of the Turing’s new strategy, a fireside chat with outspoken AI commentator Gary Marcus about the rise of ChatGPT, and **PitchFest** – a new addition to AI UK that gave five researchers the opportunity to pitch their projects to a panel of industry judges.
**1,943 55% sessions 32 153 speakers**
## **total attendees**
**of attendees had never been to a Turing event before**
In-person attendees also had access to workshops in our pop-up Data Dome and a vibrant exhibition
Maria Delgado-Ortet won the PitchFest event at AI UK 2023 for her work at the intersection of AI and cancer research
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## **The Turing and foundation models**
This year, **the Turing announced a new stream of work focused on foundational AI** , led by our Director of Foundational AI Research, Michael Wooldridge. At the same time, foundation models have been making the leap from academia into the public consciousness, especially large language models (LLMs) such as OpenAI’s GPT-3.5, which powers ChatGPT.
Against this backdrop, we hosted a one-day symposium at IET London: Savoy Place in February 2023 to explore the **opportunities and challenges of foundation models** . A sell-out audience of 250 people watched key names in the field discuss what these models are, how they work, what they will be capable of, and what technical and ethical challenges they raise. The entire event can now be **streamed on YouTube** .
The Turing has also been providing guidance and briefings on LLMs to a range of policy advisors and senior government stakeholders. We were represented at a Cabinet Office roundtable on generative AI in March 2023, and we joined the Government Office for Science’s launch of the **Rapid Technology Assessment: Artifcial Intelligence** , where we addressed the importance of building a sovereign AI capability in foundation models.
Meanwhile, Turing researchers have been helping journalists and the public to understand the capabilities, risks and limitations of generative AI technologies such as ChatGPT. Michael Wooldridge and Ethics Research Fellow, Mhairi Aitken, have been especially active in the media, appearing in outlets including _**The Telegraph**_ , _**The Guardian**_ , _**Tonight with Andrew Marr**_ on LBC, _**The Times**_ , _**BBC Future**_ , _**New Scientist**_ , _**Cosmopolitan**_ , BBC World Service and BBC Radio 4. In February 2023, our media team also worked with the Science Media Centre to host a **joint briefng** on the topic for journalists.
As the conversation around foundation models and LLMs continues to evolve, we look forward to working with the government to help shape the UK’s approach to these rapidly emerging technologies.
Michael Wooldridge is leading our foundational AI work at the Turing
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## **Climate change white paper**
A new **Turing white paper** highlights the crucial role that data science and AI can play in tackling climate change. Published in March 2023 by our **AI for science and government** (ASG) programme, the paper provides four recommendations for how researchers and funders can better harness data science and AI to help safeguard the future of our planet. These include building robust digital pipelines to allow researchers to share, store and analyse the vast amounts of data being collected about the environment, and developing digital twins to model and understand the systems that will help us to decarbonise our society.
The paper also spotlights some of the Turing’s projects in this area, including software for automatic plankton classification, a framework for forecasting Arctic sea ice change and a model for simulating the health impacts of extreme heat (see also page 21).
## **Interest groups**
Our **interest groups** continue to foster interdisciplinary collaboration across academia, industry, government and the third sector. We now have 44 interest groups at the Turing, totalling over 5,000 members from more than 35 countries. There were **nine new groups** this year, covering topics including **space science** , **biodiversity monitoring** and **health equity** .
By bringing people together around shared passions in data science and AI, these groups are a seedbed of projects and ideas. This year, **-** for example, the **multi agent systems** interest group organised a **special issue of the** _**AI Communications**_ **journal** to showcase multiagent systems research in the UK, while the **data ethics** interest group organised an event series exploring the theme of ‘ **AI, power and public interest: who’s in control?** ’. Another highlight was the **humanities and data science** interest group’s attendance at the Digital Humanities Congress in Sheffield, where it **presented its recommendations** for how data scientists and humanities researchers can draw on each other’s expertise to drive forwards the integration of these two communities.
A new Turing white paper highlights the critical role that data science and AI can play in addressing climate change
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## **Turing-Accenture Innovation Symposium 2023**
In February 2023, with our strategic partner Accenture, we hosted our fourth **Innovation Symposium** for members of our networks to explore the data-driven technologies that are shaping the future. The event, attended by around 150 people at Kings Place, London, included talks on synthetic data generation, responsible AI, and the fight against modern slavery, as well as a demos area showcasing some of the latest AI innovations from across our partnership. We’re already planning our next Innovation Symposium for 2024.
“It was amazing to see the TuringAccenture partnership truly come to life in this showcase of cuttingedge advancements in AI, from discussions on the rise of synthetic data to the very latest innovation in digital twins.”
**Gavin Stephenson** Managing Director, Head of Data & AI, Accenture UKI
## **Turing-Roche knowledge share series**
**-** Following the launch of the Turing’s **fve year strategic partnership** with the global healthcare company Roche last year, Turing and Roche identified the need for a joint event series to showcase partnership updates and build new connections across academia and industry. The **-** result is the **Turing Roche knowledge share series** , which hosts monthly online events for members of the Turing and Roche networks, as well as anyone else who works at the intersection between health, data science and AI.
The series – which has so far been attended by more than 1,400 people – is loosely based around the partnership’s core aim of using advanced analytics to understand why diseases affect people differently and why the same treatment can affect different patients in different ways. Topics covered this year include the potential of AI to enable a new era of personalised medicine, the problem of missing data in machine learning tasks, and how to ensure that AI-assisted healthcare decisions are clear and transparent to all involved.
## **Turing Network Development Awards**
We continued to grow the UK’s data science and AI community this year through our Turing Network Development Awards (TNDAs) – grants of up to £25,000 that were awarded in 2022 to **25 universities from Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and England.** The TNDAs have provided numerous ways for the universities to build
We are convening the UK’s data science and AI community with our university partners and the recipients of our Turing Network Development Awards
relationships within the Turing’s networks across academia, business and industry, including workshops, seminars and training events.
The success of the TNDAs has led to the development of the **Turing University Network** . Announced at AI UK 2023, this will provide all UK universities with an interest in data science and AI the opportunity to engage and collaborate with the Turing and the wider data science and AI ecosystem, with the goal of creating a national network that nurtures meaningful and long-term connections. Following an open call for members, the Turing University Network will launch in October 2023.
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## **Images**
## **Page 10, 17**
The illustration was created by Scriberia for The Alan Turing Institute and is used under a CC-BY 4.0 licence
**Page 25** UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology
**Page 36** Roberto Ricciuti
**Page 39** Leeds Museums and Galleries
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## Section 2 **Trustees’ and strategic report**
The financial statements comply with the Charities Act 2011, the Companies Act 2006 and the Statement of Recommended Practice (SORP) applicable to charities preparing their accounts in accordance with the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK (FRS102) effective 1 January 2019 (Charity SORP 2nd Edition).
The Charity is registered and is a company limited by guarantee governed by its Articles of Association dated March 2015 and a Joint Venture Agreement with the Founder Members dated March 2015.
Company Number: 09512457 Charity Number: 1162533
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## **Directors/Trustees**
The Directors of the charitable company (the “ **Charity** ”), as registered at Companies House, are its Trustees for the purposes of charitable law and throughout this report are collectively referred to as the Trustees. The Trustees serving during the year and since the year end were as follows:
## **Douglas Gurr**
Chair – appointed on 1 July 2022
## **Nicola Blackwood-Bate**
**Frank Kelly**
**Key management** as at 31 March 2023
## **Executive Team**
## **Adrian Smith**
Institute Director and Chief Executive
## **Jonathan Atkins**
Chief Operating Officer
## **Mark Girolami**
Chief Scientist
## **Senior Management Team**
## **Donna Brown**
Director of Academic Engagement
## **Ian Carter**
Director of IT and Information Security
## **Allaine Cerwonka**
Director of International
## **Vanessa Forster**
General Counsel and Company Secretary
## **Nicolas Guernion**
**Richard Kenway**
## **Kerry Kirwan**
## **Vanessa Lawrence CB**
**Thomas Melham**
**Carina Namih**
**Hitesh Thakrar**
**Neil Viner**
**Patrick Wolfe**
Director of Partnerships
## **Sophie McIvor**
Director of Communications and Engagement
## **Martin O’Reilly**
Director of Research Engineering
## **Wayne Orr**
Interim Director of Finance and Facilities
## **Clare Randall**
Director of People
## **Simon Reeve**
Director of Innovation
## **Georgette Shearer**
Interim Director of Programme Management
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## **Programme Directors** as at 31 March 2023
## **George Balston**
Defence and security
## **Mark Birkin**
Urban analytics
## **Cosmina Dorobantu**
Public policy
## **Chris Holmes**
Health and medical sciences
## **Ben MacArthur**
AI for science and government and health and medical sciences
## **Helen Margetts**
Public policy
## **Jonathan Rowe**
AI for science and government and data science for science and humanities
## **Adam Sobey**
Data-centric engineering
**Lukasz Szpruch**
Finance and economics
**Sethu Vijayakumar** Artificial intelligence
## **Tim Watson**
Defence and security
**Michael Wooldridge** Foundational AI
## **Alan Wilson**
Special projects
## **Kirstie Whitaker**
Tools, practices and systems
## **Registered Office**
The British Library 96 Euston Road London, NW1 2DB
## **Auditors**
Moore Kingston Smith LLP Chartered Accountants 6th Floor 9 Appold Street London, EC2A 2AP
## **Bankers**
Barclays Bank UK PLC Leicester Leicestershire, LE87 2BB
## **Solicitors**
Bates Wells 10 Queen Street Place London, EC4R 1BE
Mills & Reeve 100 Hills Road Cambridge, CB2 1PH
Bevan Britan Kings Orchard 1 Queens Street Bristol, BS2 0HQ
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## **Structure, governance and management**
## **Our legal structure**
The Alan Turing Institute was founded in March 2015 as a registered charity (1162533) and a company limited by guarantee (09512457). The Institute is governed by its Articles of Association that were adopted on incorporation on 26 March 2015 and a Joint Venture Agreement with the Founder Members signed on 31 March 2015 (together the “ **Constitutional Documents** ”). The Constitutional Documents set out the governance of the Institute as the responsibility of the Board of Trustees with some reserved matters to the Founder Members.
## **Purpose of the Institute and main activities**
As the national institute for data science and artificial intelligence, the charitable objects of the Institute, as set out in its Articles of Association, are the furtherance of education for the public benefit, particularly through research, knowledge exchange and public engagement, in the fields of data sciences. In 2017, as a result of a government recommendation, the Institute added artificial intelligence to its remit. The Institute has power to do anything which furthers its charitable objects. Up until 2023, the Institute’s ambitions were to:
- Produce world-class research in the foundations of data science and artificial intelligence.
- Have a transformative impact on the way that data and algorithms are used in the economy, in government and in society.
- Educate and train data scientists.
With the Institute now moving forward with its new vision for the next five years – one where the Turing will be the UK’s centre for harnessing the power of data science and AI, and will make a lasting impression on the world’s most pressing societal challenges – the Institute will now pursue the following objectives:
- To transition towards a challenge-led approach to science and innovation, introducing a new focus on translating research excellence into societal impact and broader UK commercial success.
- To support our challenge-led approach by maintaining and developing the foundations of world-class data science and AI research.
- To reinforce our existing skills and training programmes and concentrate our efforts to target gaps in the talent pipeline, notably the transfer of skills across business, public sector and third sector leadership.
- To work to deliver for society by distilling fastmoving developments in data science and AI into trusted, actionable advice, thereby increasing public understanding, supporting evidence-based policymaking and enabling the use of AI and data science to improve the delivery of public service.
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The Trustees confirm that they have paid due regard to the Public Benefit Guidance published by the Charity Commission, including the guidance – public benefit: running a charity (PB2), in undertaking their activities.
## **Related parties**
The Institute’s Founder Members are the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and the Universities of Cambridge, Edinburgh, Oxford, Warwick, and University College London (UCL). The Founder Members have entered into a Joint Venture Agreement which establishes, along with the Articles, the basis on which the Institute operates.
On 1 April 2018, the Institute entered into fiveyear partnership arrangements with eight additional universities: Birmingham, Bristol, Exeter, Leeds, Manchester, Newcastle, Southampton and Queen Mary University of London. These agreements came to an end on 31 March 2023 and have been replaced by a new Turing University Network open to all UK universities. To date, 36 universities have joined the new network. The Institute has a wholly owned subsidiary: Turing Innovations Limited (10015591). Turing Innovations Limited has a minority shareholding in Quaisr Limited, a private limited company (12704209).
## **Board composition and responsibilities**
The Institute is governed by its Board of Trustees, six of whom have been appointed by the six Founder Members and five of whom are Independent Trustees. The new Chair of the Board of Trustees joined the Institute on 1 July 2022.
The Board of Trustees has been established in accordance with the terms of the Joint Venture Agreement. The Board composition is determined as follows:
- Each Founder Member may appoint one Trustee.
- Founder Members may, by a unanimous decision, select and appoint an Independent Trustee who acts as Chair of the Board and may from time to time remove such Independent Trustee by a majority decision.
- The appointed Trustees may appoint further Independent Trustees such that, so far as possible, the total number of Trustees on the Board will be an odd number.
- The Trustees appointed by the Founder Members must always form a majority of the Board and may from time to time remove and replace Independent Trustees.
## **Organisational management and responsibilities of the Board**
The Institute’s Board of Trustees is responsible for setting the aims and strategic direction of the Institute, approving key policies, monitoring risks, approving the annual budget and expenditure targets, and monitoring actual and forecast financial results.
Trustees meet formally as a Board up to five times a year. In addition, Trustees normally attend up to two strategy days with the Executive and Senior Management Team and undertake further meetings as and when needed. The Executive Team, Senior Management Team and relevant Programme Directors provide Trustees with regular reports on the Institute’s financial position, current activity, organisational news and significant issues affecting the Institute.
The Executive Team, led by the Institute Director and supported by the Senior Management Team and the Programme Directors, is responsible for the day-to-day management of the Institute’s operations and activities. The Executive Team, Senior Management Team and the Programme Directors are also responsible for implementing strategy and corporate policies and reporting on performance to the Board.
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## **Committees of the Board**
The Board is supported by three formal committees. Each committee has processes in place for managing any conflicts of interest that arise.
## **Audit and Risk Committee**
This committee is responsible for audit, finance and risk management, as well as reviewing the effectiveness of the Institute’s internal control framework and risk management process, and its compliance with reporting requirements; the committee reports to the main Board on these particulars. It monitors the work of external auditors and receives and reviews audit reports. It monitors the full external audit process and resulting financial statements, including overseeing the terms of appointment of the external auditors.
## **Membership:**
## **Neil Viner**
Chair
## **Hitesh Thakrar**
**Patrick Wolfe**
## **Stephane Maikovsky**
## **Nomination and Governance Committee**
This committee is responsible for all aspects of the appointment of new non-Founder Member Trustees to the Board of Trustees, as well as succession planning and the reviewing and monitoring of governance processes. It also has responsibility for monitoring boardroom diversity and recommending appointments within the Audit and Risk Committee and the Remuneration, EDI and People Committee in consultation with the Chairs of those committees. During early 2022, this committee led the recruitment process for the Chair of the Institute and later in the year has taken the lead on the recruitment process for the Institute Director, which is due to conclude in early 202324.
## **Membership:**
## **Vanessa Lawrence CB**
Chair
## **Nicola Blackwood-Bate**
**Richard Kenway Thomas Melham**
## **Remuneration, EDI and People Committee**
This committee advises the Board of Trustees and oversees the preparation of policies and procedures in respect of salaries, emoluments and conditions of service. In line with these approved policies and procedures, the committee approves the total remuneration package for the Chair of the Institute, the Institute Director and those senior staff reporting directly to the Institute Director. The criterion for setting pay is the market rate, taking into account industry standards.
This committee also has oversight of equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI), which has included review and challenge of the EDI Strategy and Action Plan.
## **Membership:**
**Hitesh Thakrar** Chair
**Frank Kelly**
**Richard Kenway**
**Carina Namih**
(Independent member/non-Trustee)
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## **Advisory boards**
Other advisory groups are set out below.
The Joint Venture Agreement includes the following two advisory groups:
## **Research and Innovation Advisory Committee**
This group advises the Institute Director on strategic aspects of the Institute’s research and innovation activities, including support with research and training programmes.
## **Scientific Advisory Board**
This is intended to be an independent group made up of international experts in academia, industry and government, which provides strategic advice to the Institute’s Board of Trustees and the Executive Team on the development and implementation of the scientific research strategy. This group was stood down by the Board in 2021-22, with a view to reconstitution after the new strategy was launched. This remained under review by the Board of Trustees at the end of this financial year.
Other advisory and liaison groups:
## **Strategic Partners Board**
This group is intended to advise the Board of Trustees on the content and translation of research generated at the Institute and is intended to collaborate across the Institute and its partners to identify new opportunities.
## **University Partners Board**
This group is intended to advise the Institute Director on the research direction of the Institute, the Institute’s relationship with its university partners and the higher education landscape as it relates to data science and AI. This group was stood down on 31 March 2023 as part of the move towards the national network of universities through the Turing University Network.
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## **Recruitment and appointment of Trustees**
The Nomination and Governance Committee aims to undertake an open recruitment process, recommends new candidates for appointment when necessary and ensures appropriate recruitment and succession plans are in place for Independent Trustees (i.e., nonFounder Member appointed Trustees).
During the year, a comprehensive and open recruitment process was undertaken to appoint the Chair of the Board of Trustees. This was successfully concluded with the new Chair of the Institute joining on 1 July 2022. There were no further Trustee appointments made during the 2022-23 financial year.
programme of meetings with the members of the Executive Team and relevant members of the Senior Management Team and other Trustees. New Trustees are provided with a Trustee Information Pack which includes initial information about the Institute and its work, a copy of the previous year’s Annual Report and accounts, a copy of the Institute’s Articles of Association, a copy of the Joint Venture Agreement, information about their powers as Trustees of the Institute, key corporate policies and a copy of the Charity Commission’s guidance – “The essential trustee: what you need to know”.
## **Trustee training**
During the year, the Trustees received externally facilitated training on equality, diversity and inclusion, covering aspects such as how the Board continues to take the role of leadership in this critical area to the Institute, both in the national context as well as organisationally for its people and stakeholders.
On appointment, every Trustee completes a declaration of interests form, which is held within a register of interests and is monitored and updated on a regular basis and reviewed annually. Trustee-related party transactions are disclosed in greater detail within the financial statements later in this report. All conflicts are actively managed through early identification of potential areas of conflict and appropriate action taken where necessary.
Each new Trustee undergoes a tailored induction programme, which includes a
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## **Financial review**
The Institute is funded through grants from Research Councils, Founder Members, University Partners and from strategic and other partnerships.
Income of £52.5m (2021/22: £51.1m) has been received during the year of which £30.8m was received from Research Councils (2021/22:£35m), £4m from Founding Members and University Partners (2021/22: £2.3m), £10.6m from strategic research partners and other research partnerships (2021/22: £10m), £6.9m from other trading activities and investment income (2021/22:£3.4m) and £0.2m (2021/22: £0.4m) from donations.
Of the £30.8m received from Research Councils, £28.7m was awarded by the EPSRC and includes £10m to cover core operating costs for the year 2022/23; £5m to further the Institute’s ecosystem leadership with the aim of delivering the Institute’s evolution to Turing 2.0; £1.8m to facilitate the Institute to bring disciplines together in the field of AI in net zero, AI in health and responsible; and £11.9m awarded to specific research programme activities including the Strategic Priorities Fund – AI for Science and Government.
Expenditure of £47.3m (2021/22: £39.3m) has
been incurred in the year. Grants payable to Founding Members and other University Partners represent 24% of total expenditure (2021/22: 40%). The lower proportion of expenditure payable to Founding Members and University Partners is the result of a number of one-off awards approved in 2021/22 following the one-off receipt of £10m of additional funding from EPSRC to support the Institute’s evolution to Turing 2.0.
Staff costs represent 48% (2021/22: 44%) of total expenditure, increasing from £17.3m in 2021/22 to £22.6m in 2022/23, as the Institute expands its research programme delivery and its operational areas to support delivery. The remaining 28% (2021/22: 16%) of expenditure covers support costs and other direct costs.
The Group made a surplus of £5.2m (2021/22: £11.8m). This has been transferred to reserves and will be used to fund research and Group costs during 2023/24 and beyond.
Group net assets as at 31 March 2023 are £46.3m (2022: £41.1m).
Fixed assets decreased by £0.2m. During the year, £0.6m was spent on computer equipment and £0.3m on developing our new Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) tool. The additions
were offset by £1.1m of depreciation charges in the year.
Current assets: Debtors are £10.6m (2022: £11m) and include; trade debtors of £4m (2022: £3m) and prepayments and accrued income of £6.6m (2022: £7.8m). Cash and current asset investments were £50.5m (2022: £50.5m). The high levels are largely due to the upfront nature of cash receipts on many of the Institute’s grant awards. Current asset investments include £5m held in an interest bearing 95-day notice account with Barclays, £10m held in U.K Treasury Bills and £5m invested in a Certificate of Deposit.
Creditors: amounts falling due within one year are £16.2m (2022: £22.1m). Grant creditors were £7.5m lower than last year, driven by the conclusion of the Turing 2.0 funded projects and the two Strategic Priorities Fund Programmes (AI for Science and Government and Living with Machines). Accruals and deferred income were £1.3m higher than last year due to a £1.4m increase of project funding received in the current year but deferred, and a decrease of £0.1m of accrued project expenditure. Trade creditors and other creditors are £0.3m higher than last year.
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## **Going concern**
The Trustees have assessed whether the use of going concern basis is appropriate and have considered possible events or conditions that might cast significant doubt on the ability of the charitable company to continue as a going concern. The Trustees have made this assessment for a period of at least one year from the date of the approval of these financial statements.
In particular, the Trustees have considered the charitable company’s forecasts and projections and have taken account of pressures on income. After making enquiries, the Trustees have concluded that there is a reasonable expectation that the charitable company has adequate resources to continue in operational existence as set out below.
The charitable company therefore continues to adopt the going concern basis in preparing its financial statements.
## **Fundraising**
The Institute does not engage in fundraising activities with the general public. Costs of raising funds in the financial statements relate to sourcing of new institutional funders.
The Institute does not use third parties to assist with fundraising and the Institute received no complaints in this year regarding its fundraising practices.
## **Treasury Management Policy**
Treasury management activity monitors the timing and amounts of cash inflows and outflows, in particular monitoring and tracking those activities that result in significant cash movement.
The Treasury Management Policy is confined to the management of short- to medium-term liquid funds (maximum investment term is 18 months).
Assets are protected by investing with approved counterparties. Investments are riskaverse and non-speculative, and the Institute places no income reliance on interest earned.
## **Grant-making policy**
The Institute’s grants will be subject to outputs being appropriately recorded and assessed.
Data held will be in line with the grant guideline requirements issued by UKRI.
Fundamental principles have been established and adopted by the Institute. These are as
## follows:
- The Institute will award grants that are in line with the charitable objects of the organisation.
- The Institute intends to assess grants biannually to ensure compliance with the terms of the grant.
- The Institute expects to assess the progress of each grant within three months of the end of the grant period.
## **Reserves policy**
The Charity reviews its unrestricted reserves policy each year, taking account of its planned activities and the financial requirements for the forthcoming period. The Trustees believe that the Institute should have access to reserves appropriate to the scale, complexity and risk profile of the Institute.
To cover any shortfall in grants and to maintain the financial viability of the Institute, reserves are currently set at the equivalent of a minimum 6 months of anticipated operating costs which amounts to approximately £10.3m as at 31 March 2023.
In November 2019 an award of £10m was made by EPSRC to cover core operating costs for the years 2020/21 to 2021/22. Additionally, EPSRC
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meets the annual rental costs for leasehold space occupied by the Institute in The British Library’s St. Pancras building. Following a reconciliation of the initial five-year award made to the Institute by EPSRC in 2016, additional funding was also received.
The Charity’s unrestricted Fund as at 31 March 2023 was £34.1m (2022: £30.5m). This includes £5.3m (2022: £0.9m) of funding held to cover future years’ financial commitments (The operating lease expired on 26 March 2023 and negotiations for the lease renewal are ongoing and are expected to be concluded post yearend); £1.1m (2022: £nil) of funding held to cover capital commitments contracted and capital commitments authorised but not contracted.
Included in general reserves are the following designated funds: £1m to support the AI for science and government programme (2022: £1m); £1.2m (2022: £1.5m) for the Institute’s safe and ethical AI programme; £1.5m (2002: £nil) to support project initiatives under the Ecosystem Leadership Award and Technologies Mission Fund; and £9.9m (2022:£nil) Out of Budget Fund who’s purpose
is to fund project activities that will allow the Institute to progress it’s Turing 2.0 vision. This leaves £14.1m of free reserves (2022: £25.1m). The amount in excess of that called for in our reserves policy (as stated above) will be made available for investment in future research.
As at 31 March 2023, the Institute holds £10.2m (2022: £10.2m) of restricted reserves.
## **Remuneration policy**
The Institute is committed to ensuring a proper balance between paying staff (and others who work for the Institute) fairly to attract and retain the best people for the job with the careful financial management of our charity funds. The Remuneration, EDI and People Committee oversees the overall remuneration of staff and specifically that of the Institute Director and those senior managers reporting directly to the Institute Director. The Remuneration, EDI and People Committee assumes the responsibilities of remuneration within the Institute and oversees the preparation of policies and procedures in respect of salaries, emoluments and conditions of service.
Formal consideration of remuneration matters takes place annually, usually at the committee’s March meeting. However, remuneration matters may also be considered at other meetings if ad hoc issues arise during the year.
Depending on the policies of the Board, the committee does not have full delegated authority to approve all matters relating to remuneration, and any recommendation or decision requiring such approval must be ratified by the Board of Trustees.
The Institute discloses all payments to Trustees and the number of staff with a total remuneration of £60,000 and above, in accordance with the Charity Commission’s Statement of Recommended Practice 2019 (SORP).
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## **Streamlined Energy and Carbon Reporting (SECR)**
Annual energy usage and associated annual greenhouse gas emissions are reported pursuant to the Companies (Directors’ Report) and Limited Liability Partnerships (Energy and Carbon Report) Regulations 2018 that came into force on 1 April 2019.
The energy use and associated greenhouse gas emissions reported in the table below are for The British Library’s St. Pancras building, in which the Institute occupies 2,305 square meters of space out of a building total of 128,125 square meters. It is not possible to disaggregate our energy usage and emissions from that of the whole building.
The annual reporting period is 1 April to 31 March each year and the energy and carbon emissions are aligned to this period. The electricity and gas consumption figures were compiled by The British Library from invoice records. Emissions per square meter floor area is reported to reflect the energy efficiency of the building.
## Breakdown of energy consumption used to calculate emissions (kWh):
|**Energy**|**2023**|2022|2021|
|---|---|---|---|
|Gas|**5,091,507**|5,257,272|4,233,045|
|Purchased electricity|**14,729,298**|13,070,918|12,289,327|
|**Total energy**|**19,820,805**|18,328,190|16,522,372|
## Breakdown of emissions associated with the reported energy use (tCO2e):
|**Emission source**|**2023**|2022|2021|
|---|---|---|---|
|Scope 1||||
|Gas|**929.4**|962.9|**778.3**|
|Scope 2:||||
|Purchased
electricity|**2,848.4**|2,775.4|2,865.1|
|**Total gross**
**emissions**|**3,777.75**|3,738.3|3,643.4|
|Intensity ratio||||
|**Tonnes of CO2e**||||
|**per square metre**
**foor area**|**0.029**|0.029|0.028|
## **Reasonable adjustments policy**
During the year, the Institute maintained its policy of giving full and fair consideration to applications for employment made by disabled people. The Institute is committed to continuing employment and training of employees who become disabled and to the training, career development and promotion of all employees.
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## **Risk management**
Significant risks to which the Institute and Turing Innovations Limited are exposed are reported formally to the Audit and Risk Committee and the Board of Trustees via the Institute’s corporate risk register.
The Institute has a formal risk management framework, reviewed by the Board during the year, which is embedded within the business and supports the identification and management of risk across the Institute. The Senior Management Team and the Programme Directors are responsible for managing and reporting risks in accordance with the Institute’s risk management policy, while the Trustees retain overall responsibility for risk management.
The risk management framework incorporates categories of risk which cover generic areas such as funding and growth, compliance and governance, security and controls, and brand and reputation. The Board of Trustees seeks to ensure that the risks are mitigated, so far as is reasonably possible, by actions taken by the Institute’s Executive Team, Senior Management Team and the Programme Directors.
The main risks faced by the Institute are captured on the corporate risk register, which is regularly reviewed by the Board and the Audit and Risk Committee. A summary of the key risks is included opposite.
## **Risk description**
## **Risk mitigation**
Prudent financial management of the Institute such that it can react to changes in external funding in an agile, controlled manner. Continue to review options for additional sources of funding including the Quinquennial Review (QQR) process due to be concluded during 2023-24.
Sources of funding for the Institute continued to be under review during the year.
Failure to comply with legal and Continuing focus on improving charity commission requirements the control environment during such as data protection, serious the year with policies, procedures incident reporting, National and guidance documents Security and Investments Act updated and introduced. (NS&I) and export regulations.
Loss of, or inappropriate handling of, the Institute’s data.
Implementing robust security processes, both physical and virtual.
AI applications developed by or in partnership with the Institute being used for malicious or unintended purposes.
Monitoring and updating ethics processes, ensuring they remain fit for purpose and adequately resourced. This included the launch of a new research ethics process during the year.
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## **Section 172 Statement**
The Board of Trustees are aware of their duty under s.172 of the Companies Act 2006 to act in the way which they consider, in good faith, would be most likely to promote the success of the Institute for the benefit of its members as a whole.
In this section, you will find examples of how we have considered our stakeholders when making decisions during the year. The Board has a duty to promote the success of the Institute for the benefit of the members, whilst also having due regard for the interests of our colleagues, the success of our relationships with suppliers and customers, and the impact of our activities on the wider community. The considerations of our stakeholder groups are integral to our decision making. However, where decisions taken may adversely impact a particular stakeholder group, we will always endeavour to treat them fairly.
## **1. Members**
**Board considerations** All Board decisions are made to further the success of the Institute for the longterm benefit of its members and stakeholders. **Annual report and accounts** Whilst we have statutory obligations to provide certain information in our annual report, we try to present this in an engaging and understandable way. We also look to enhance our sharing of information during the year through the content made available on the Institute’s website.
## **Founder Member approvals**
During the year, the member representatives were asked to approve certain matters which were reserved for them, as covered in the constitutional documents.
In addition, consideration is currently being given to potential amendments to the constitutional documents as part of the regular review of governance arrangements undertaken by the Board of Trustees.
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## **2. Colleagues**
|**Board considerations**|The Trustees receive regular qualitative and quantitative updates on employee matters from the People Director, who attends Board and
Remuneration, EDI and People Committee meetings, including analysis received through employee engagement surveys, regular EDI
updates and an annual update on the performance review and performance related pay process. This provides the Board with oversight
of the efects our people engagement has on our performance and the continued strength of our culture. In addition, the committees
also received various reports during the year relating to the wellbeing of our colleagues, such as the annual reports on health and safety
and data protection reviewed by the Audit and Risk Committee and the annual report on equality, diversity and inclusion reviewed by the
Remuneration, EDI and People Committee.|
|---|---|
|**Town Hall**|Enhancing employee engagement is an integral part of the culture of the Institute. Senior management are actively involved in the|
||engagement of colleagues through regular email communication, monthly Turing Catch Ups and quarterly Town Hall meetings that involve|
||employees and full-time members of the wider Turing community, to provide updates on business and strategic developments.|
|**Equality, diversity and**|The Institute recognises that promoting and embedding EDI in our function as employer, research institute and national body is integral|
|**inclusion (EDI)**|to achieving our mission. The ownership for delivery of the EDI strategy and action plan resides with the Senior Management Team, with|
||the Remuneration, EDI and People Committee providing oversight and holding the Institute to account for delivery of performance against
the plan. Examples of outputs from the Board in the last fnancial year include the Remuneration, EDI and People Committee receiving
the second annual report on EDI and the Institute’s frst Gender Pay Gap Report, as well as a focused session for the Board of Trustees on|
||diversity and inclusion in data science and AI. Further information on the wider EDI activity at the Institute is available in section 1.|
|**Hybrid working survey**|During the year, the Institute undertook a pilot exercise to consider working practices and whether a hybrid working model is efective for|
||its employees. The response to the pilot was very positive and the Institute is now in the process of implementing changes to terms and|
||conditions to embed the hybrid working practices for its employees from the pilot exercise.|
|**Employee remuneration and**|The Remuneration, EDI and People Committee agreed to implement a cost of living increase for all employees of 5%, to be efective from 1|
|**recruitment**|April 2023.|
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## **3. Customers and suppliers**
**----- Start of picture text -----**
Board considerations The Trustees recognise the existence of key external stakeholders both nationally and internationally (general public, Founding Members,
university partners, strategic and commercial partners, government agencies, public health bodies, charitable foundations, customers and
suppliers).
The Trustees remain committed to effective engagement of all stakeholders and are mindful that the Institute’s success depends on its ability
to engage effectively, work together constructively and to take stakeholder views into account when taking decisions.
**----- End of picture text -----**
|**Trusted research status**|The Institute is unique in having the capability to convene the data science community both nationally and internationally. Over the last few|The Institute is unique in having the capability to convene the data science community both nationally and internationally. Over the last few||
|---|---|---|---|
|**with national and**|years, there have been a variety of successes, ranging from the genesis of a new discipline (data-centric engineering) to the formation of|||
|**international**|strong bonds with the UK Government defence and security community. This includes the intelligence agencies, such as MI5, who during the|||
|**convening power**|year broke precedent to announce a public partnership with the Institute.|||
|**Training and skills**|The Institute has continued to improve its training and skills development opportunities. Examples from the year include:|||
|**development**|**–** Turing Connections, which creates and signposts data science and artifcial intelligence opportunities relevant to PhD students.|||
||**–** Learning at the Turing programme: a portfolio of learning materials and activities where anyone with an interest in data science and AI can|||
|||take part in events and courses, as well as contribute to and reuse existing training materials.||
||**–** Continuing to deliver award winning Data Study Groups, which bring together industry, government and the third sector with researchers|||
|||from academia to consider data science solutions for real world problems.||
||**–** Working with the Alliance for Data Science Professionals to defne and deliver standards of professional competence for data science.|||
||The Institute has identifed skills development as a key deliverable of the organisation’s new strategy and as part of its ongoing remit as a|||
||national institute.|||
**London Universities Purchasing Consortium (LUPC)**
In 2020, the Institute became a member of the consortium, whose aim is to achieve value for money for its members in their procurement of goods and services.
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## **3. Customers and suppliers** (continued).
## **Stakeholder liaison meetings**
During the year, the Institute worked closely with its customer stakeholder groups across academia, industry and government, including: **–** University Partner Board meetings.
- Strategic Partner Board meetings.
- Regular meetings with UKRI/EPSRC.
- Regular engagement with universities through our University Liaison Managers.
- Hosting the third annual AI UK showcase.
- Regular liaison with the member representatives.
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## **4. Community and environment**
**Board considerations** The Trustees fully appreciate the impact the Institute has on the community in which it operates and that this is a critical factor in its ongoing success as the national institute for data science and AI.
**Leading the public** The Institute’s Communications and Engagement programme is one way the Institute leads the public conversation on data science and AI. **conversation** Examples include: **–** The third annual AI UK event, hosted by the Institute in March 2023.
**–** The Turing Lecture series. **–** The Living with Machines exhibition at Leeds City Museum.
**–** The #TalkDataToMe video series.
**–** Providing expert commentary on ChatGPT and other forms of generative AI.
**Community collaboration** One of the Institute’s key contributions is bringing together experts with a range of skills and from an extensive range of disciplines – from the social sciences to theoretical mathematics – to tackle problems collaboratively.
This can be evidenced by a number of events, such as the exploring foundation models events and the setting up of new interest groups; but it is best represented through the third annual AI UK event, which involved 1,343 attendees in person and a further 600 online in March 2023.
**Links to industry** The Institute has a wide variety of active collaborations with organisations in industry, the third sector and government, eight of which are strategic partners – Accenture, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, UK Defence and Security (including GCHQ, Dstl and the Ministry of Defence), Lloyd’s Register Foundation, Hoffman La-Roche, Office for National Statistics (ONS), NATS (formerly National Air Traffic Services) and the Singapore Defence and Security Organisation – which are aligned to the Institute’s charitable objects and research programmes. There are typically around 50 partnerships running from the Institute at any one time, including strategic partnerships and collaborative research project partnerships.
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## **4. Community and environment** (continued).
**Ethical and safe use of digital technology**
- The Institute has made a key contribution through leading the national and global conversation on the ethical, fair and safe use of digital technologies. For example, during the year this has included activities such as:
- The creation and launch of the AI Standards Hub, which is dedicated to the sharing of knowledge and research around AI standards. This formed a part of the Government’s National AI Strategy.
- The introduction of the Centre for Emerging Technology and Security (CETaS), which is a non-profit, non-political research centre based at the Institute, set up to inform UK security policy through evidence-based, interdisciplinary research on emerging technology issues.
- Appointment of David Leslie, Turing Theme Director of Ethics and Responsible Innovation Research, as a Specialist Advisor to the Council of Europe’s Committee on AI.
- Introduction of the Turing Research Ethics process, designed to help mitigate the ethical risks of research projects where the Institute is involved.
- The Turing Way – the online handbook for reproducible, ethical and collaborative data science, which is in its fourth year of use.
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## **5. Principal decisions**
Principal decisions are those which are material to the Institute and significant to any of our key stakeholders. In making the following principal decisions, the Board considered the outcome from its stakeholder engagement perspective as well as the need to act fairly between the members of the Institute.
## **Principal decision 1: Appointed the Chair of the Board of Trustees**
In July 2022, the new Chair of the Board of Trustees, Dr Doug Gurr, joined the Institute after an open and transparent global recruitment process.
## **Principal decision 2: Strategy**
The Board of Directors approved the new five-year strategy, which was subsequently published at the AI UK Event in March 2023 after a period of consultation with the Institute’s stakeholders.
## **Principal decision 3: Review of Constitutional Documents**
During the year, the Board of Trustees undertook a review of the Constitutional Documents (made up of The Alan Turing Institute Articles of Association and the Joint Venture Agreement between the Founder Members and the Institute). This resulted in proposed changes to deliver the effective governance structures necessary to support the new strategy. The proposals are currently being consulted on with the Founder Members, as required by the Constitutional Documents.
## **Principal decision 4: Turing University Network**
During the year, the Board of Trustees approved the introduction of the new national network for UK universities to collaborate with the Institute, to be known as the Turing University Network. This was approved for launch in April 2023, with the University Partners Board stood down as an advisory group to the Board at the same time.
## **Principal decision 5: British Library premises**
The Board agreed to renew the lease arrangements for the 1[st] , 2[nd] and 4[th] floors of the British Library building in King’s Cross.
## **Principal decision 6: Improvements to the control environment**
During the year, the Board, its sub-committees and the subsidiary company, Turing Innovations Limited, instigated improvements to the control environment through reviewing, updating and approving key corporate policies and controls. This included the equality, diversity and inclusion, fixed assets and treasury management policies, the business continuity plan, the appointment of King and Shaxson as investment advisors, the introduction of an international opportunity assessment framework and the public release of the Turing Data Safe Haven.
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## (the “Code”) **Charity Governance Code**
The Code has been developed as an aspirational model to support continuous improvement in governance. The Trustees confirmed in 2019-20 their support for the principles-based approach of the Code, agreeing to undertake an annual internal review of governance practice at the Institute.
The internal review of governance for 2022-23, which considered current practice, concluded that there had been improvements made during the year in areas identified in the previous year’s review. These included the implementation of the new strategy, updating of Board member induction and appraisal processes, and updates to corporate policies such as the equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) policy.
Relevant areas of particular focus this year have included:
## **Strategy**
The Board of Trustees approved the new strategy during the year, after an extensive and wide-ranging consultation with stakeholders.
## **Sustainable long-term funding – Quinquennial Review (QQR)**
The Institute has been involved in preparation for a Quinquennial Review with EPSRC to assess whether the strategy and plans for the next five years meet UKRI funding requirements. This process is expected to conclude in 2023-24.
## **Equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI)**
The Institute recognises that promoting and embedding EDI in our function as employer, research institute and national body is integral to achieving our mission. The ownership for delivery of the EDI strategy and action plan resides with the Senior Management Team, with the Remuneration, EDI and People Committee providing oversight and holding the
Institute to account for delivery of performance against the plan. Examples of outputs from the Board in the last financial year include the Remuneration, EDI and People Committee receiving the second annual report on EDI and the Institute’s first Gender Pay Gap Report, as well as a focused session for the Board of Trustees on diversity and inclusion in data science and AI.
## **Internal controls:**
The Trustees have overseen the
implementation and updating of key corporate policies that have strengthened the control environment of the Institute during the year. These have included equality, diversity and inclusion, fixed assets and treasury management, among others. In addition to the policies, there have been other internal controls implemented, such as the business continuity plan and the international opportunity assessment framework, among others.
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## **Areas of focus for 2023-24**
Having undertaken the annual review of the Institute’s governance practices, when compared with the best practice recommendations of the Code, the Board acknowledges the need to focus on delivering continuous improvements and embedding the good practice that has been put in place during this year. Examples of the activities to be focused on during 2023-24 include:
- Appointing the new Chief Executive Officer of the Institute.
- Introducing the operational and transformation plan which will enable the delivery of the strategy, including operational Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), with regular monitoring reports for the Board.
- Delivering the outcomes from the review of the Constitutional Documents, including any related changes to corporate governance policies, procedures and guidance.
- Concluding the Quinquennial Review (QQR) and business case process for the provision of longer-term sustainable funding required to support delivery of the strategy.
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## **Trustees’ responsibilities statement**
The Trustees are responsible for preparing the Trustees’ annual report and financial statements, in accordance with applicable law and regulations.
Company law requires the Trustees to prepare financial statements for each financial year. Under that law, the Trustees have elected to prepare the financial statements in accordance with United Kingdom Accounting Standards (United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice, GAAP), including FRS 102 – the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Ireland. Under company law, the Trustees must not approve the financial statements unless they are satisfied that they give a true and fair view of the state of affairs of the Institute and the result for that year.
In preparing these financial statements, the Trustees are required to:
- Select suitable accounting policies and then apply them consistently.
- Comply with applicable accounting standards, including FRS 102, subject to any material departures disclosed and explained in the financial statements.
- State whether a Statement of Recommended Practice (SORP) applies and has been followed, subject to any material departures which are explained in the financial statements.
- Make judgements and estimates that are reasonable and prudent.
- Prepare the financial statements on a going concern basis, unless it is inappropriate to presume that the charitable company will continue in business.
- The Trustees are responsible for keeping adequate accounting records that are sufficient to show and explain the Institute’s transactions, disclose with reasonable accuracy at any time the financial position of the Institute and enable them to ensure that the financial statements comply with the Companies Act 2006.
They are also responsible for safeguarding the assets of the Institute and hence for taking reasonable steps for the prevention and detection of fraud and other irregularities.
Trustees are responsible for the maintenance and integrity of the corporate and financial information included on the Institute’s website.
Legislation in the UK governing the preparation and dissemination of financial statements may differ from legislation in other jurisdictions.
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## **Disclosure of information to the auditor**
The Trustees who held office at the date of approval of this Trustees’ annual report confirm that, so far as they are each aware, there is no relevant audit information of which the Institute’s auditor is unaware.
Each Trustee has taken all the steps that they ought to have taken as a Trustee to make themselves aware of any relevant information and to establish that the Institute’s auditor is aware of that information.
## **Signatory**
The Trustees’ annual report is approved by the Trustees of the Institute. The strategic report, which forms part of the annual report, is approved by the Trustees in their capacity as directors in company law of the Institute.
**Douglas Gurr** Chair of the Board of Trustees 21 June 2023
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Section 3
Financial statements
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**Independent auditor’s report to the members of The Alan Turing Institute**
**Opinion** We have audited the financial statements of The Alan Turing Institute for the year ended 31 March 2023 which comprise the Group Statement of Financial Activities, the Group and Parent Charitable Company Balance Sheets, the Group Cash Flow Statement and notes to the financial statements, including significant accounting policies. The financial reporting framework that has been applied in their preparation is applicable law and United Kingdom Accounting Standards, including Financial Reporting Standard 102 The Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice).
- In our opinion the financial statements: — give a true and fair view of the state of the group’s and
- the parent charitable company’s affairs as at 31 March 2023 and of the group’s incoming resources and application of resources, including its income and expenditure, for the year then ended;
- — have been properly prepared in accordance with United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice; and
- — have been prepared in accordance with the requirements of the Companies Act 2006.
## **Basis for opinion**
We conducted our audit in accordance with International Standards on Auditing (UK) (ISAs(UK)) and applicable law. Our responsibilities under those standards are further described in the Auditor’s Responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements section of our report. We are independent of the charitable company in accordance with the ethical requirements that are relevant to our audit of the financial statements in the UK, including the FRC’s Ethical Standard, and we have fulfilled our other ethical responsibilities in accordance with these requirements. We believe that the audit evidence we have obtained is sufficient and appropriate to provide a basis for our opinion. **Conclusions relating to going concern** In auditing the financial statements, we have concluded that the trustees’ use of the going concern basis of accounting in the preparation of the financial statements is appropriate. Based on the work we have performed, we have not identified any material uncertainties relating to events or conditions that, individually or collectively, may cast significant doubt on the charitable company’s ability to continue as a going concern for a period of at least twelve months from when the financial statements are authorised for issue.
Our responsibilities and the responsibilities of the trustees with respect to going concern are described in the relevant sections of this report.
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- **Independent auditor’s report to the members of The Alan Turing Institute**
## **Other information**
The other information comprises the information included in the annual report, other than the financial statements and our auditor’s report thereon. The trustees are responsible for the other information. Our opinion on the financial statements does not cover the other information and, except to the extent otherwise explicitly stated in our report, we do not express any form of assurance conclusion thereon.
In connection with our audit of the financial statements, our responsibility is to read the other information and, in doing so, consider whether the other information is materially inconsistent with the financial statements or our knowledge obtained in the audit or otherwise appears to be materially misstated. If we identify such material inconsistencies or apparent material misstatements, we are required to determine whether there is a material misstatement in the financial statements or a material misstatement of the other information. If, based on the work we have performed, we conclude that there is a material misstatement of this other information, we are required to report that fact.
**Opinions on other matters prescribed by the Companies Act 2006** In our opinion, based on the work undertaken in the course of the audit:
- the information given in the strategic report and the trustees’ annual report for the financial year for which the financial statements are prepared is consistent with the financial statements; and
- — the strategic report and the Trustees’ annual report have been prepared in accordance with applicable legal requirements
**Matters on which we are required to report by exception** In the light of the knowledge and understanding of the group and parent charitable company and its environment obtained in the course of the audit, we have not identified material misstatements in the strategic report or the trustees’ annual report.
- We have nothing to report in respect of the following matters where the Companies Act 2006 requires us to report to you if, in our opinion: — the parent charitable company has not kept adequate
- and sufficient accounting records, or returns adequate for our audit have not been received from branches not visited by us; or
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- **Independent auditor’s report to the members of The Alan Turing Institute**
**Matters on which we are required to report by exception** (continued)
- the parent charitable company’s financial statements are not in agreement with the accounting records and returns; or
- — certain disclosures of trustees’ remuneration specified by law are not made; or
- — we have not received all the information and explanations we require for our audit.
**Responsibilities of Trustees** As explained more fully in the trustees’ responsibilities statement set out on page 69, the trustees (who are also the directors of the charitable company for the purposes of company law) are responsible for the preparation of the financial statements and for being satisfied that they give a true and fair view, and for such internal control as the trustees determine is necessary to enable the preparation of financial statements that are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error. In preparing the financial statements, the trustees are responsible for assessing the group and parent charitable company’s ability to continue as a going concern, disclosing, as applicable, matters related to going concern and using the going concern basis of accounting unless the trustees either intend to liquidate the group or parent charitable company or to cease operations, or have no realistic alternative but to do so.
**Auditor’s responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements** Our objectives are to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements as a whole are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error, and to issue an auditor’s report that includes our opinion. Reasonable assurance is a high level of assurance, but is not a guarantee that an audit conducted in accordance with ISAs (UK) will always detect a material misstatement when it exists. Misstatements can arise from fraud or error and are considered material if, individually or in aggregate, they could reasonably be expected to influence the economic decisions of users taken on the basis of these financial statements. As part of an audit in accordance with ISAs (UK) we exercise professional judgement and maintain professional scepticism throughout the audit. We also:
— Identify and assess the risks of material misstatement of the financial statements, whether due to fraud or error, design and perform audit procedures responsive to those risks, and obtain audit evidence that is sufficient and appropriate to provide a basis for our opinion. The risk of not detecting a material misstatement resulting from fraud is higher than for one resulting from error, as fraud may involve collusion, forgery, intentional omissions, misrepresentations, or the override of internal control.
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- **Independent auditor’s report to the members of The Alan Turing Institute**
**Auditor’s responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements** (continued)
- Obtain an understanding of internal control relevant to
the audit in order to design audit procedures that are appropriate in the circumstances, but not for the purposes of expressing an opinion on the effectiveness of the group and parent charitable company’s internal control. — Evaluate the appropriateness of accounting policies used and the reasonableness of accounting estimates and related disclosures made by the trustees. — Conclude on the appropriateness of the trustees’ use of the going concern basis of accounting and, based on the audit evidence obtained, whether a material uncertainty exists related to events or conditions that may cast significant doubt on the group and parent charitable company’s ability to continue as a going concern. If we conclude that a material uncertainty exists, we are required to draw attention in our auditor’s report to the related disclosures in the financial statements or, if such disclosures are inadequate, to modify our opinion. Our conclusions are based on the audit evidence obtained up to the date of our auditor’s report. However, future events or conditions may cause the group or parent charitable company to cease to continue as a going concern. — Evaluate the overall presentation, structure and content of the financial statements, including the disclosures, and whether the financial statements represent the underlying transactions and events in a manner that achieves fair presentation.
— Obtain sufficient appropriate audit evidence regarding the financial information of the entities or business activities within the group to express an opinion on the consolidated financial statements. We are responsible for the direction, supervision and performance of the group audit. We remain solely responsible for our audit report. We communicate with those charged with governance regarding, among other matters, the planned scope and timing of the audit and significant audit findings, including any significant deficiencies in internal control that we identify during our audit.
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- **Independent auditor’s report to the members of The Alan Turing Institute**
**Explanation as to what extent the audit was considered capable of detecting irregularities, including fraud** Irregularities, including fraud, are instances of noncompliance with laws and regulations. We design procedures in line with our responsibilities, outlined above, to detect material misstatements in respect of irregularities, including fraud. The extent to which our procedures are capable of detecting irregularities, including fraud is detailed below.
The objectives of our audit in respect of fraud, are; to identify and assess the risks of material misstatement of the financial statements due to fraud; to obtain sufficient appropriate audit evidence regarding the assessed risks of material misstatement due to fraud, through designing and implementing appropriate responses to those assessed risks; and to respond appropriately to instances of fraud or suspected fraud identified during the audit. However, the primary responsibility for the prevention and detection of fraud rests with both management and those charged with governance of the charitable company.
Our approach was as follows:
- We obtained an understanding of the legal and
regulatory requirements applicable to the charitable company and considered that the most significant are the Companies Act 2006, the Charities Act 2011, the Charity SORP, and UK financial reporting standards as issued by the Financial Reporting Council. We obtained an understanding of how the charitable company complies with these requirements by discussions with management and those charged with governance.
- We obtained an understanding of how the charitable
— We assessed the risk of material misstatement of the financial statements, including the risk of material misstatement due to fraud and how it might occur, by holding discussions with management and those charged with governance. — We inquired of management and those charged with governance as to any known instances of noncompliance or suspected non-compliance with laws and regulations. — Based on this understanding, we designed specific appropriate audit procedures to identify instances of non-compliance with laws and regulations. This included making enquiries of management and those charged with governance and obtaining additional corroborative evidence as required. There are inherent limitations in the audit procedures described above. We are less likely to become aware of instances of non-compliance with laws and regulations that are not closely related to events and transactions reflected in the financial statements. Also, the risk of not detecting a material misstatement due to fraud is higher than the risk of not detecting one resulting from error, as fraud may involve deliberate concealment by, for example, forgery or intentional misrepresentations, or through collusion.
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**Independent auditor’s report to the members of The Alan Turing Institute**
**Use of our report** This report is made solely to the charitable company’s members, as a body, in accordance with Chapter 3 of Part 16 of the Companies Act 2006. Our audit work has been undertaken so that we might state to the charitable company’s members those matters which we are required to state to them in an auditor’s report and for no other purpose. To the fullest extent permitted by law, we do not accept or assume responsibility to any party other than the charitable company and charitable company’s members as a body, for our audit work, for this report, or for the opinions we have formed.
**Adam Fullerton** Senior Statutory Auditor For and on behalf of: Moore Kingston Smith LLP Statutory Auditor 23 June 2023
6th Floor 9 Appold Street London, EC2A 2AP
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**Consolidated statement of financial activities** Incorporating an income and expenditure account. For the year ended 31 March 2023.
**2023 2023 2023 2022 General Restricted Total Total Note Funds Funds Funds Funds £ £ £ £ Income and endowments** Donations 2 200,400 41,594 241,994 387,216 - Other trading activities 6,504,411 6,504,411 3,386,436 Investment income 343,319 - 343,319 15,853 Charitable activities Grant income 3 17,204,900 28,159,687 45,364,587 47,282,196 **Total income 24,253,030 28,201,281 52,454,311 51,071,701 Expenditure** 4 - Raising funds 708,186 708,186 477,965 Charitable activities Education and research 5 13,487,018 33,074,297 46,561,315 38,835,469 **Total expenditure 14,195,204 33,074,297 47,269,501 39,313,434**
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**Consolidated statement of financial activities** Incorporating an income and expenditure account. For the year ended 31 March 2023.
**2023 2023 2023 2022 General Restricted Total Total Note Funds Funds Funds Funds £ £ £ £** Net income for the year 10,057,826 (4,873,016) 5,184,810 11,758,267 before transfers 8 Transfers between funds 20 (4,919,763) 4,919,763 **Net movement in funds 5,138,063 46,747 5,184,810 11,758,267** Reconciliation of Funds Balance brought forward 30,927,610 10,176,347 41,103,957 29,345,690 at 1 April 2022 **20-21 at 31 March 2023 36,065,673 10,223,094 46,288,767 41,103,957**
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- **Balance sheet — Group and charity** At 31 March 2023
**Group Group Charity Charity Note 2023 2022 2023 2022 £ £ £ £ Fixed Assets** Tangible assets 13 1,221,661 1,669,311 1,221,664 1,669,314 14 - - Intangible assets 269,306 269,306 Investments 15 - - 1 1 **1,490,967 1,669,311 1,490,971 1,669,315 Current Assets** Debtors 16 10,549,006 11,008,732 8,141,226 9,527,464 Investments 17 20,000,000 5,000,000 20,000,000 5,000,000 Cash at bank and in hand 30,451,006 45,533,433 29,335,459 45,401,894 **61,000,012 61,542,165 57,476,685 59,929,358 Creditors: Amounts falling due** 18 within one year (16,182,757) (22,081,761) (14,628,381) (20,927,233) **Net Current Assets 44,817,255 39,460,404 42,848,304 39,002,126**
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At 31 March 2023 These financial statements consolidate the results of the Charity and Turing Innovations Limited, its wholly owned trading subsidiary on a line by line basis. A separate Statement of Financial Activities and Income and Expenditure Account are not presented for the Charity itself as the Charity has taken advantage of the exemptions afforded by section 408 of the Companies Act 2006. The net income of the charity was £3,674,138 (2022: £11,342,627) The notes on pages 83 to 125 form part of these financial statements.
**Group Group Charity Charity Note 2023 2022 2023 2022 £ £ £ £ Creditors: Amounts falling due** 19 in more than one year (19,455) (25,758) (19,455) (25,758) **Net Assets 46,288,767 41,103,957 44,319,820 40,645,682 Funds** Restricted funds 21 10,223,094 10,176,347 10,223,094 10,176,347 Unrestricted funds - Designated funds 20 13,520,030 4,434,991 13,520,030 4,434,991 - General funds 20 22,545,643 26,492,619 20,576,696 26,034,344 **Total Funds 21 46,288,767 41,103,957 44,319,820 40,645,682** The financial statements of The Alan Turing Institute were approved and authorised for issue by the Board of Trustees on 21 June 2023 and signed on its behalf by:
**Douglas Gurr** Chair of the Board of Trustees
**The Alan Turing Institute** Company number – 09512457
21 June 2023
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**Consolidated statement of cash flows** For the year ended 31 March 2023 **2023 2022 £ £ Cash flows from operating activities** Net income for the year 5,184,810 11,758,267 Adjustments for: Depreciation of tangible 1,056,051 739,032 fixed assets Amortisation of intangible - 4,200 fixed assets Interest received (343,319) (15,853) Loss on disposal of tangible 9,505 20,705 fixed assets Decrease/(increase) in 459,726 (3,149,041) debtors (Decrease) in creditors (5,905,307) (5,740,838) (Increase) in current asset (15,000,000) (5,000,000) investments **Net cash generated by (14,538,534) (1,383,528) operating activities**
**2023 2022 £ £ Cash flows from investing activities** Purchase of tangible fixed (626,044) (1,611,329) assets Purchase of intangible fixed - (264,956) assets - Proceeds on sale of assets 3,788 Interest received 343,319 15,853 **Net cash from investing (543,893) (1,595,476) activities Change in cash and cash** (15,082,427) (2,979,004) **equivalents in the period** Cash and cash equivalents at 45,533,433 48,512,437 beginning of period **Cash and cash equivalents** 30,451,006 45,533,433 **at end of the period** The Charity has no debt and accordingly no net debt note is presented.
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**Notes to the financial statements** For the year ended 31 March 2023
## **Accounting Policies**
A summary of the principal accounting policies adopted, judgements and key sources of estimation uncertainty, is set out below.
**Basis of Preparation** The financial statements have been prepared in accordance with the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102). The Charitable Company and its subsidiary is a public benefit group for the purposes of FRS 102 and therefore the Charity also prepared its financial statements in accordance with the Statement of Recommended Practice applicable to charities preparing their accounts in accordance with the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (The FRS 102 Charities SORP), the Companies Act 2006 under the provision of the Large and Medium-sized Companies and Groups (Accounts and Reports) Regulations 2008 (SI 2008/410) and the Charities Act 2011. The financial statements are prepared in sterling, which is the functional currency of the charity. Monetary amounts in these financial statements are rounded to the nearest pound.
## **Going Concern**
The trustees have assessed whether the use of going concern basis is appropriate and have considered possible events or conditions that might cast significant doubt on the ability of the charitable company to continue as a going concern. The trustees have made this assessment for a period of at least one year from the date of the approval of these financial statements. In particular, the trustees have considered the charitable company’s forecasts and projections and have taken account of pressures on income. After making enquiries, the trustees have concluded that there is a reasonable expectation that the charitable company has adequate resources to continue in operational existence for the foreseeable future. The charitable company therefore continues to adopt the going concern basis in preparing its financial statements.
**Income** All income is recognised when there is entitlement to the funds, the receipt is probable and the amount can be measured reliably.
Donations and grants, including grants in respect of major items of refurbishment, improvements or the purchase of fixed assets are recognised in the Statement of Financial Activities when receivable. Where income is received in advance of meeting any performance-related conditions there is not unconditional entitlement to the income and its recognition is deferred and included in creditors as deferred income until the performancerelated conditions are met.
**1.** 83
**Notes to the financial statements** For the year ended 31 March 2023
**Expenditure** Expenditure is included in the Statement of Financial Activities on an accruals basis, inclusive of any VAT which cannot be recovered. Expenditure is recognised once there is a legal or constructive obligation to transfer economic benefit to a third party, it is probable that a transfer of economic benefits will be required in settlement and the amount of the obligation can be measured reliably.
Grants payable are payments made to third parties in the furtherance of the charitable objects of the Charity. Unconditional grant offers are accrued once the recipient has been notified of the grant award and its payment is probable. Grant awards that are subject to the recipient fulfilling performance or other conditions are accrued when the recipient has been notified of the grant and either the performance condition is met or any remaining unfulfilled condition attaching to the grant is outside of the control of the Charity. **Cost of Raising Funds** The cost of raising funds consists of the direct costs of raising funds and an apportionment of overhead, support and governance costs.
**Cost of Charitable Activities** Costs of charitable activities include costs directly associated with research activities and an apportionment of overhead, support and governance costs.
## **Gifts In Kind**
Where goods or services are provided to the charity as a donation that would normally be purchased from suppliers this contribution is included in the financial statements as an estimate based on the value of the contribution to the charity.
**Intellectual Property** Some of the Institute’s project contracts and agreements include ownership rights over the Intellectual Property (IP) that is created from project outcomes. No IP asset has been recognised in these financial statements as no material IP asset has been generated for the Institute by existing projects.
**1.** 84
**Notes to the financial statements** For the year ended 31 March 2023
**1.**
Depreciation – The annual depreciation charge **1.(i)** for property, plant and equipment is sensitive to change in the estimated useful economic lives and residual value of assets. These are reassessed annually and amended where necessary to reflect current circumstances.
**Tangible Fixed Assets and Depreciation** Tangible fixed assets are stated at cost/deemed cost less accumulated depreciation. Expenditure on assets under £5,000 per individual item or group of related items are written off in the year of acquisition. All other items are capitalised. Costs capitalised include those that are required to bring the asset to the location and condition necessary for it to operate in the manner intended.
A review for impairment of a fixed asset is carried out if events or changes in circumstances indicate that the carrying amount of the fixed asset may not be recoverable, whether through the economic benefits of use or through disposal.
Tangible fixed assets are depreciated at rates calculated to write them down on a straight-line basis over their estimated useful lives. Accumulated costs for assets which are not completed are classed and reported as ‘assets under construction’ and will not be subject to depreciation until complete and in use. Once in use they are depreciated over their expected useful life.
Assets are depreciated on a straight line basis as follows:
Term of lease 5 years
Leasehold land and buildings: Fixtures and fittings: IT Equipment and other equipment:
3 years
**Intangible Fixed Assets and Amortisation** Intangible assets acquired separately from a business are recognised at cost and are subsequently measured at cost less accumulated amortisation and accumulated impairment losses.
Costs capitalised include those that are required to bring the asset to the condition necessary for it to operate in the manner intended. A review for impairment of an intangible fixed asset is carried out if events or changes in circumstances indicate that the carrying amount of the intangible asset may not be recoverable, whether through the economic benefits of use or obsolescence. Accumulated costs for intangible assets which are not completed are classed and reported as ‘assets under construction’ and will not be subject to amortisation until complete and in use. Once in use they are amortised over their expected useful life. Amortisation is recognised so as to write off the cost or valuation of assets less their residual values over their useful lives on the following straight line basis:
Software 3-5 years Corporate systems 5 years
85
**Notes to the financial statements** For the year ended 31 March 2023
**1.**
Depreciation – The annual depreciation charge **1.(i)** for property, plant and equipment is sensitive to change in the estimated useful economic lives and residual value of assets. These are reassessed annually and amended where necessary to reflect current circumstances.
## **Fund Accounting**
General unrestricted funds are those available for use at the discretion of the trustees in furtherance of the general objectives of the charity and which have not been designated for other purposes. Restricted funds are funds which are to be used in accordance with specific restrictions imposed by donors or which have been raised by the charity for particular purposes. **Cash and Cash Equivalents** Cash and cash equivalents include cash in hand, deposits held at call with banks and other short-term liquid investments with original maturities of three months or less.
**Financial Instruments** Basic financial instruments are measured at amortised cost other than investments which are measured at fair value.
With the exceptions of prepayments and deferred income, all other debtor and creditor balances are considered to be basic financial instruments under FRS 102. See notes 16, 18 and 19 for the debtor and creditor notes.
**Employee Benefits** The costs of short-term employee benefits are recognised as a liability and an expense. **Critical Accounting Estimates and Areas of Judgement**
In preparing financial statements it is necessary to make certain judgements, estimates and assumptions that affect the amounts recognised in the financial statements. The following judgements and estimates are considered by the trustees to have most significant effect on amounts recognised in the financial statements.
86
**Notes to the financial statements** For the year ended 31 March 2023
**Donations 2023 2023 2023 Unrestricted Restricted Total £ £ £** 200,400 41,594 241,994 **200,400 41,594 241,994 2022 2022 2022 Unrestricted Restricted Total £ £ £** 326,298 60,918 387,216 **326,298 60,918 387,216**
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Other
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Other
87
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**Notes to the financial statements** For the year ended 31 March 2023 **2023 2023 2023 2022 Unrestricted Restricted Total Total £ £ £ £ Research Councils** EPSRC – Core Fund 10,080,995 - 10,080,995 8,954,518 - EPSRC – Additional Funding 69,300 69,300 10,187,427 - - EPSRC - Ecosystem Leadership Award (ELA) 5,000,000 5,000,000 - - EPSRC - Technologies Mission Fund (TMF) 1,760,000 1,760,000 **-** EPSRC – Prosperity Partnerships 973,078 973,078 572,576 **-** EPSRC – Sponsored Fellowships 1,726,760 1,726,760 1,327,420 **3.** - - AHRC - Other 92,396 92,396 - - NERC - Other 47,933 47,933 - - ESRC - Other 334,998 334,998 UKRI / AHRC – Strategic Priorities Fund - 1,528,990 1,528,990 1,868,978 – Living with Machines UKRI / EPSRC – Strategic Priorities Fund - 9,136,173 9,136,173 12,056,838 – AI for Science and Government **University Partners** - Founder University Partners 1,383,191 1,383,191 855,178 - Other University Partners 2,607,613 2,607,613 1,444,110 88
**Notes to the financial statements** For the year ended 31 March 2023 **3.** Included in 2022-23 is £6.8m of additional funding from EPSRC. £5m of this was awarded to further ecosystem leadership/ facilitaton and to deliver the Institute’s continued development toward Turing 2.0. (£10m of funding was awarded in 2021-22 to support the Institutes evolution to Turing 2.0) A Technologies Mission Fund award of £1.8m was made in the year to facilitate the Institute to bringing disciplines together in the field of AI in net zero, AI in health and responsible AI. The UKRI / EPSRC AI for Science and Government programme of £9.1m (2021/22: £12.1m) was awarded from UKRI’s phase 2 Strategic Priorities Fund to develop technologies of AI that underpin various economic sectors. The programme is due to end on 31 December 2023. 89
**Grants income** (continued) **2023 2023 2023 2022 Unrestricted Restricted Total Total £ £ £ £ Strategic Research Partners** - Accenture 850,266 850,266 800,178 - DSO National Laboratories 200,000 1,019,945 1,219,945 - Lloyd’s Register Foundation (217,967) (217,967) 984,228 - National Air Traffic Services 1,740,855 1,740,855 1,045,688 - Office for National Statistics 946,093 946,093 224,265 - Hoffmann-La Roche 1,000,000 1,000,000 1,000,000 The Bill and Melinda Gates - 668,673 668,673 822,660 Foundation - - UKRI - Innovate UK 449,940 449,940 **Other research grants** 163,905 3,801,452 3,965,357 5,138,132 **17,204,900 28,159,687 45,364,587 47,282,196** Included in 2022-23 is funding received from HSBC of £901k for the FAIR prosperity partnership and from NATS of £1,741k (of which £1,123k is a gift in kind) for the Bluebird prosperity partnership. The partnerships are being supported with funding from EPSRC. During the year the Institute repaid unspent grant of £588k to the Lloyds Register Foundation. In 2022 grants receivable totalling £27,859,609 were related to restricted funds.
**Notes to the financial statements**
**Cost of raising funds**
For the year ended 31 March 2023
**2023 2022 Total Total £ £** 708,186 477,965 **708,186 477,965**
Cost of raising funds
**708,186**
**4.** 90
**Notes to the financial statements** For the year ended 31 March 2023
**Cost of charitable activities** For the year ended 31 March 2023 **2023 2023 2023 2023 Grants Payable Support Costs Other Direct Costs Total (See below) (Note 6) £ £ £ £** Research 11,200,740 26,163,231 7,523,255 44,887,225 - - Workshops and conferences 1,674,090 1,674,090 **11,200,740 27,837,321 7,523,255 46,561,315 2022 2022 2022 2022 5. Grants Payable Support Costs Other Direct Costs Total (See below) (Note 6) £ £ £ £** Research 15,819,523 16,308,079 6,415,021 38,542,623 - - Workshops and conferences 292,846 292,846 **15,819,523 16,600,925 6,415,021 38,835,469** 91
**Notes to the financial statements** For the year ended 31 March 2023
**Analysis of grants payable**
**2023 2022 £ £ Analysis of institutions receiving grants** - Health Data Research UK 1,000,000 Imperial College London 356,065 960,190 John Innes Centre 78,027 231,408 Lancaster University 283,290 140,222 Newcastle University (178,932) 1,027,283 Queen Mary University of London 569,464 697,657 Science and Technology Facilities 684,613 770,650 The British Library 115,168 595,591 BSI Standards Ltd 390,000 - - National Physics Laboratory 321,000 Rothampton Research Ltd 398,915 85,203 University College London 445,546 587,475 University of Birmingham 190,580 245,053 University of Bristol (79,731) 342,498 University of Cambridge 1,402,359 1,234,881 180,914 77,095 University of Cardiff University of Edinburgh 220,655 671,156 University of Exeter 1,299,070 733,338
**5.** 92
**Notes to the financial statements** For the year ended 31 March 2023
**Analysis of grants payable** (continued)
**5.** In accordance with FRS102 and the Charity SORP, these financial statements account for the full expected cost of research grants awarded by the Institute within each financial year. The contractual terms of these grants can include durations of up to 36 months. 93
**Analysis of institutions receiving grants** University of Glasgow University of Leeds University of Liverpool University of Manchester University of Oxford University of Sheffield University of Southampton University of Warwick Other grants less than £180k
**2023 2022 £ £** 198,372 5,488 431,852 732,637 22,212 337,139 213,602 467,439 1,419,324 1,728,844 51,523 781,439 311,157 228,267 165,372 950,634 1,710,323 1,187,936 **11,200,740 15,819,523**
**Notes to the financial statements** For the year ended 31 March 2023
## **Support costs**
Travel and subsistence Office costs Rent, rates and service charge Repairs and maintenance Subscriptions Staff costs Staff training and hospitality Recruitment Telecommunications Computer running costs Legal fees Other professional fees Consultancy Depreciation Amortisation Insurance Marketing Foreign exchange (gain)/loss Sundry costs Governance costs (see note 7)
**2023 2022 £ £** 16,229 24,597 177,983 115,129 644,537 646,175 8,466 4,602 144,678 122,896 4,683,816 3,751,338 170,024 87,694 157,431 166,460 23,146 26,599 448,437 330,206 154,173 144,405 213,066 160,209 89,246 119,373 528,026 576,050 - 4,200 27,207 96,285 16,525 9,063 (60,460) (32,845) 25,851 21,297 54,874 41,288 **7,523,255 6,415,021**
**6.** 94
**Notes to the financial statements** For the year ended 31 March 2023
**Governance costs**
**2023 2022 £ £** 47,870 37,179 4,875 4,061 2,129 47 **54,874 41,287**
Auditor's remuneration: Audit of the financial statements (current year) Other services Legal and professional fees **7.** 95
**Notes to the financial statements** For the year ended 31 March 2023
**Net income/(expenditure)**
**Net income is stated after charging:** Depreciation Amortisation Operating lease rentals Auditor's remuneration Audit of the financial **8.** statements (current year) Other services 96
**2023 2022 £ £** 1,056,051 739,032 - 4,200 944,834 944,834 47,870 37,179 4,875 4,061
**Notes to the financial statements** For the year ended 31 March 2023
**Staff costs 2023 2022 £ £ Staff expenses includes the following employee costs:** Wages and salaries 17,466,948 13,335,805 Social security costs 2,092,259 1,460,308 HMRC apprenticeship levy 72,911 49,333 Other staff costs: Contractors 454,383 665,897 Secondments 751,777 484,918 Healthcare 162,573 124,957 Pension costs 1,619,544 1,176,235 22,620,395 **17,297,453** Key management personnel include those involved in executive decision-making and are listed in Part 2 of this report. The total employee benefits of the charity’s key management personnel was £2,050,382 (2022: £1,886,376). Included in the above costs are termination payments to two individuals totalling £5,623 (2022: Three individuals totalling £40,146)
**Staff expenses includes the following employee costs:** Wages and salaries Social security costs HMRC apprenticeship levy Other staff costs: Contractors Secondments Healthcare Pension costs
**9.** 97
**Notes to the financial statements** For the year ended 31 March 2023
(continued) **Staff costs** During the year the following number of employees received emoluments in excess of £60,000: **2023 2022** £60,000 - £69,999 26 21 £70,000 - £79,999 11 7 £80,000 - £89,999 10 7 £90,000 - £99,999 3 7 £100,000 - £109,999 7 3 - £110,000 - £119,000 1 - £120,000 - £129,999 1 - £160,000 - £169,999 1 - £170,000 - £179,999 1 - £180,000 - £189,999 1 - £200,000 - £209,999 1 - £260,000 - £269,000 1 - £270,000 - £279,999 1
**9.** 98
**Notes to the financial statements** For the year ended 31 March 2023
**Trustees’ payments** Douglas Gurr (Chairman of the Charity from 1 July 2022) received remuneration totalling £33,750 during the year for his role as Chairman of the Charity. No remuneration was paid during the year to Howard Covington for his role as Chairman of the Charity for the period 1 April 22 to 30 June 2022 (2021/22: £31,758). There were no trustees receiving travelling and accommodation expenses during the period. (2022: none)
**10.** 99
**Notes to the financial statements** For the year ended 31 March 2023
**Employees**
**2023 2022 Number Number** 7 11 70 53 19 17 9 7 247 195 **352 283**
**The average number of employees by function were:** Executive HR, Finance, Legal and Information Technology Communications and Engagement Partnership Development **11.** Research and Research Support
100
**Notes to the financial statements** For the year ended 31 March 2023
**Taxation** The charity is entitled to certain tax exemptions on income and profits from investments and surpluses on any trading activities carried on in furtherance of the charity’s primary objectives.
**12.** 101
**Notes to the financial statements Tangible fixed assets — Group** For the year ended 31 March 2023 **Fixtures Leasehold Fittings and Improvements Equipment Total Cost or valuation £ £ £** At 1 April 2022 3,070,837 3,144,550 6,215,387 - Additions 626,044 626,044 - Transfer to Intangible Assets (4,350) (4,350) - Disposal (156,043) (156,043) **At 31 March 2023 3,070,837 3,610,201 6,681,038 13. Depreciation** At 1 April 2022 2,547,646 1,998,430 4,546,076 Charge for the year 487,112 568,939 1,056,051 - Eliminated on disposal (142,750) (142,750) **At 31 March 2023 3,034,758 2,424,619 5,459,377 Net Book Value At 31 March 2023 36,079 1,185,582 1,221,661 At 31 March 2022 523,191 1,146,120 1,669,311** 102
**Notes to the financial statements** For the year ended 31 March 2023
**Tangible fixed assets — Charity**
**Notes to the financial statements** For the year ended 31 March 2023
**Leasehold Equipment Improvements and Machinery Total £ £ £ Cost or valuation** At 1 April 2022 3,070,837 3,045,695 6,116,532 - Additions 626,044 626,044 - Transfer to Intangible Assets (4,350) (4,350) - Disposal (57,188) (57,188) **At 31 March 2023 3,070,837 3,610,201 6,681,038 Amortisation** At 1 April 2022 2,547,646 1,899,572 4,447,218 Charge for the year 487,112 568,939 1,056,051 - Eliminated on disposal (43,895) (43,895) **At 31 March 2023 3,034,758 2,424,616 5,459,374 Net Book Value At 31 March 2023 36,079 1,185,585 1,221,664 At 31 March 2022 523,191 1,146,123 1,669,314**
**13.** 103
**Intangible fixed assets — Group**
**Total**
**Notes to the financial statements** For the year ended 31 March 2023
## **14.**
**Corporate System (Under Construction)**
**Software**
**£ £ £ Cost or valuation** - At 1 April 2022 67,241 67,241 - Additions 264,956 264,956 - Transfer from Tangible Assets 4,350 4,350 - Disposal (67,241) (67,241) **At 31 March 2023 269,306 269,306 Amortisation** - At 1 April 2022 67,241 67,241 - - - Charge for the year - Eliminated on disposal (67,241) (67,241) **At 31 March 2023 Net Book Value - At 31 March 2023 269,306 269,306 - - - At 31 March 2022**
**-**
104
**Intangible fixed assets — Charity**
**Total**
**Notes to the financial statements** For the year ended 31 March 2023
**Cost or valuation** At 1 April 2022 Additions Transfer from Tangible Assets Disposal **At 31 March 2023 Amortisation** At 1 April 2022 Charge for the year Eliminated on disposal **At 31 March 2023 Net Book Value At 31 March 2023 At 31 March 2022**
**Corporate System Total (Under Construction) £ £** - - 264,956 264,956 4,350 4,350 - - **269,306 269,306** - - - - - - **269,306 269,306**
**-**
**-**
**14.** 105
**Investment in Subsidiary £**
1 **£**
**Notes to the financial statements** For the year ended 31 March 2023
- **Investments in subsidiaries Investment in Subsidiary £**
- **Cost** At 1 April 2022 and 31 March 2023 The investment represents 100% of the share capital of Turing Innovations Ltd, a company incorporated in England & Wales, company number 10015591. The following is an extract of its results for the year to 31 March 2023:
**15.** Income Expenditure **Net income** Total assets Total liabilities **Net assets**
- Income 5,627,054 Expenditure (3,658,109) **Net income 1,968,945** Total assets 3,842,332 Total liabilities (1,873,388) **Net assets 1,968,943** In January 2021, Turing Innovations Limited purchased an investment in Quaisr Limited, a company that builds simulations and visualisations that incorporate uncertainty quantification. The allocation of share capital was directly proportional to the background intellectual property contributed to Quaisr Limited by its founder members. The investment represents 0.92% of the ordinary share capital of the company and as at 31 March 2023 (0.92% as at 31 March 2022) the value of the investment was deemed to be not materially different from its cost and therefore no fair value adjustment has been made in these financial statements.
106
**Notes to the financial statements** For the year ended 31 March 2023
## **16.**
**Debtors Group Group Charity Charity 2023 2022 2023 2022 £ £ £ £** Trade debtors 3,913,161 3,034,275 1,397,759 1,452,304 Prepayments and accrued 6,613,984 7,844,241 6,517,301 7,844,241 income - - Intercompany 204,306 100,703 Other debtors 21,861 130,216 21,860 130,216 **10,549,006 11,008,732 8,141,226 9,527,464**
Trade debtors above are
measured at amortised cost.
107
**Current investments**
**Charity Charity 2023 2022 £ £** 20,000,000 5,000,000
20,000,000
5,000,000
5,000,000
**Notes to the financial statements** For the year ended 31 March 2023
**Group 2023 £**
**Group 2022 £**
Short-term deposits
The short-term deposits include £15m (2022: £nil) of investments held in UK Treasury Bills and Certificates of Deposit and £5m (2022:£5m) held in an interest bearing 95-day-notice deposit account. **17.** 108
**Notes to the financial statements** For the year ended 31 March 2023
**Group Group Charity Charity 2023 2022 2023 2022 £ £ £ £** Trade creditors 1,080,137 970,876 1,007,417 970,876 Taxation and social security 940,162 825,277 212,658 476,206 Grant creditors 8,222,327 15,683,265 8,222,327 15,683,265 Accruals and deferred income 5,739,132 4,431,533 4,984,974 3,626,076 Other Creditors 200,999 170,810 201,005 170,810 **16,182,757 22,081,761 14,628,381 20,927,233**
- **Creditors: amounts falling due within one year**
## **18.**
109
**Notes to the financial statements** For the year ended 31 March 2023
**Creditors: amounts falling due in more than one year Group Group Charity Charity 2023 2022 2023 2022 £ £ £ £** 19,455 25,758 19,455 25,758
Grant creditors
**19.** 110
**Notes to the financial statements** For the year ended 31 March 2023
**Unrestricted funds**
## **20.**
**At Balance 01.04.22 Income Expenditure Transfers 31.03.23 £ £ £ £ £** General Fund 26,034,344 11,865,976 (671,702) (16,651,922) 20,576,696 Designated funds - - Towards Turing 2.0 1,982,774 (2,511,624) 528,850 AI for Science and - - - 1,000,000 1,000,000 Government - - Safe and ethical AI fund 1,452,217 (299,484) 1,152,733 - - Ecosystem Leadership Award 5,000,000 (3,547,992) 1,452,008 - - Technologies Mission Fund 1,760,000 (1,859,582) 99,582 - - Out of Budget Fund (1,646,711) 11,562,000 9,915,289 **Charity Total 30,469,335 18,625,976 (10,537,095) (4,461,490) 34,096,726** Turing Innovations Limited 458,275 5,627,054 (3,658,109) (458,273) 1,968,947 **Group Total 30,927,610 24,253,030 (14,195,204) (4,919,763) 36,065,673**
111
**Notes to the financial statements** For the year ended 31 March 2023
## **20.**
- **Designated funds includes:**
- £10m grant from EPSRC in 2021/22 to build the foundations of Turing 2.0, enabling the Institute to invest in activities that support its evolution. This was spent in full as at 31 March 2023. A further £5m was awarded by the EPSRC to further ecosystem leadership to enable the Institute to deliver its continued development toward Turing 2.0. A Technologies Mission Fund award of £1.8m was received from the EPSRC with the aim of facilitating the Institute’s ability of bringing disciplines together in the field of AI in net zero, AI in health and responsible AI. An Out or Budget Fund financed from the Institute’s General reserves whose purpose is to fund project activities that will allow the Institute to progress the Turing 2.0 vision. The Fund will also support those initiatives that can be scaled by external partners/enhanced funding from UKRI in 2023/24 thereby creating an opportunity for rapid scale up, once longer-term funding is confirmed. A £1m transfer from the general fund to support the AI for Science and Government programme; and donations in 2018/19 from Aphorism Foundation (£1m) and DeepMind Technologies Limited (£1m). Both donations are unrestricted but are given in support of the Institute’s work on Safe and Ethical AI. It is expected that these amounts will be spent within four years. The defence and security fund, which operates out of Turing Innovations Limited, will finance the Institute’s data-driven defence and security programme.
112
**Restricted funds**
**Notes to the financial statements** For the year ended 31 March 2023
**At Balance 01.04.22 Income Expenditure Transfers 31.03.23 £ £ £ £ £** EPSRC - AI for Science and - a 373,304 9,136,173 (8,712,006) 797,471 Government - b[EPSRC / BEIS - Sponsored ] 385,907 1,726,760 (1,581,842) 530,825 Fellowships EPSRC/HSBC - Prosperity - c 555,378 1,176,541 (1,076,893) 655,026 Partnership - d[EPSRC/NATS - Prosperity ] 528,671 2,437,943 (2,586,218) 380,396 Partnership - e[AHRC - Living with Machines ] 122,253 1,528,990 (1,534,154) 117,089 fund - - f UKRI - Innovate UK - Bridge AI 449,940 (1,128) 448,812 - g Lloyd's Register Foundation fund 1,380,099 (217,967) (207,495) 954,637 - - h Intel Corporation fund 172,863 73,695 246,558 - - i University partner research fund 3,990,804 (8,910,567) 4,919,763 The Bill and Melinda Gates - j 1,107,403 668,673 (763,193) 1,012,883 Foundation - k 857,113 1,000,000 (824,108) 1,033,005 Hoffmann-La Roche
**21.** 113
**Notes to the financial statements** For the year ended 31 March 2023
**Restricted funds** (continued)
**At Balance 01.04.22 Income Expenditure Transfers 31.03.23 £ £ £ £ £** - l Accenture 915,953 850,266 (665,938) 1,100,281 - m 224,230 946,093 (777,660) 392,663 Office for National Statistics - - n DSO National Laboratories 1,019,945 (388,615) 631,330 - o Other research fund 3,553,173 3,487,120 (5,118,175) 1,922,118 **Charity and Group Total 10,176,347 28,201,281 (33,074,297) 4,919,763 10,223,094**
**21.** 114
**Notes to the financial statements** For the year ended 31 March 2023
**Restricted funds** (continued) Restricted reserves are in line with the expectations of the Board and are reflective of the early stage of both the specific activities that they will fund and of the Institute itself. **a** The EPSRC AI for Science and Government programme was awarded from UKRI’s phase 2 Strategic Priorities Fund to develop AI technologies that underpin various economic sectors. The programme is due to end on 31 December 2023. **b** EPSRC on behalf of UKRI is delivering the substantive part of the investment in Sponsored Fellowships and will manage the overall programme in partnership with the Institute, BEIS Science, Research and Innovation Directorate and the Office for AI.
> **c, d** EPSRC has made awards to fund two research collaborations through its prosperity partnership programme. The Institute is in partnership with two other collaborators, HSBC and NATS, which have also made contributions to the programme.
- The AHRC Living with Machines fund was awarded from UKRI’s wave 1 Strategic Priorities Fund to devise new methods of applying data science and AI to historical resources. The programme is due to end on 31 August 2023.
**e f**
Bridge AI is a major new initiative at the Institute, funded by Innovate UK, that is aimed at accelerating the adoption of AI technologies in low maturity sectors across the UK including construction, transport, agriculture and creative industries.
**21.** 115
**Notes to the financial statements** For the year ended 31 March 2023
**Restricted funds** (continued)
- The Lloyds Register Foundation fund
**g**
will finance a research programme that supports data-centric engineering. During the year the Insitute repaid £588k of unspent phase 1 grant funding to the Lloyds Register Foundation. A new agreement (phase 2) was signed with LRF in March 2023, which will award the Institute £6,528k of grant funding over the next 10 years.
**h** The Intel Corporation fund will finance data science and its application. **i**
The Intel Corporation fund will
In October 2020 the Institute agreed an interim funding model which has seen a reduction in funding from £1m per university partner to £300k per university partner. This has created a deficit in the fund of £5,698k. A transfer has been made from unrestricted reserves to set the restricted fund balance to zero.
**j k**
**l**
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation award will fund a research programme focussed on enhancing security and privacy of national identity systems. The Hoffmann-La Roche award will fund advanced analytics to enable the transformative benefits of personalised healthcare for patients by generating insights to better understand patient and disease heterogeneity and its relevance to clinical outcomes. The Accenture award will fund the advancement of data science, data analytics and artificial intelligence research with a focus on delivering substantial business and societal value.
**21.** 116
**Notes to the financial statements** For the year ended 31 March 2023
**Restricted funds** (continued)
The Institute is working in collaboration with the Office for National Statistics to deliver a research collaboration in data science and artificial intelligence covering economic networks and translation data, economic nowcasting, synthetic data, and privacy preservation.
**m**
Research from DSO, Singapore’s largest national defence research and development organisation will work in tandem with leading experts from the Institute’s Defence and Security Programme. Together, the Institute and DSO will explore new research methods designed to help understand complex datasets, covering different modalities such as image, text and audio. Other research fund represents various research grants from charities, business and government departments to fund specific research collaborations.
**n**
**o**
**21.** 117
**Notes to the financial statements** For the year ended 31 March 2023
**Restricted funds** (continued)
**Balance Restated Balance 01.04.21 Income Expenditure Transfers 31.03.22 £ £ £ £ £** EPSRC - AI for Science and - (1,459,204) 12,056,838 (10,224,330) 373,304 Government EPSRC / BEIS - Sponsored - 4,333 1,327,420 (945,846) 385,907 Fellowships - - - EPSRC - Additional Funding 187,427 187,427 EPSRC/HSBC - Prosperity - - 678,553 (123,176) 555,378 Partnership EPSRC/NATS - Prosperity - - 1,540,078 (1,011,408) 528,671 Partnership AHRC - Living with Machines - 30,004 1,868,978 (1,776,728) 122,253 fund - Lloyd's Register Foundation fund 1,332,375 984,228 (936,504) 1,380,099 HSBC fund 1,160,593 - (12,890) - 1,147,703 - - Intel Corporation fund 312,896 (140,033) 172,863 - University partner research fund 2,452,421 2,299,288 (5,983,183) 1,231,474
**21.** 118
**Notes to the financial statements** For the year ended 31 March 2023
**Restricted funds** (continued)
**Balance Restated Balance 01.04.21 Income Expenditure Transfers 31.03.22 £ £ £ £ £** The Bill and Melinda Gates - 1,488,374 822,660 (1,203,631) 1,107,403 Foundation - - 1,000,000 (142,887) 857,113 Hoffmann-La Roche Accenture 506,919 800,178 (391,144) - 915,953 - - 224,265 (35) 224,230 Office for National Statistics Other research fund 2,392,739 4,130,615 (4,305,309) - 2,218,045 **Charity and consolidated 8,221,449 27,920,527 (27,197,103) 1,231,474 10,176,347 restricted**
**21.** 119
**Notes to the financial statements** For the year ended 31 March 2023
**Analysis of net group assets between funds Unrestricted Restricted Total £ £ £ At 31 March 2023** 1,003,063 218,598 1,221,661 Tangible fixed assets - Intangible assets 269,306 269,306 Net current assets 34,793,304 10,023,951 44,817,255 - Long term creditors (19,455) (19,455) **36,065,673 10,223,094 46,288,767 Unrestricted Restricted Total £ £ £ At 31 March 2022** 1,379,595 289,716 1,669,311 Tangible fixed assets Net current assets 29,548,015 9,912,389 39,460,404 - Long term creditors (25,758) (25,758) **30,927,610 10,176,347 41,103,957**
**22.** 120
**Capital Commitments**
**Payments due:** Commitments contracted Authorised but not contracted
- -
**Notes to the financial statements**
For the year ended 31 March 2023
- As at 31 March capital commitments were as follows:
**2023 2022 £ £** 680,091 464,798
**1,144,889**
**-**
**23.** 121
**Notes to the financial statements** For the year ended 31 March 2023
- **Financial commitments**
- The charitable company was committed to making the following total payments under non-cancellable operating leases as at 31 March 2023:
**2023 £** -
**2022**
**£**
**Payments due:** Within one year
944,834
**944,834**
**-**
- The operating lease expired on 26 March 2023 and negotiations for the lease renewal are ongoing and are expected to be concluded post year-end.
**24.** 122
**Notes to the financial statements** For the year ended 31 March 2023
- **Related parties**
- During the year the following transactions were undertaken with the members of the charity. Other than the amounts noted below, no amounts were due or payable at the period end. **Current year to 31/03/2023**
**Grant expenditure Grant income Re-charged Period end awarded received expenditure Debtor/(creditor) £ £ £ £** Engineering and Physical - - - 26,652,537 Sciences Research Council - - - The Royal Society 99,040 University College London 286,598 254,403 397,985 (5,371) University of Cambridge 382,304 230,000 1,897,978 34,489 University of Edinburgh 69,723 243,685 493,752 (7,495) University of Oxford 142,687 536,857 1,831,949 35,613 University of Warwick 79,335 129,038 466,995 (21,009) **960,647 28,145,560 5,088,659 36,227**
**25.** 123
**Notes to the financial statements** For the year ended 31 March 2023
**Related parties** (continued)
**Prior year to 31/03/2022 Grant expenditure Grant income Re-charged Period end awarded received expenditure Debtor/(creditor) £ £ £ £** Engineering and Physical - - - 33,098,780 Sciences Research Council The Francis Crick Institute - 136,963 - - - University of Cambridge 106,061 727,903 87,104 - University of Edinburgh 243,497 308,200 1,478,379 University of Oxford 56,747 117,506 2,004,520 232,471 - University College London 275,676 693,536 (111,808) University of Warwick (324,602) 150,000 626,030 510,413 **357,379 33,811,449 5,530,368 718,180** The re-charged expenditure relates to staff time, administration and workshop costs. **Transactions with subsidiary** During the year the parent charity re-charged staff and other costs to the subsidiary company, Turing Innovations Limited of £2,400,272 (2022: £1,118,973). During the year Turing Innovations Limited made a gift aid distribution to the Alan Turing Institue of £458,273 (2022: £36,451). At the year end Turing Innovations Limited owed The Alan Turing Institute £204,306 (2022: £100,703).
**25.** 124
**Notes to the financial statements** For the year ended 31 March 2023
**Company status** The charity is a company limited by guarantee. In the event of the charity being wound up, the liability in respect of the guarantee is limited to £1 per member of the charity.
**26.** 125
The
Alan Turing
Institute
turing.ac.uk
@turinginst