The UKRI AI Centre for Doctoral Training in Digital Healthcare will train a new generation of PhD-level researchers, including clinical PhD fellows and allied healthcare professionals, to develop AI systems that address healthcare challenges with a focus on patient needs and societal values.

Centre Director and Principal Investigator Professor Aldo Faisal, from the Departments of Computing and Bioengineering, said: “This is an incredible opportunity for the UK and NHS, and one that demonstrates Imperial College London’s thriving digital healthcare ecosystem.

"The Centre will allow us to develop a new generation of more than 120 future leaders who we will recruit over the next five years. During their PhD studies they develop patient-ready solutions that align with patient needs. Our aim is to help transform the healthcare ecosystem and help reduce the unmet demand for health and care.

“Designing patient-ready AI requires not only state of the art research in AI and healthcare, but also understanding the regulatory, legal, ethical, and human constraints that are specific to health and care. This means it is extremely challenging to develop and deploy practical AI systems. We have created over the past five years an ecosystem of experts, institutions, stakeholders, data, and networks so thatour new UKRI AI Centre for Doctoral Training in Digital Healthcare is ready to face this challenge head on.”