Professor Marina Jirotka is a highly-respected Professor of Computer Science at Oxford and an international expert in Human Centred Computing and Responsible Innovation. She has been at the university for some 30 years – and yet, she smiles, she is not from a typical Oxford academic background. It really could have all been very different. Professor Jirotka's parents, academic chemists, came to this country on the eve of war from what was then Czechoslovakia. Refugees from Hitler, then Stalin, they settled in a small town in Scotland, with her grandparents; building a business and a new life far from home.

Up to £23 million in government funding will create more AI and data conversion courses, helping young people from underrepresented groups including women, black people and people with disabilities join the UK's world-leading Artificial Intelligence (AI) industry. Up to two thousand scholarships for masters AI conversion courses, which enable graduates to do further study courses in the field even if their undergraduate course is not directly related, will create a new generation of experts in data science and AI. The UK has a long and exceptional history in AI, from codebreaker Alan Turing's early work through to London-based powerhouse DeepMind's pioneering research which will enable quicker and more advanced drug discovery. AI underpins the apps which help us navigate around cities, stop online banking fraud and communicate with smart speakers. The UK is ranked third in the world for private venture capital investment into AI companies (2019 investment into the UK reached almost £2.5 billion) and is home to a third of Europe's total AI companies.

The University of Liverpool has won a share of £13m from the Office for Students (OfS) to fund 36 scholarships on two innovative new postgraduate conversion courses. Through specialist teaching and paid work placements, the conversion courses will allow graduates from both STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) and non or far-STEM subjects to significantly boost their digital skills – helping to address the shortage of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and data specialists joining the UK workforce. The scholarships are targeted at graduates from backgrounds often underrepresented in these industries, particularly female, disabled and black students. The two programmes offered by the University of Liverpool will accept their first intake of students from September this year. There is a 12-month full-time Data Science and Artificial Intelligence MSc course and a 24-month full-time option which includes a paid'year in industry' placement.

More information on how to apply for funding can be found here.

The government has unveiled plans to invest £13m in postgraduate conversion courses in data science and artificial intelligence. The initiative will see universities and higher education providers partner with industry to develop new courses that train graduates, who may have studied a non-STEM degree, in the skills required to take up jobs in the field. The funding forms part of a wider £400m investment in maths, digital and technical education through the government's AI sector deal, which was launched last year amid criticism that ministers were failing to protect the UK's tech scene ahead of Brexit. Under the new initiative, the Office for Students and the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport have allocated £3m to course development and £10m to scholarships for candidates from underrepresented backgrounds, including female, disabled and black students. It is hoped that 2,500 students will have enrolled in one of the new courses by 2023.

The government has announced an investment of up to £18.5m to support efforts to enhance diversity in artificial intelligence (AI) and data science roles. Part of a wider plan to upskill the UK workforce as part of the AI Sector Deal to position the country as a leader in use of the technology, £13.5m of the total funding will go towards up to 2,500 AI and data science conversion courses for professionals who have degrees in other disciplines, as well as 1,000 scholarships. The programmes will aim to support applications from professionals returning from a career break and looking to retrain, as well as under-represented groups in the digital workforce, including women and those from minority ethnic or lower socio-economic backgrounds. Around £5m will be invested into the Adult Learning Technology Innovation Fund, to be launched in partnership with innovation foundation Nesta, which will seek to encourage companies to use AI and automation to improve online learning platforms aimed at helping adults retrain. "The UK has a long-standing reputation for innovation, world-leading academic institutions and a business-friendly environment. Everyone, regardless of their background, should have the opportunity to build a successful career in our world-leading tech sector," said digital secretary Jeremy Wright.