Over the last few months, we have been diligently collecting proposals and reviewing applications to our ONE MILLION POUND Rapid Response Fund, and we are now in the happy position to announce some of the successfully funded projects!
AI4CI is proud to support:
👉 Using collective intelligence to model the cryptocurrency circular-economy.
Project Overview:
A cryptocurrency is a decentralised digital currency that is not issued or controlled by a centralised authority. Initially, cryptocurrencies were primarily used by individuals as a store of value. However, more recently, many individuals have started to use cryptocurrencies as a medium of exchange to pay for goods and services. In some regions, adoption has progressed so much that there exists a corresponding circular-economy where cryptocurrencies are the primary medium of exchange. In this project, we will examine how combining AI with crowdsourcing can be used to model the dynamics of this circular economy.
Project Lead: Dr Padraig Corcoran, Cardiff University / Prifysgol Caerdydd Project Team: Dr Maxim Filimonov, Dr Anqi Liu, Prof. Jing (Maggie) Chen and Prof. Irena Spasic, Cardiff University Project Partner: Office for National Statistics (ONS)
👉 Embedding EDI in the Distribution of Research Funding: An AI-assisted Collective Intelligence Approach.
Project Overview:
This project will transform the distribution of research funding by redesigning a fairer, more participatory process for reviewing and selecting projects to fund, combining collective intelligence with Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) principles. Using rigorous methods from computational social choice and artificial intelligence (AI), we will introduce novel preference elicitation and aggregation rules for research funding distribution to achieve a more proportionate and diverse representation of both applicants and reviewers. We will test these innovative methods in the real world in collaboration with key academic and industrial partners working on systemic changes for EDI and scaling up collective human collaboration.
Project Lead: Prof. Evangelos Pournaras at the University of Leeds Project Partner: ComplexChaos
👉 Understanding Bias for Organisational ESG Behavioural Profiling.
Project Overview:
The ekoIntelligence platform uses AI to analyse publicly available data from news and corporate reports to academic research and NGO publications—identifying Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) trends. It creates clear maps of sustainability and risk for companies and investors. However, input data can be biased, amplifying certain narratives and omitting key facts, like who funded the research. This project uses advanced AI to assess the reputation of sources, detect these biases to provide more robust confidence ratings. By scoring reliability and revealing influence networks, ekoIntelligence ensures users can trust the information they see, enabling better decisions about sustainability and risk.
Project Lead: Dr Rudy Arthur, University of Exeter Project Partner: ekoIntelligenceÂ
👉 WARM-AIR: Wearable Assisted Respiratory Monitoring for Integrated Recognition of COPD Exacerbations.
Project Overview:
In the UK, 1.7 million people have a lung disease called Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), which makes it hard to breathe and causes coughing. Sometimes, these symptoms get much worse. These flare-ups make breathing even harder and send over 100,000 people to hospital every year. We want to use Artificial Intelligence (AI) to predict flare-ups before they happen. By using data from 50,000 people using a COPD app and 900 people wearing smartwatches, AI could predict flare-ups days in advance, giving people time to take action, avoid becoming seriously unwell and reduce the load on the NHS.
Project Lead: Prof. James Dodd, University of Bristol Project Partner: my mhealth