DSAIL - Newsletter September 2026
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Newsletter – September 2026
News and Announcements
Welcome to the September edition of the DSAIL newsletter, and a warm welcome back at the start of the new academic year. We hope you had a restful summer, and we look forward to another busy and productive year for data science and AI at Lancaster.
We are delighted to report that the past year has been an outstanding one for research income: colleagues across the Institute have secured £16.8 million in data science and AI grant funding over the last twelve months. This is a remarkable achievement, and it reflects both the breadth and the quality of the work taking place across the University. Our congratulations and thanks go to everyone who contributed to this success.
On a related note, may we remind all members to tag their data science and AI grants as DSAIL when submitting proposals. Accurate tagging is what allows us to capture the full picture of data science and AI activity at Lancaster, and it directly supports the Institute’s reporting and the case for future investment. If you are unsure whether a proposal should be tagged, please get in touch at dsail@lancaster.ac.uk.
Looking ahead, there is a good deal to note in the diary. The MSc Data Science and MSc Cyber Security Student Poster Exhibition takes place on Friday 11th September at InfoLab21, opening at 12:30, and all are welcome. The highlight of the month is the DSAIL Showcase on Monday 28th September at Lancaster House Hotel, running from 9:30 to 17:00, with a keynote from Dr Eleanor Drage (Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence, University of Cambridge), poster presentations, research-theme sessions and a panel discussion on “The Role of Universities in the World of AI”. Only a few places remain, so please do register via Eventbrite if you have not already done so. Further ahead, a one-day Open-Source Intelligence (OSINT) masterclass will be held in Manchester on Monday 9th November, and the call for papers for MFM4Health (Lancaster, 23–26 November) is now open. Full details of these, together with current funding calls and job opportunities, appear below.
Professor Claire Hardaker is quoted in an article by The Guardian asking: Could the next great novel be written by AI (and would you be able to tell)? The article can be found here
Lancaster expert appointed to NHS England Advisory Group for Data
Professor Jo Knight, Chair in Applied Data Science at Lancaster University Medical School, has been appointed to the NHS England Advisory Group for Data (AGD). Full details here. NHS England is the statutory custodian for health and care data for England, serving stakeholders across the UK. NHS England enables the health and social care system to make best use of its data to improve healthcare outcomes, efficiency of services and the impact of research, while safeguarding the privacy of the people whose data we hold.
Pioneering healthcare technology for diabetes developed as part of NHS 10-year plan.
The first sock measuring shear stress aimed at reducing the risk of foot ulcers for patients with diabetes is being developed by researchers at Lancaster University. The sock contains smart sensors to measure friction and works alongside a foot screening app powered by AI (artificial intelligence). The smart sock is among several innovations currently being developed by Professor Neil Reeves to improve the lives of patients with diabetes. Full details here
From Clean-Up to Prevention: Lancaster Researchers Use AI to Combat Fly-Tipping
Gauss: The First Data Scientist? Andrew Baggaley explores how Carl Friedrich Gauss tracked the motion of the dwarf planet Ceres, pioneering the use of one of the most important tools in modern statistics, and laying the foundations for modern data science. Read the blog
Data Science and Cyber Security MSc Student Poster Exhibition – Friday 11th September, 12:30–15:00
Invitation to the MSc Data Science and MSc Cyber Security Student Poster Exhibition
The conference will take place during the afternoon of Friday 11th September at InfoLab21 and will be formally opened at 12:30 by Prof Chris Edwards, Director of the MSc Data Science and MSc AI programmes, and by Dr Antonios Gouglidis, Director of the MSc Cyber Security programme.
At the conference, our MSc students will demonstrate the work that they have performed during their summer projects. Our students have applied their skills to topics ranging from sustainable AI platforms, gaining demographic insights from Caribbean nations’ census data, predicting river flows with machine learning, and explainable AI for the prediction of delirium. Students on the MARS Summer Internship will also be presenting their posters.
Coffee will be available from 12:15 and the conference will open at 12:30 with addresses from our Programme Directors. Attendees will then be able to meet the students to discuss their posters, as well as meeting their fellow project hosts and the University’s academics. Further refreshments will be served during the poster session. All attendees will be invited to cast their vote for this year’s best poster, with a presentation being made to the winner around 14:30.
All welcome.
DSAIL Membership
Current DSAIL members are warmly encouraged to invite new Lancaster colleagues and students to join the Data Science & AI Institute. Interested candidates can reach out via dsail@lancaster.ac.uk or sign up here.
Events
The DSAIL AI Showcase Event will take place on Monday 28th September at Lancaster House Hotel, 9:30–17:00, with lunch and refreshments provided – only a few places remain!
DSAIL brings together Lancaster’s interdisciplinary strengths in data science and artificial intelligence, spanning foundations and infrastructure, globally relevant application domains, and the wider social, legal and ethical questions raised by data science and AI.
The programme will include an introduction to DSAIL, interactive sessions, a keynote talk, poster presentations, research-theme discussions, and a panel discussion on “The Role of Universities in the World of AI”. The afternoon research-theme sessions will cover DSAIL’s key areas of activity, including Creativity, Integrity, Environment, Health and Foundations.
We are delighted that the keynote speaker will be Dr Eleanor Drage, Senior Research Fellow at the Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence at the University of Cambridge, speaker, writer and broadcaster in AI ethics, and host of The Good Robot Podcast. Eleanor’s work focuses on AI ethics, feminist and critical race approaches to technology, and the social, cultural and institutional implications of AI.
1-Day Masterclass: Open-Source Intelligence (OSINT).
Forewarned Is Forearmed
Monday, 9th November
Manchester Digital Security Hub (DiSH), United Kingdom
10:00 – 16:00 (UK time). Registration required.
Join us for an exclusive 1-DAY MASTERCLASS! A day of networking and workshop sessions.
For the people behind investigations, intelligence, fraud prevention, and cyber security.
Expect high-value networking with professionals across fraud, intelligence, investigations, cyber security, and OSINT.
Whether you work in corporate investigations, financial crime, cyber defence, intelligence analysis or digital investigations, this is a session not to be missed!
We have trained global household brands, law enforcement, loss prevention teams and the military, and the feedback is always incredible.
Turing News and Events
Reliable uncertainty quantification: Evaluating how reliably leading probabilistic models quantify uncertainty in forecasting for physical systems.
New research by Radka Jersakova and Sam Greenbury assesses the reliability of state-of-the-art (SotA) probabilistic modelling approaches applied to physical systems.
Read more here.
Turing publications and policy submissions: AI governance around the world – China
China has emerged as one of the largest AI economies in the world and an early mover in AI regulation. Arcangelo De Castris,
Research Manager, AI Governance, and his co-authors take a deep dive.
Read more here.
Call for Papers for MFM4Health: Multimodal Foundation Models for Healthcare: Methods and Applications, Lancaster, 23rd–26th November 2026
(NB: the Alan Turing Institute is not involved in this activity)
MFM4Health brings together researchers at the frontier of multimodal foundation models and healthcare, focusing on methods integrating imaging, video, clinical text, and wearables to tackle high-impact clinical challenges – from surgical video understanding and procedural assessment to risk prediction, patient monitoring, and social care for ageing populations.
Areas of interest include, but are not limited to:
- Multimodal Foundation Models for Healthcare
- Vision-Language and Large Language Models for Clinical Applications
- Multimodal Learning from Medical Imaging, Biosignals, Wearables, EHRs, and Genomics
- Self-Supervised, Few-Shot, and Zero-Shot Learning for Clinical AI
- Foundation Models for Medical Image and Video Understanding
- Multimodal Temporal Reasoning and Longitudinal Patient Modelling
- Efficient, Privacy-Preserving, and Federated Foundation Models for Healthcare
- Trustworthy, Explainable, and Responsible Multimodal AI for Clinical Decision Support
Find out more here.
Funding
EPSRC Next generation artificial intelligence (AI): explainable AI
Opening date: 11th August 2026 9:00am UK time
Closing date: 20th October 2026 4:00pm UK time
Full details are here
Apply for funding for projects focused on speculative and high-risk fundamental research with the potential to deliver high reward and a step change in the explainability of future artificial intelligence (AI) systems.
Applications are particularly welcomed from early and mid-career UK researchers.
You must be based at a UK research organisation eligible for UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) funding.
The full economic cost (FEC) of your project can be up to £602,500. UKRI will fund 80% of the FEC (£482,000).
Projects must start on 1 February 2027 and last for up to 24 months.
ESRC Doctoral focal award plus: innovating in data-driven research
Closing date: 14th October 2026 4:00pm UK time
Full details are here
We are commissioning one doctoral focal award plus to develop a cadre of social scientists from doctoral studentships and across career stages with the skills needed to use data-driven research approaches in innovative ways. It will deliver both doctoral training and targeted training and capacity-building activities.
Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) will contribute a maximum of £5.85 million.
You must be based at a UK research organisation eligible for ESRC funding.
Lancaster's Policing Academic Centre of Excellence (L-PACE), in partnership with the UKRI-funded NetworkPlus for Analytical Behavioural Science in Security and Defence (NABS+) is pleased to announce a new commissioning call.
Surveillance has long been a cornerstone of effective law enforcement. Advances in technology have transformed the surveillance landscape for both overt and covert capabilities, as well as the challenges of counter-surveillance.
While directed and intrusive surveillance has been subject to governance through the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA 2000), surveillance by law enforcement more generally faces a range of technological, psychological, social and behavioural challenges.
We are interested in funding up to £100k for a 12-month project that seeks to re-examine questions that have long been associated with law enforcement surveillance – but which may have taken on different forms in the light of modern technological developments.
Call Specification
You can find full details of the call in the Call Specification. It outlines the programme goals, the type of funding available, the process by which eligible bodies may apply, and mandatory requirements for applications: https://lnkd.in/eBwFeB93
Deadlines:
13th October 2026; 17:00 – Deadline for questions and queries
20th October 2026; 17:00 – Deadline for submitting full proposals
w/c 14th December 2026 – Commissioning panel meeting
December 2026 – Successful applicants informed and award commencement
Reminders
ADR UK is inviting applications from existing Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) Doctoral Training Partnerships (DTPs) to host a cohort of PhD studentships using ADR UK linked administrative data.
This funding opportunity is for PhD Supervisors. The successful studentships will be announced in January 2027, and following recruitment, the PhD students will start in October 2027.
The DTP deadline for applications is 16:00 on 15th September 2026.
Current Job/PhD Opportunities
Senior Research Associate: Marine Field Ecology for AI-Enabled Behavioural Monitoring
Full details are here
Senior Research Associate: Artificial Intelligence for Ecology
Full details are here
Lancaster Environment Centre
Location: Bailrigg, Lancaster, UK
Closing Date: Sunday 13 September 2026
Interview Date: Friday 9 October 2026
An exciting opportunity for a marine field ecologist to lead data collection and research across reef systems globally and UK coastal waters as part of the BEACON project to harness animal behaviour as an early warning system for conservation.
Location: Lancaster. Substantial fieldwork on coral reefs and UK coastal waters required.
Contract length: 2 years.
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