Pre-call Announcement: UKRI-JST Joint Call on Artificial Intelligence and Society <https://esrc.ukri.org/funding/funding-opportunities/ukri-jst-joint-call-on-artificial-intelligence-and-society/>


The Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) of the UK and the Research Institute of Science and Technology for Society (RISTEX) of Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST), are pleased to announce a joint call for proposals exploring the impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies on society and the economy. The call will officially open on 8 May 2019 and is expected to close mid-July 2019. This notice is being issued now to allow interested researchers to begin discussions with potential research partners in advance of the formal call for proposals.


The total UK budget for this call will be £2 million. The total Japanese budget for this call will be ¥120 million. Together we expect to fund between five and seven joint proposals for a period of three years.



Scope of the call

This call aims to foster collaboration between UK and Japanese social science, arts and humanities researchers around the theme of Artificial Intelligence and its impact on society. The call aims to promote interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research and to position the social sciences, arts and humanities as an integral part of the process for developing and exploring AI systems, and ensuring that those systems provide the greatest benefit to people and societies. Ultimately, the call aims to contribute towards the development of a platform for effective and sustained dialogue and engagement between a range of researchers and other relevant stakeholders, eventually leading to practical implementation and policy recommendations.



Thematic areas


Thematic areas for the call are listed below and further details will be available in the call specification once the call is formally launched:


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Impacts on humans and society

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Economic implications, skills, work and education

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Transparency, responsibility, governance and ethics



Key dates


The call will officially launch 8 May 2019. The closing date for proposals is expected to be mid-July 2019. Successful projects are expected to commence in January 2020. Detailed guidance on how to apply will be provided with the publication of the call for proposals documents.



Further queries can be directed to jointaisocietycall@esrc.ukri.org <mailto:jointaisocietycall@esrc.ukri.org>