Topic: Prototypes

Exploratory projects pair AI expertise with a domain researcher to address a specific challenge in engineering biology, advanced materials, quantum technologies, medical research or fusion energy. Outputs may include prototypes, feasibility evidence, collaborations or research roadmaps; AI-method development without domain benefit is outside scope. Projects last up to 12 months and start on 26 April 2027. Applications opened 29 September 2026 and close 1 December 2026 at 16:00 UK time. Funding remains subject to Full Business Case approval.

Three seed awards support innovative brain-cancer projects that are not yet ready for larger funding. Projects should establish feasibility through pilot experiments, initial validation, prototypes or new therapeutic concepts. The application is a one-page proposal explaining the idea, work plan, milestones, budget and route to further development.

Theoretical linguistics postulates abstract structures that successfully explain key aspects of language. However, the precise relation between abstract theoretical ideas and empirical data from language use is not always apparent. Here, we propose to empirically test abstract semantic theories through the lens of probabilistic pragmatic modelling. We consider the historically important case of quantity words (e.g., `some', `all'). Data from a large-scale production study seem to suggest that quantity words are understood via prototypes. But based on statistical and empirical model comparison,