The Defence Science and Technology Laboratory and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council are co-funding research projects aimed at strengthening the UK’s defence and security capability, including work focused on artificial intelligence to support intelligence analysis.
The collaboration supports a pipeline of specialists in priority defence areas through joint investment in initiatives such as MOD centres for doctoral training, Dstl-allocated doctoral landscape awards, AI and quantum hubs, and the Future Compute programme.
One of the projects funded through this partnership is being led by Richard Walters at the Alan Turing Institute. The two-year, £1.25m programme – AI Intelligence Triage and Acquisition Support for Human-centred Analysis, known as AiTASHA – aims to develop explainable AI systems designed to complement the work of intelligence analysts.
The project emerged from an EPSRC-organised “Sandpit”, a week-long research development event bringing together academics, government scientists and defence stakeholders. Around 60 participants collaborated to explore how AI could assist decision-making in national security and defence settings.
Intelligence analysts often assess large volumes of complex and uncertain data to identify potential threats. According to the project team, AiTASHA will focus on improving the speed and confidence of assessments by recommending which existing data should be prioritised for human review and identifying what additional information might be most useful to collect.
The research team includes partners from Warwick University, University of Southampton, Heriot-Watt University and Cardiff University. It is one of two projects funded through the Sandpit process.
Alongside technical work in machine learning and statistics, the programme will examine human factors and AI ethics, reflecting the requirement for transparent and defensible systems in defence and national security contexts.
The partnership between Dstl and EPSRC forms part of wider efforts to link academic research with operational defence needs, while supporting the development of future scientific and technical expertise.
