Since launching, the No10 Innovation Fellowship has attracted many great technologists into government with a diverse set of experience and skills.
All of them have built on successful careers in big tech- start-ups and academia. Bringing their skills to bear in transforming government.
Several have ended up staying in Government, with the Fellowship acting as a springboard to technical leadership roles.
Our most recent cohort collectively developed tools in 48 hours that allowed the Prime Minister and Government leaders respond to emerging crises in real time, led the world’s first pre-deployment testing of a frontier AI model and improved capability and efficiency across a range of priority areas.
Alexander De Ville: Establishing a world leading AI Incubator
In November 2023, the government announced the creation of a new Incubator for Artificial Intelligence, a new team of 70 people tasked with spinning out rapid prototypes and improving cross-government infrastructure.
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Solution
The establishment of i.AI is a unique challenge. In order to be a successful delivery organisation this fledgling team would need to hit the ground running by delivering AI solutions to ministerial priorities, whilst in parallel putting in place the systems and processes that would help it scale it’s success and maximise it’s impact.
Alex was deployed in to i.AI and quickly went about bringing his previous experience to bear by putting in place those systems and processes, ensuring that i.AI is prioritising the right projects, adequately deploying it’s resources and measuring impact. He did this whilst lending his technical expertise to the delivery of novel AI products that cover a breadth of public sector use cases, from improving health outcomes, counteracting fraud, optimising our electricity grids and improving how public appointments are made.
Thoughts on the Fellowship so far
I truly believe that the No10 innovation fellowship is a fantastic programme. The people are excellent and the team is truly a technical powerhouse in the centre of government. You couldn’t work on more meaningful projects for the public good, a step-change is possible. Also, the exposure and personal engagement with senior decision makers is fantastic, in my first week I had already presented to two ministers!
Biography
Alex has over a decade of experience in AI and Government and was previously an Analytics Product Manager at QuantumBlack and McKinsey & Co. He has served public and private institutions across four continents including 6 UK Government departments and set up the Ethiopian Tax Office’s Data & Analytics transformation in Addis Ababa in 2018.
Alex graduated from a 2-year Masters in Public Administration and International Development at the Harvard Kennedy School.
Alex Martin: Improving the delivery of major government projects
Established in 2016, the Infrastructure and Projects Authority (IPA) supports the delivery of all types of critical government projects; from railways, schools, hospitals and housing, to defence, IT and major transformation programmes. The IPA therefore holds a wealth of data on government projects, the deployment of a No10 Innovation Fellow in to the IPA presented the opportunity to unlock a huge amount of latent value in this data.
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Solution
Alex has enabled the IPA to gain fresh insights from the large collection of data they have on the governments major project portfolio (GMPP_. The solutions he has developed leverage a range of technologies, from Large Language Models to Graph Neural Networks. They are currently being tested on real projects with hugely positive results.
Thoughts on the Fellowship so far
The No10 Innovation Fellowship has been an opportunity to have significant impact on government services from the inside, in quite a short amount of time. The datasets and collaborators we have access to have enabled us to conceive of and deliver projects that would be be difficult if not impossible anywhere else.
Biography
Alex was a researcher at the intersection of quantum computing and machine learning. His day-to-day work involved designing, training & deploying new algorithms to solve real world problems in computer vision and optimisation.
He took an active role in helping parts of the public and private sector adopt quantum technologies. In doing this he developed novel quantum machine learning techniques and saw the impact that delivering new technologies to legacy organisations can have.
Nicole Kayode: Improving the efficiency of clinical trials
Clinical research is difficult and costly, with only 7% of clinical trials in humans resulting in a viable drug.
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Solution
Working with Google Health, Nicole outlined a deliverable strategy to meet the vision of creating a “data enabled” solution. They also worked closely with NHS Digital on a navigation tool to access health data and improve trial efficacy. Nicole acted as a leader in removing the blockers that slow the progress of clinical trials and improve methods of cancer early detection.
Impact
This data enabled solution makes it easier, faster and more effective to conduct clinical research in the UK set out by The Future of UK Clinical Research.
Biography
Founder and CEO of Medixus, a mobile platform connecting medics across Africa in real time, allowing them to collaborate on patient cases.
‘I’ve been amazed at the willingness, desire and readiness to move fast and innovate within NHSx – there are so many high impact projects ongoing at any given moment, and people are truly dedicated to getting the best outcomes they can.’
Mohamed Ibrahim: Rapid prototyping in days, not months
The newly established Incubator for AI received a deluge of requests from government departments to tackle their diverse AI use cases.
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Solution
Mohamed acted with a great degree of autonomy to rapidly prototype a diverse range of new AI solutions in days, not months. These included a mobile app equipped with on-device AI that uses computer vision to recognise and allow citizens to report report issues such as anti-social behaviour and criminal damage. A platform that uses predictive analytics, deep learning and spatial modelling to allow policymakers to visualise, query, and create predictive scenarios about the UK, from urban planning decisions to mobility flows. And a secure offline AI assistant that lets Civil Servants safely and privately converse with their own data at a time when publicly available LLMs present data security risks.
Impact
Developing these solutions at pace allows i.AI to rapidly test the many use cases that government departments want to test, at a fraction of the cost and time it would take to procure private sector support. The capability Mohamed brought to i.AI helped establish the new team’s credibility as a centre for excellence and several of his early projects are now being developed further.
Thoughts on the Fellowship so far
“Working on AI projects within the civil services provides an excellent chance to significantly impact people’s lives on a large scale. In my initial weeks, I had the opportunity to showcase one of my AI project ideas live to more than 3000 civil servants and decision-makers across the UK!”
Biography
Mohamed is a lecturer in Spatial Data Science at the University of Leeds, affiliated with Institute for Spatial data and Leeds Institute for Data Analytics (LIDA). He specialises in using AI, specifically, computer vision and deep learning to analyse the built environment, human mobility, and behaviour in cities.
He is also interested in developing AI-powered integrated hardware that can be deployed directly in cities.
Prior to joining Leeds, he was postdoctoral research associate in Human Mobility at the Alan Turing Institute. He is also the creator of URBAN-i and the AI-embedded camera, called URBAN-i Box.
Mohamed has been trained as an Architect who has worked in various architectural and urban design projects across the globe. He holds doctoral degree from in Engineering from UCL and M.Sc. degree in Urban Developments from TU Berlin in Germany, besides his B.Sc. in Architectural Engineering.
Daniel James: Helping to reduce the burden of mass-testing
Mass testing for Covid-19 cost £22 billion and to be effective it was reliant on active participation by the public.
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Solution
To identify infectious disease earlier, the API records locally collated data on wastewater, with plans to extend into air quality, clinical tests and 111 call records.
Impact
Using a novel approach to live data ingestion, the community health API Allows infectious diseases to be identified earlier by providing an early warning system for decision makers, in a more accessible and reliable format. This can allow key decision makers to be able to anticipate the severity of an outbreak and the subsequent pressures on the NHS Services with more certainty – as a result of the population coverage of the non-invasive monitoring. Ultimately saving lives and reducing the costs associated with mass testing.
Biography
Chief Product Officer at AMPLYFI – a leading UK business intelligence start-up. Former research scientist and full stack developer at University College London.
Daniel joined the Fellowship for ‘the opportunity to work on challenges of this scale and with a direct positive impact on society is unparalleled. It’s exciting, rewarding and super fun!’
Rudy Benfredj: Developing a National Trusted Research Environment
Wider access to health data by world leading experts drives and accelerates the kinds of innovations in healthcare that enable new treatments and cure the diseases that impact millions of lives each year. It is not possible to do this responsibly without world leading secure data infrastructure.
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Solution
To achieve this, a high-quality UK health data available for research, innovation, and care was developed, whilst maintaining the highest standards in privacy, security and public trust for our patients and the NHS.
Impact
Rudy enabled UK health and care to be harnessed and thus accelerated the UK’s world-leading medical research.
Biography
Co-founder and CEO of Mendelian Health, which uses its own award-winning software to identify rare diseases in electronic health records.
‘I’ve been impressed with the scale and ambition of the projects undertaken here. It can be a tricky environment to navigate at first but there is a healthy dose of contagious optimism everywhere you look.’
Helen Balinsky: Real Time Insights to safeguard vulnerable children
Having data is only part of the battle. Fully exploiting ‘big data’ is a relatively new challenge for most government departments. The reality of rich data is that it is a computationally demanding to process, ultimately slowing our ability to identify and intervene for children at risk.
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Solution
Helen identified and engineered flows for a new and exciting Attendance Data Stream for DfE, which allows the efficient handling of the data and provide live policy insights.
Impact
The new solution ensures that the department is set up to use new rich data sources to safeguard vulnerable children and improve their educational outcomes. Opening up the potential to better understand daily patterns at the individual level, in real time. DfE can now deliver actionable analytics and insights, underpinning various child services, alerting corresponding authorities about critical intervention points, whilst halving processing time to provide decision makers with near live analytics. As a result of this project, the speed by which relevant authorities can access pupil safety data was improved 10x.
Biography
A senior executive with over 20 years’ experience at Hewlett-Packard, seeding and leading cutting edge data science and cyber security projects.
Helen joined the fellowship to ‘Discover new opportunities, lead the way, and deliver the results that matter!’
Joe Blair: Creating a bold and ambitious DDAT strategy
Government’s Digital, Data and Technology (DDAT) strategy and investment lags behind basic industry standards in many places, meaning that we are constantly playing catch up as demand and expectations continue to rise, whilst investment lags.
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Solution
A ‘catch up’ strategy was developed and implemented by Joe to rethink operating models and adopt new ways of working. Using a cohesive, evidence-based strategy and implementation plan.
Impact
Through an ambitious and systemic approach earlier intervention is now possible, with rapid delivery cycles – ultimately revolutionising DDAT in DfE. The strategy had overwhelming support from DfE’s Board.
Biography
Founding member and Director of Product at The Key, which provides online support and cloud-based products to over 50% of schools in England.
‘The Fellowship is a unique opportunity to influence how government works, but what really matters to me is having an impact on day-to-day life in schools and colleges.’
Onyeka Onyekwelu
The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) held a wealth of data that they wanted support to more effectively utilise, and they hoped that the fellows would be able to support more general digital and data upskilling.
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Solution
Onyeka and Johannes worked together to upskill FCDO staff, and help realise the value in their data.
Impact
This program generated wide ranging improvements, including standardising workflows and tooling to enable FCDO staff to draw greater insight from geospatial data; improving digital and data literacy; supporting more effective targeting of future funds and resources; enabling FCDO to work more inclusively with partners in-country to support marginalised groups; and accelerating development of new monitoring and forecasting programs.
Biography
Trained as a barrister, Onkeya was the Strategic Engagement Manager at the London Office of Technology and Innovation. She has previously worked with UN Women, the Equality and Human Rights Commission and Bar Associations to develop flagship projects focused on access to justice, digitisation of the courts, and equality and diversity nationally and internationally. She has joined the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.
‘Innovation isn’t always about shiny tech or new tools and systems. I’m here to challenge the way we think and encourage a culture of collaboration, where people feel empowered to go after the change they wish to see.’
Johannes Petrat
The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) held a wealth of data that they wanted support to more effectively utilise, and they hoped that the fellows would be able to support more general digital and data upskilling.
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Solution
Johannes and Onyeka worked together to upskill FCDO staff, and help realise the value in their data.
Impact
This program generated wide ranging improvements, including standardising workflows and tooling to enable FCDO staff to draw greater insight from geospatial data; improving digital and data literacy; supporting more effective targeting of future funds and resources; enabling FCDO to work more inclusively with partners in-country to support marginalised groups; and accelerating development of new monitoring and forecasting programs.
Biography
Highly experienced data scientist, previously working at innovative tech companies including Improbable, Cap Gemini and Hitaachi
‘Having witnessed the transformational power of technology with my own eyes, I feel passionate about how data and technology can make this world a better place. I like working in fast-paced, cross-functional teams because I believe that learning from different professions makes me more effective as a data scientist and more complete as a leader.’