Frequently Asked Questions

The Manchester Prize is an initiative of the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) on behalf of HM Government.

The Department for Science, Innovation & Technology exists to drive innovation that will deliver improved public services, create new better-paid jobs and grow the economy.

Their responsibilities include:

• positioning the UK at the forefront of global scientific and technological advancement
• driving innovations that change lives and sustain economic growth
• delivering talent programmes, physical and digital infrastructure and regulation to support our economy, security and public services
  R&D funding

The Manchester Prize is delivered by Challenge Works.

Challenge Works is a global leader in design and delivery of open innovation challenges that mobilise diverse, innovative thinkers to solve pressing problems and unlock change. Founded by Nesta, the UK’s innovation foundation for social good, we are a social enterprise that has delivered 86 challenges to date and distributed more than £124 million to winning innovators.

The Manchester Prize is a challenge prize funded by the Department of Science, Innovation and Technology. It will award £1 million every year to a team of innovators with the boldest and most cutting-edge idea that uses AI for public good. Over the next two years, the first Manchester Prize is seeking innovation from UK-led teams with breakthrough ideas for overcoming challenges in the fields of energy, environment and infrastructure.

As we enter a new era where artificial intelligence plays an increasing role in the way we live, work, learn and enjoy ourselves, the UK is taking the lead in pioneering new AI solutions to some of the most important and difficult challenges in society.

Challenge prizes are a unique approach to funding innovation, offering a series of incentives, with a final prize given to whoever can first or most effectively meet a defined goal. They are public, open competitions which lower barriers to entry to attract the broadest possible community of innovators.

They differ from other types of prizes such as the Nobel or Pulitzer, in that they incentivise innovators to work towards a specific challenge, rather than being a reward for past achievements.

The first round of the Manchester Prize will run from December 2023 to March 2025.

The Manchester prize money will be awarded in two phases.

• Up to ten teams will be selected as finalists in April 2024, and receive £100,000 each.
• One team will be awarded the grand prize in March 2025, and receive £1,000,000.

When details are available, they will be announced by the Department of Science, Innovation and Technology. If you want to be first to hear updates about the Manchester Prize please do sign up to our newsletter.

All entrants were informed of the outcome of their entry via Submittable on 8th May. Please get in touch if you have any issues accessing your submittable account.

All entries should be made through the online entry form

Submissions open on 7th December 2023.

Submissions close on 1 February 2024 at 12 noon GMT.

The entry forms should be submitted in English.

You may submit as many entries as you wish, but one entry per lead organisation or individual will be selected as a finalist.

Unfortunately the large volume of entries mean we cannot provide personalised feedback.

The first Manchester Prize is seeking innovation from UK-led innovators with breakthrough ideas for overcoming challenges in the fields of energy, environment and infrastructure. We expect entries from individuals, companies and other types of organisation (e.g. non profits, charities, research and technology organisations).

Challenge prizes are designed to be open to a wide range of organisations and individuals. What matters is the quality of your solution – not your profile or track record.

For your team to be eligible to enter the Manchester Prize, you must meet these requirements:

• Eligible entrants: Entries can come from individuals, companies and other organisations (e.g. non-profits, charities, research and technology organisations). In the case of individuals, the lead entrant must be at least 18 years of age.
• Consortia entries: Teams may enter as consortia of any combination of the above but must nominate one individual or organisation as the lead entrant. The lead entrant will enter into contracts and receive funding from the Manchester Prize. Organisations and individuals other than the lead entrant can be based outside of the UK.
• Geographical scope: The lead entrant must be based in the United Kingdom and be able to receive funds into a UK bank account in the name of the lead entrant.

In addition to these requirements, teams will be subject to due diligence checks, and teams which are led by an individual will need to have registered a legal UK entity and have a business bank account in place prior to receiving any finalist award.

You may submit as many entries as you wish, but one entry per lead entrant will be selected as a finalist.

We aren’t applying a specific definition of AI, but we’re particularly interested in solutions that demonstrate advances in technical capabilities such as generalisation, uncertainty quantification, interpretability, data-efficient AI and physics-based AI.

Innovative and technically groundbreaking uses of AI refer to novel technical approaches, solutions to a problem in the underlying AI, and/or an application of your AI solution to solve a problem much better than it can currently be solved. Innovation in the business model, marketing or service design is not considered.

Solutions could include:

• Reducing energy costs for consumers by using AI to model household energy use and identify targeted interventions, such as retrofitting and replacement.
• Supporting emergency service response by bringing together a range of spatial data about the road and built environment to improve last mile routing.
• Improving the response to extreme weather conditions by using AI and earth observation data to predict areas vulnerable to flooding, or to support better real-time spatial data of events such as wildfires and flash floods.
• Reducing disruption to public services through predictive modelling of infrastructure resilience, with automated scheduling of maintenance, such as deploying teams to fix potholes or other traffic obstructions.
• Enhancing food security by using earth observation and soil data to monitor and improve farming productivity and crop yield.
• Improving efficiency and reducing resource consumption in manufacturing by using AI to optimise or automate energy-intensive processes.

There are no strict requirements for technological maturity at the point of entry, but we would expect many entries to already have some technology or intellectual property (IP). Solutions that are already a mature technology that is deployed in the market are unlikely to meet the assessment criteria; we are looking for entries that are planning significant research and development activity during the finalist phase, lasting until January 2025.

The teams must be able to demonstrate a working prototype of their proposed solution by the end of the finalist phase in January 2025.

You are welcome to enter with solutions with a developed proof of concept with scope for further development and refinement. Teams can also take an existing solution that’s in the market for one use case, and significantly adapt it to apply to another.

Solutions that are already mature technology that is deployed in the market are unlikely to meet the assessment criteria; we are looking for entries that are planning significant rese

Your solution must have some relevance for the UK: while we are open to solutions that have impacts all over the world, you will be asked on the entry form to explain why the problem you are focusing on is important for the UK. This answer will be used by the judging panel when assessing your entry against the ‘impact’ criterion.

Up to ten finalists will be picked at the end of the entry phase, and one winner of the grand prize will be picked at the end of the finalist phase. 

At both points, the successful teams will be selected based on five judging criteria. These are equally weighted.

The judging criteria are:

• Innovation: Teams should demonstrate how their solution is an innovation in artificial intelligence (AI), compared to what is the current state of the art. This may be innovation in the underlying AI, or in a novel application of an existing AI approach, or both. (Innovation in the business model, marketing or service design is not taken into account.)

• Impact: Teams should clearly define what impact they aim to have and why they expect this to arise from their solution. The impact must relate to the challenge statement, but it does not need to align with any of the example use cases set out.

• Long-term viability: Teams should articulate why there is a credible path to adoption (commercial or non-commercial) for their solution, and what their plan is to pursue it.

• Feasibility: The team should show how their scientific and technical approach is appropriate and how the team has the capacity to deliver a working prototype by the end of 2024.
• Safety and ethics: The team should show they are taking action to showcase best practice in responsible AI.

Note that the solution’s impact should be important for the United Kingdom

After the deadline at 12 noon (GMT) on 1 February 2023, eligible entries will be assessed against the judging criteria by suitably qualified assessors. 

A shortlist of the best entries in line with the judging criteria will be provided to the independent judging panel, chaired by Professor Nick Jennings,  who will make recommendations for which entries should receive funding and advance through to the finalist phase.

The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology will ratify the final decision based on the judges’ recommendations. For the entrant phase, you can expect to hear about the status of your entry in April 2024.

The finalist phase of the Manchester Prize sees finalist teams developing their solutions into a working prototype. The phase runs from May 2024 to January 2025 . During this phase, the finalists will receive a range of non-financial support including a package of compute, in addition to a £100,000 grant.

Finalists will be selected at the end of the entry phase based on the judging criteria.

Only teams selected as finalists at the end of the entry phase will be eligible to compete in the finalist phase.

Teams retain all intellectual property (IP) rights to solutions they develop in competing for the Manchester Prize.