UK-Kenya AI Challenge Fund

The UK-Kenya AI Challenge Fund is an initiative that brings together leading institutions from the UK and Kenya to address pressing developmental challenges through responsible artificial intelligence (AI) innovation. This initiative seeks to advance AI capabilities whilst prioritising safety, ethics, and inclusive development.

The initiative was established as an outcome of a partnership and peer-peer learning exchange visit to the UK for Kenyan AI and emerging technologies policymakers held June 2024. The exchange visit recommended establishing partnerships between UK and Kenyan organisations for sustained knowledge exchange, creating a Kenyan AI Safety Institute modelled on the UK approach, developing a comprehensive AI governance framework, and creating a fund to support projects that will support UK-Kenya peer to peer knowledge exchange.

Launched in September 2024, the initiative is jointly implemented by The African Centre for Technology Studies (ACTS) and the Alan Turing Institute (ATI) with funding from the UK AID.

Strategic Focus Projects supported through this Fund concentrate on three primary areas:

Applied AI Research with tangible development impacts
AI Ethics and Standards development
AI Safety frameworks and implementations

Each funded project demonstrates commitment to:

Equitable partnership between Kenyan and British institutions
Sustainable implementation pathways
Integration of local context and solutions
Multidisciplinary approaches
Inclusion of diverse perspectives and participants

Project partners

1. Cohort 1

United States International University- Africa
THink
Institute of Development Studies (UK)
Dedan Kimathi University of Technology
Office for National Statistics (UK) - Kenya National Bureau of Statistics

2. Cohort 2

The Judiciary, Ministry of Information, Technology and the Digital Economy, and the Regional Centre of Excellence
Dedan Kimathi University of Technology and Northumbia University

3. Cohort 3