The project, NILab, will be led by Queen’s and funded with £7M (BBSRC-NERC Doctoral Landscape Awards) as part of the UK Government’s Research Innovation (UKRI) programme.

NILab will host 60 PhD studentships over the next 8 years, using AI to drive breakthroughs in health, nutrition, and antimicrobial resistance. The programme will produce a cohort of highly skilled graduates, address local skill gaps and boost employability and the Northern Ireland economy.

One Health

The project will not only bring NI’s two universities together but also involves a partnership of academic disciplines, with future participants at Queen’s based between the School of Electronics, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EEECS); School of Medicine, Dentistry and Biomedical Sciences; and the School of Biological Sciences.

With a commitment to ‘One Health’ - the principle that the health of the planet, humans and animals are all intimately connected – NILab will drive AI-powered research at the interface of human health, environmental and animal wellbeing.

Principal Investigator on NILab, Professor Hui Wang from the School of EEECS at Queen’s said:

“NILab is built upon a bold vision to harness AI for accelerating bioscience discovery and transforming our understanding of the biological processes underlying health.

“Through training PhD researchers in both AI and biological sciences, we will equip them with crucial skills in AI-powered causality analysis, hypothesis generation, and biomarker discovery to tackle complex challenges in health and biological sciences.

“This training has the potential to push the frontiers of AI-bioscience integration, driving innovations in areas such as drug discovery and repurposing, diagnostics, healthy ageing, and nutrition.”

Principal Investigator at Ulster University for NILab, Professor Helene McNulty, Director of Ulster’s Nutrition Innovation Centre for Food & Health (NICHE) said:

"We are delighted to collaborate with our partners at Queen's on the NILab project, focussed on training a new generation of highly skilled scientists in the use of AI for cutting-edge research to drive innovation and address the urgent challenges of our time in health, nutrition, and antimicrobial resistance.  

"Through this exciting initiative, we will offer the opportunity for interdisciplinary training to PhD level right across Northern Ireland, producing highly skilled graduates who are ideally placed to address local needs, to boost the Northern Ireland economy and to improve the lives of our citizens."

Commenting on the School of Biological Sciences' involvement, Professor Ilias Kyriazakis said:

We are delighted for our School to have a substantial involvement in this new DTP. Ai is becoming of increasing importance in all aspects of biological science research and applications. NILab complements very well our current Centre for Doctoral Training SUSTAIN which aims transform Agri-food systems by AI

It’s the second major investment from UKRI in quick succession at Queen’s, with another doctoral training programme in cyber security recently awarded to the Centre for Secure Information Technologies

Media

Media inquiries to Una Bradley u.bradley@qub.ac.uk