Queen Mary University of London has been awarded funding for a Centre for Doctoral Training in Artificial Intelligence and Music (AIM).
The Centre is a leading PhD research programme aimed at the music/audio technology and creative industries, funded by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) and led by Professor Simon Dixon.
AIM will offer more than 12 fully funded PhD studentships per year, focused on developing cutting-edge research in collaboration with industry partners, and will build upon Queen Mary's more than £6m investment in specialist facilities.
The core area of AIM is in music information research, or music informatics, a research area of importance to the UK’s creative industries focusing on the development of new approaches to understand and model music and to develop products and services for creation, interaction and experience of music and music-related information.
Research will focus on music understanding, intelligent instruments and interfaces, and computational creativity, guided by real application needs from partners across the digital music world.
AIM will also have a supervisory team of over 30 academics led by Queen Mary’s Centre for Digital Music (C4DM), a world-leading research group in the area of music and audio technology.
Professor Dixon, from the School of Electronic Engineering and Computer Science, said: “AIM will train a new generation of researchers who combine state-of-the-art ability in artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning and signal processing with cross-disciplinary sensibility to deliver groundbreaking original research and impact within the UK creative industries and cultural sector.”
The announcement comes as part of a £200m boost to create a new generation of AI leaders with 1,000 new PhDs and 16 new Centres for Doctoral Training.
UK Research and Innovation Chief Executive, Professor Sir Mark Walport, said: “To maintain its leadership in AI, the UK will need a new generation of researchers, business leaders and entrepreneurs equipped with new skills. Working with partners across academia and industry, the centres will provide the foundations for these future leaders.”
Business Secretary Greg Clark added: “Artificial intelligence has great potential to drive up productivity and enhance every industry throughout our economy, from more effective disease diagnosis to building smart homes. This announcement is our modern Industrial Strategy in action, investing in skills and talent to drive high skilled jobs, growth and productivity across the UK.”
Also announced are 200 new AI Masters places at UK universities and up to five new research fellows, created in collaboration with the Alan Turing Institute, which Queen Mary is a university partner.
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