Labour commits £17.2m to support Spärck AI scholarships
The government puts up money to help drive the UK’s expertise in artificial intelligence
The government is funding a scholarship named after British computer scientist Karen Sparck Jones, who pioneered a technique for indexing documents quickly.
Labour said it would be providing full funding for master’s degrees at nine UK universities specialising in artificial intelligence (AI), and science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
Backed by £17.2m in funding, the government said scholarships will be offered to 100 talented undergraduate-level students from the UK and abroad, and also offer access to industry partnerships, work placements and mentorship opportunities, including in the UK’s AI Security Institute, as well as firms like Darktrace, Faculty and Quantexa.
Universities participating in the Sparck AI scholarship programme include Oxford, Cambridge, Imperial College London, UCL, Southampton, Edinburgh, Newcastle, Manchester and Bristol, who will co-design and co-fund the initiative.
Labour positions the scholarship in its Plan for Change, offering a direct route for young people into highly skilled jobs in the UK’s tech sector.
By covering both tuition and living expenses, the scholarship could also lower the financial burden of students from low-income backgrounds who might otherwise be unable to afford university.
“We are providing unique opportunities for talented young people to take up master’s degrees in AI, with fully funded tuition and unparalleled access to industry,” said Peter Kyle.
Applications will open in Spring 2026, with the first cohort beginning their studies in October 2026.
Along with the Sparck AI scholarship, Kyle said the government was expanding its fellowship programme to attract talent into the UK’s AI sector and drive forward transformational benefits to the public.
The expanded Turing AI Fellowship provides established professionals from any part of academia, humanities, research or industry with resources to develop AI skills and knowledge to tackle a specific challenge in their fields.
Industrial strategy
The government said the Sparck AI scholarships and expanded Turing Pioneer fellowships deliver on recommendations of the AI opportunities action plan to help grow the UK’s AI, as part of Labour’s industrial strategy.
At the start of London Tech Week, prime minister Keir Starmer also unveiled a partnership with 11 major companies to train 7.5 million workers in AI by 2030, as well as £185m of AI investment in the UK’s education system, starting in secondary schools, to bolster support for subjects such as computer science.
Along with its focus on building out the UK’s expertise in AI, through an initiative called One Big Thing, Labour also plans to roll out practical AI training for all civil servants in the coming months, and has promised technology upgrades to make the state fit for the future.
The practical training, set to roll out this autumn, will give all civil servants a working-level knowledge of AI and raise awareness of where the government is already using AI to transform public services.
The government also said officials will be tasked with assessing how they can use the technology to streamline their own work wherever possible.
