Scholars have been awarded £3.4 million to assess the value of artificial intelligence tools published for doctoral research in the UK.
Research England allocated funds to a consortium led by Aston University and the University of Leeds. It stated that little attention was paid to the use of AI by doctoral researchers, their supervisors and examiners.
This project, the Artificial Intelligence Researcher Development Network (AI.RDN+), will investigate doctoral students and related staff to understand the current use of AI tools, the challenges involved, and how these will be negotiated. Academic plans to use this information to create a resource base with examples of guidance available to AI tools, how to use them, and best practices.
The network will also create training and professional development resources and work with 12 members of eight Midlands Innovation Research Universities and Yorkshire University.
The project is led by Phil Mizen, professor of sociology and policy at Aston. Hosam Al-Samarraie, Associate Professor of Digital Innovation Design. Arunangs Chatterjee, dean of Leeds's digital transformation. Support comes from the UK graduate education, research and development institution Vitae, and university universities and business centres.
Project leaders said doctoral researchers and supervisors often felt that they were “unequipped” in terms of responsible and proper AI use with “very few” guidance generated by research and institutions of higher education.
“AI.RDN+ provides in-depth knowledge of the intake and impact of AI tools published throughout the PhD ecosystem and uses this to co-create much-needed information, resources, and professional and skill training opportunities,” says Mizen. “Our project is a unique opportunity to build knowledge, acquire innovation and use it to build the resources needed for the ethical and responsible use of AI in doctoral research.”
chris.havergal@timeshighereducation.com
