Applied AI Growth Workshop Series

Join Digital Catapult for the Applied AI Growth Workshop Series, four events exploring some of the most promising frontiers in artificial intelligence and their potential to drive UK innovation, investment, and industrial adoption. The series will bring together startups, researchers, industry leaders, investors, and policymakers to explore emerging AI approaches and identify opportunities for collaboration, commercialisation, and growth. 

Delivered by Digital Catapult, as part of the Applied AI Growth programme and funded by Innovate UK, covering AI for Engineering, AI for Science, Embodied AI, and Neurosymbolic AI, the series is designed to help organisations understand how emerging AI technologies could shape the future of products, services, research, and industrial systems.  

Whether you’re building AI solutions, exploring adoption opportunities, investing in frontier technologies, or helping shape the future regulatory landscape, these workshops will provide valuable insights and connections. 

We are currently inviting expressions of interest from individuals and organisations. By completing the form, you’ll help us understand which topics are most relevant to your organisation and ensure we shape the workshops around the needs of the ecosystem.

Wednesday 18 November 2026

AI is opening a much broader toolkit for engineering and materials innovation. Physics-informed AI models, generative design, agentic systems that can autonomously explore and iterate on design spaces, and materials discovery models, are creating opportunities for faster, lower-cost, and more capable engineering cycles. 

This workshop will bring together startups, technical teams, industrial engineers, manufacturers, and investors to explore how AI can be applied to real-world engineering challenges. Discussions will focus on practical applications, adoption barriers, and opportunities to accelerate innovation across manufacturing and engineering sectors. 

Who is this workshop for? 

• Startups and technical teams working on generative design, agentic engineering tools, physics-informed models, or materials-science AI 
• Manufacturers and engineering teams in aerospace, automotive, energy, and industrials 
• Materials scientists and R&D leads in relevant sectors 
• Investors with a materials, deep tech, or industrial technology focus 

 What you will gain?  

• An understanding of emerging AI approaches transforming engineering and product development.  
• Insights into high-value use cases where AI can reduce engineering costs and accelerate design cycles.  
• Greater awareness of opportunities and challenges across generative design, physics-informed modelling, agentic systems, and materials AI.  
• Connections with technology providers, industrial partners, and potential collaborators. 

Tuesday 25 November 2026

AI is beginning to transform scientific research through a growing range of approaches, from foundation models trained on scientific data and simulation-based discovery tools, to AI systems capable of proposing and executing experiments. These technologies have the potential to accelerate innovation across sectors including bio-manufacturing, drug discovery, agriculture, and healthcare. 

This workshop will bring together startups, researchers, industry leaders, and investors to explore how AI can accelerate scientific discovery and support the UK’s strategic research and innovation priorities. Attendees will gain insights into current capabilities, emerging opportunities, and the ecosystem support needed to drive real-world adoption and commercial impact. 

Who is this workshop for? 

• Startups and researchers developing AI-for-science and engineering biology solutions.  
• Pharmaceutical, biotech, agri-biotech, and healthcare R&D teams.  
• Academic and research institutions working in life sciences.  
• Investors focused on life sciences, biotechnology, and deep tech. 

What you will gain? 

• Insights into the latest developments in AI-enabled scientific discovery.  
• An understanding of opportunities and challenges facing AI adoption in research and development. 
• Connections with potential pilot partners, customers, and investors.  
• A clearer view of how AI could shape the future of UK R&D. 

Tuesday 19 January 2027

Embodied intelligence, AI systems that perceive, reason, and act in the physical world, is one of the fastest-evolving frontiers in AI. It spans a wide range of approaches, including world models and simulation-based training, foundation models for robotics, imitation and reinforcement learning, and multimodal perception systems.  

This workshop will bring together innovators working across embodied AI technologies with industrial adopters and investors to explore practical deployment opportunities, adoption challenges, and future market opportunities. Participants will gain a broader understanding of the embodied AI landscape while contributing to discussions about how the UK can build a competitive ecosystem in this rapidly emerging field. 

Who is this workshop for? 

• Startups and researchers working across robotics, simulation, perception, and autonomy technologies.  
• Industrial organisations in logistics, manufacturing, defence, energy, and infrastructure sectors.  
• Investors focused on robotics, physical AI, and deep tech.  
• Policy, standards, and certification bodies. 

What you will gain? 

• An overview of the current embodied AI landscape and emerging opportunities.  
• Insights into which technologies are ready for deployment and which remain longer-term opportunities.  
• Connections with industry adopters, investors, and technology innovators.  
• Practical discussions around barriers to adoption and commercialisation. 

Wednesday 27 January 2027

As AI systems are deployed in increasingly regulated, safety-critical, and high-assurance environments, the limitations of purely data-driven models are becoming harder to ignore. This workshop will explore neurosymbolic AI alongside a broader range of hybrid, verifiable, and trustworthy approaches designed to make AI systems more reliable, explainable, and auditable.  

Bringing together researchers, startups, industry representatives, investors, and policymakers, the session will explore where trustworthy AI reasoning is most needed and how emerging technologies could help overcome barriers to adoption. Attendees will have the opportunity to contribute to discussions shaping future innovation, assurance, and commercialisation pathways. 

Who is this workshop for? 

• Researchers developing neurosymbolic AI and other trustworthy AI approaches.  
• Startups building explainable, verifiable, or hybrid AI systems.  
• Industry and public sector organisations operating in regulated or safety-critical sectors.  
• Standards, assurance, and regulatory bodies.  
• Investors interested in trustworthy and explainable AI technologies. 

What you will gain? 

• Insights into emerging approaches to trustworthy AI reasoning.  
• A better understanding of opportunities and challenges for adoption in regulated environments.  
• Connections with startups, researchers, and potential pilot partners.  
• Greater awareness of evaluation, certification, and assurance considerations for advanced AI systems.