As the government works through its discovery phase, this discussion offers a vital platform for shaping a National Data Library that genuinely serves the public interest while supporting innovation. Join us to contribute your perspectives on how Britain can lead the world in building this essential digital infrastructure for the AI age.
The United Kingdom can and should be leading the world in artificial intelligence driven innovation, research and data-enabled public services. We have world-leading data, the institutions, and the expertise to set global standards. Yet, despite these advantages, our current data infrastructure presents challenges for realising our full potential. Public sector data often exists in separate and siloed systems, access protocols vary, and we lack efficient mechanisms to connect and use this information systemically.
At this critical juncture, with the National Data Library being designed and developed to meet this challenge, we have assembled thought leaders to examine the foundational questions that will determine whether Britain can become the first nation to build the infrastructure needed to fully harness AI for public good. They’ll discuss whether the promise to democratise access to high-value datasets, bolster AI-readiness, and strengthen public service delivery is possible and positive for the public good.
Our expert panel will explore the vision of the National Data Library, the governance structures, technical architectures, priority datasets, and ethical frameworks needed to ensure it becomes more than a mere consolidation of existing resources. We'll address fundamental questions about data accessibility, how to balance centralisation with federation, and the practical requirements for making this initiative genuinely useful for organisations of all sizes.
Speakers:
Professor Elena Simperl, Director of Research, ODI
Elena Simperl is the ODI’s Director of Research and a Professor of Computer Science at King’s College London. She is also a Fellow of the British Computer Society, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, a senior member of the Society for the Study of AI and Simulation of Behaviour, and a Hans Fischer Senior Fellow.
Elena’s research is in human-centric AI, exploring socio-technical questions around the management, use, and governance of data in AI applications. According to AMiner, she is in the top 100 most influential scholars in knowledge engineering of the last decade. She also features in the Women in AI 2000 ranking.
In her 15-year career, she has led 14 national and international research projects, contributing to another 26. She leads the ODI’s programme of research on data-centric AI, which studies and designs the socio-technical data infrastructure of AI models and applications. Elena chaired several conferences in artificial intelligence, social computing, and data innovation. She is the president of the Semantic Web Science Association.
Elena is passionate about ensuring that AI technologies and applications allow everyone to take advantage of their opportunities, whether that is by making AI more participatory by design, investing in novel AI literacy interventions, or paying more attention to the stewardship and governance of data in AI.
Anastasia Bektimirova, Head of Science and Technology, The Entrepreneurs Network
Anastasia is the Head of Science and Technology at The Entrepreneurs Network. The Entrepreneurs Network aims to bridge the gap between entrepreneurs and policymakers, with the aim of making Britain the best place in the world to start and grow a business.
She recently co-authored a joint paper with the Tony Blair Institute “Governing in the Age of AI: Building Britain's National Data Library”, which outlines recommendations for the Government on the strategy and implementation of the NDL.
Previously, as a Senior Researcher at Onward, she co-authored a report on how the UK can build a strategic advantage in critical technologies, which proposed establishing the British Library for Data to remove systemic barriers to data access, ensuring that high-quality, including AI-ready, public-sector data can be safely and efficiently used by scientists and private-sector innovators, while enhancing public services and maintaining public trust.
Anastasia’s main interests include AI policy, research commercialisation, and broader issues related to improving institutional effectiveness in delivering on national science and technology objectives.
James Laming, Global VP of Operations, Ovation Data
James Laming is the Global VP of Operations at Ovation Data. He specialises in solving complex data management challenges. James leads a global team that supports clients in the Oil and Gas, Heritage and Biotech sectors to achieve clean, structured, organised data sets that can be used to make critical business decisions and improve access.
James’ deep experience spans over 20 years working with complex geospatial and subsurface data sets. His team has led global projects with 250+ organisations in the upstream oil and gas data management environment.
James began his career focussing on helping organisations to extract valuable information from legacy media formats. His proudest achievement is helping NASA to recover critical satellite telemetry data from NASA’s 1969 Mars Mariner 7 mission stored on 7 track media which lead to the confirmation of the landing site of the Pathfinder’s Sojourner rover.
James expanded his skill set into data analysis and management leading complex international data projects. He has experience in supporting several NDR projects with both ETAP in Tunisia and Onyhm in Morocco and continues to work closely with the NSTA standards and requirements. James has successfully delivered numerous data digitisation projects to include Occidental and PDO in Oman, the National Oil Company of Madagascar and TGS.
James’ specialist expertise is in geophysical and geological data management and technology, his relentless pursuit for ready to run, accessible and share-able data is enabling OvationData to serve new verticals including Heritage and Biotech.
Henry Li Senior Policy Advisor, Health Policy, Tony Blair Institute for Global Change
Henry is an expert in global health and health security. His speciality lies at the intersection of health and innovation policies.
Henry provides insight, analysis and support to help global leaders prepare for the health challenges of tomorrow. His research centres on advancing biotechnological innovations to catalyse advancements in health, economic prosperity and security. He is part of the Global Health Security Consortium, TBI’s joint venture with the Ellison Institute for Transformative Medicine and a team of scientists at the University of Oxford.
Before joining TBI, he helped establish the World Health Organization Council on the Economics of Health For All.
About the webinar
The webinar is held on Zoom, and you will be sent a link.
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The webinar will be recorded, it will be made available on our ODI channel and emailed to all our email newsletter subscribers.