Our Past Events

In May 2026, we were delighted to welcome our local MP Ian Murray to visit the University of Edinburgh and share more about our work across AI in Healthcare. During this visit, our Business Development Executive, Vicky Young , presented on accelerating healthcare AI innovation in Scotland.

From Scotland's world-class health data infrastructure - covering 5 million patients across secure Trusted Research Environments - to Edinburgh's thriving ecosystem of clinical, computational and translational research, the presentation set out a compelling picture of what's possible when data, compute, and talent come together.

Central to the presentation was how the AI4BI CDT is directly contributing to the UK AI Opportunities agenda: our £20M UKRI-funded programme is training the next generation of biomedical AI researchers across genomics, imaging, cellular systems, and health informatics - with real-world NHS impact already underway in areas like predictive care, AI-enabled screening, and precision medicine.

Thank you to everyone for a thought-provoking session. The connection between doctoral training and translational impact has never felt more urgent or more exciting.

In May 2026, we attended the annual cross-CDT Machine Intelligence for Health (MI4H) Conference, this time hosted by Imperial College London at the University of Warwick.

This year’s conference brought together PhD researchers and early-career scientists from across the UKRI AI for Healthcare Centres for Doctoral Training to share research, exchange ideas, and build new collaborations across AI, healthcare, and biomedical innovation.

Across keynote talks, oral presentations, and poster sessions, attendees showcased cutting-edge doctoral research spanning:
• foundation models and multimodal AI
• medical imaging and diagnostics
• clinical decision support
• digital health and wearable technologies
• causal and explainable AI
• translational healthcare applications

It was great to see such a broad range of interdisciplinary research and to create space for researchers from different centres and backgrounds to connect and exchange ideas.

Thank you to the keynote speakers, presenters and attendees for contributing to a successful event. The future of AI-enabled healthcare is being shaped by this research community, and we are excited to see what comes next.

In March 2026, our AI4BI CDT Cross-Sector Forum convened colleagues from industry, healthcare, academia and public health to examine how advances in AI are shaping biomedical research and healthcare delivery.

The programme combined a range of formats designed to support both knowledge exchange and discussion. This included Twin Talks from academic and industry leaders, a speed networking session, focused small-group discussions, a student poster session, and a plenary panel bringing together perspectives from across the ecosystem.

Across the sessions, discussions reflected both the opportunities and the practical challenges associated with the growing adoption of AI in health. In particular, there was a strong emphasis on the need for robust validation approaches in drug discovery, alignment with regulatory expectations in advanced therapeutics, and clear pathways to achieving scalable and responsible implementation in healthcare settings.

The student poster session was an important part of the programme, showcasing emerging research from across the CDT and providing an opportunity for direct engagement between students and external stakeholders.

We are very grateful to our twin-talk speakers and plenary panel: Neil Carragher, Danielle Belgrave, Ian Duguid, Stuart Cobb, Beatrice Alex, David Lowe, Douglas Armstrong, Katriona Brooksbank, and Arlene Casey.

We also thank all participants for their active contributions throughout the day, which enabled valuable exchange across sectors.

In December 2025, we had the pleasure of hosting a networking lunch for our students and those from the Precision Medicine Doctoral Training Programme.

Precision Medicine DTP

Our two programmes share many common and intersecting research themes that merit closer interaction. The event encouraged students to make use of this overlap, providing an opportunity to meet others with similar interests and exchange ideas in a relaxed setting.

To add some fun to the session, there was also a board games social after lunch.

A big thank you to the co-directors at Precision Medicine, Susan Farrington and Tom MacGillivray, for their help in organising and hosting the event.

In June 2025, we had the pleasure of hosting Mark van der Laan who delivered an insightful lecture on Targeted Learning & Causal Inference for Generating Actionable Information. By sharing his expertise he helped advance our understanding of how rigorous statistical can lead to impactful, data-driven decisions in Healthcare.

In June 2025, we hosted the Edinburgh Symposium on AI for Genomics, jointly with One Health Genomics Edinburgh (OHGE). The event brought together researchers and innovators at the crossroads of Artificial Intelligence and Genomic Science. Our speakers delivered fantastic talks on a wide range of topics exploring how AI is unravelling the complexities of our genetic code and revolutionising healthcare. It was a wonderful opportunity to network with both early career and established researchers from across the UK.

In May 2025, we attended the UKRI AI CDTs in Healthcare Conference at The Milner York, organised by UCL.

This was the fourth joint meeting, encouraging scientific exchange and facilitating collaborative research in AI in healthcare.

The event again brought together this future generation of innovators from:

• Our students at AI4BI as well as UKRI CDT in Biomedical Artificial Intelligence at The University of Edinburgh
• AI for Healthcare Centres (AI4Health) at Imperial College London
• CDT in AI for Medical Diagnosis and Care at the University of Leeds
• CDT in AI-enabled Healthcare Systems at UCL 

We enjoyed an exciting programme of PhD researchers showcasing their research through talks and poster sessions, offering plenty of opportunity for learning and networking and in such a beautiful location! 

We were also lucky enough to hear from Sir Michael Brady.

In March 2025, we had the privilege of hosting our inaugural Biomedical AI Cross-Sector Forum. The event brought together brilliant minds from academia, industry and the public sector to share perspectives on translating AI research into practice for real-world benefits to human health. It was great to see so many people in attendance. We hope the connections made at the event will give rise to new cross-sector collaborations in the near future. Our exceptional speakers took the time to share their expertise and shed light on some of the key challenges and opportunities in AI for better healthcare. They delivered some excellent presentations across a range of topics:

Helen Colhoun (MRC Human Genetics Unit at the University of Edinburgh) on Harnessing E-health Records and Biobanks for Collaborative Research with Industry.

Sandy Weir & Duncan Simpson (Canon Medical Research Europe Ltd.) on the Challenges of AI Adoption in the Global Market.

Miguel O. Bernabeu (Usher Institute, The University of Edinburgh) on AI for Health and his views from a Medical Imaging perspective.

Nada MALOU on Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF)’s Experience in the Creation, Design, Development, and Scale-up of an AI-Powered Diagnostic Test.

Jonathan Fallowfield on the Opportunities and Challenges of AI in Hepatology.

Stephen J. Duffield on How is NICE - National Institute for Health and Care Excellence approaching AI for the evaluation of technologies.

The PhD students from the Biomedical AI CDT delivered a poster session presenting updates in their research over a variety of AI driven health topics.

We also had a career insights session, targeted at PhD students, focusing on the speakers' impressive career trajectories: Victoria Pereira (Goldman Sachs), Di Zhang (Teva Pharmaceuticals), Florian Klimm (Novo Nordisk), Oriol Canela-Xandri (Omecu), Olivier Labayle (University of Edinburgh).
 

We are grateful to everyone who helped make the event a success and look forward to hosting it annually going forward.