Open Source AI Builder Pack

Too often, AI is presented as inevitable: built in a few places, by a few companies, with everyone else left to adapt, adopt and accept the terms of change. 

Britain has never accepted that view of progress. 

That is why we are launching the Open-Source AI Builder Pack: a package of compute, cash, technical support and a line to government for the strongest open-source AI projects from the DSIT/NVIDIA Hack for Impact hackathon. 

Compute Fund

A 160,000 GPU-hour AIRR compute fund for selected hackathon teams building open-source AI tools in the UK. Individual projects will receive between 10-20k of this fund 

The fund will support projects with a credible route to further development after the hackathon, with a focus on teams prioritising positive social/public impact  

*Applicants will also have to pass UKRI eligibility checks to access the allocation  

Apply for compute →

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i.AI Builder Mentoring

Selected teams will be paired with i.AI technical experts to help them continue building after the event. 

The mentoring offer is designed to give promising open-source AI projects the practical support they need to become reusable public AI assets. 

Apply for mentoring →

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Open-Source AI Dev Board

We will open the doors of government to ten UK-based open-source AI developers under the age of 30 to shape DSIT’s open-source AI ecosystem engagement 

The Board will be chaired by the Minister for AI, and provide practical input over 2026 through a series of roundtables with ministers, officials and the AI Strategy Team. 

Dev Board coming soon

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£10k Builder Stipend

A £10,000 cash stipend to help open-source AI builders keep building, provided by the Mozilla charitable foundation.  

The stipend will support projects that demonstrate strong potential for social impact 

Funding will be linked to the i.AI mentoring offer, with support split between the teams selected for technical mentoring. 

Stipend support distributed