Bayer chooses UK for its AI-focused R&D hub

Bayer has continued its policy of setting up R&D hubs to get closer to innovative companies with a UK site that will focus on applying artificial intelligence to drug discovery and disease diagnosis. The cluster – based at Reading’s Green Park – is the seventh in the German company’s LifeHub network, located at R&D hot spots around the globe, and is further evidence of the UK’s leading position in AI technology. According to the Tech Nation 2019 report, the UK is today the world’s third biggest market for AI investment after the US and China with funding rising six-fold since 2014. Bayer already has one company getting ready to set up a unit at LifeHub UK. Sensyne Health, which started working with the German group earlier this year, will base a project focusing on applying AI to automate image evaluation in radiology at the site. The project will analyse research from three million anonymised, ethically sourced NHS patient records and data provided through Sensyne’s partnerships with NHS trusts, with the NHS remaining the controller of all patient data.