Founded in 2015 as a registered charity, the Alan Turing Institute is the national institute for data science and artificial intelligence (AI), and has its headquarters at the British Library in London.

The Institute’s Knowledge Graphs and Ontologies Call offers funding for small-scale research activities in the field of knowledge graphs and ontologies that will initially be supported as pilot studies. Projects that show promise may subsequently be further developed into full studies with the parties concerned. Pilot studies will likely involve two to three researchers and have a duration of three to five months. Full studies may involve more participants and may extend over one to three years.

The call is part of the Institute’s Defence and National Security Grand Challenge and projects will contribute towards meeting UK Government agency strategic requirements for systematic sensemaking at scale and pace. A Turing Principal Researcher from the Defence and Security team will work closely with the commissioned academic groups to ensure close collaboration between the UK Government research teams and those in the academic community.

Defence and intelligence require the tracking of a fast-evolving world and must contend with information variety and veracity at scale. While there have been significant advances in linked data and knowledge graph technologies, multiple challenges remain to being able to deploy systematic sensemaking at scale. Funded research activities are encouraged to be in the defence and/or national security context.

Applicants must be part of a UK university or research institute that can agree to the grant terms and conditions. There is no requirement for those working on this phase of research to hold security clearance, however, applicants will be required to meet the UK Government’s baseline personnel security standard.

Funding of between £40,000 and £70,000 (excluding VAT), depending on scope, will be available for three to six projects. Projects may last for three to five months and must take place between October 2025 and March 2026.

Applications must be submitted by the deadline of 22 September 2025 (16:00).