--- title: "Safeguarded AI: TA1.4 Socio-technical Integration" ocid: "ocds-h6vhtk-04ac25" canonical_url: "https://d3tenders.com/contract/?ocid=ocds-h6vhtk-04ac25" markdown_url: "https://d3tenders.com/contract/ocds-h6vhtk-04ac25.md" json_url: "https://d3tenders.com/contract/ocds-h6vhtk-04ac25.json" source: "Find A Tender Service" current_stage: "Tender" buyer: "ADVANCED RESEARCH AND INVENTION AGENCY" published: "2024-10-15" --- # Safeguarded AI: TA1.4 Socio-technical Integration Buyer: ADVANCED RESEARCH AND INVENTION AGENCY Current stage: Tender OCID: ocds-h6vhtk-04ac25 [View canonical contract page](https://d3tenders.com/contract/?ocid=ocds-h6vhtk-04ac25) [Download OCDS JSON](https://d3tenders.com/contract/ocds-h6vhtk-04ac25.json) ## Summary The Advanced Research and Invention Agency (ARIA) has launched a competitive tender process for its project titled "Safeguarded AI: TA1.4 Socio-technical Integration." The procurement focuses on research services in the domain of socio-technical integration of advanced AI systems, under the industry category of services. Submissions are to be made electronically with a deadline of 02 January 2025, and the procurement method involves a competitive procedure with negotiation. The main location for this project is within the United Kingdom. The total funding available is £3.4 million, with the project running for 540 days, and may include additional funding or scope based on the outputs of awarded contracts. This tender offers substantial opportunities for businesses, particularly those specialising in economic, social, legal, and political sciences. With a focus on creating AI systems that incorporate socio-technical integration and safeguard techniques, it is ideally suited for entities capable of addressing complex problems related to AI governance and safety. Businesses that can propose innovative solutions for deliberative processes, quantitative bargaining, and governability tools will find this tender highly beneficial for growth. It is an excellent opportunity for R&D creators who are keen to influence the future of AI technology and ensure its benefits are maximised while mitigating associated risks. ## Notice ARIA is an R&D funding agency built to unlock scientific and technological breakthroughs that benefit everyone. We empower scientists and engineers to pursue research at the edge of what is technologically or scientifically possible. We will reach across disciplines, sectors and institutions to shape, fund and manage projects across the R&D ecosystem, from startups to universities, to break down silos and discover new pathways. We are looking for proposals for our Safeguarded AI: TA1.4 Sociotechnical Integration For more info see here https://www.aria.org.uk/programme-safeguarded-ai/ ### Lot Information Lot 1 Why this programme: as AI becomes more capable, it has the potential to power scientific breakthroughs, enhance global prosperity, and safeguard us from disasters. But only if it's deployed wisely. Current techniques working to mitigate the risk of advanced AI systems have serious limitations, and can't be relied upon empirically to ensure safety. To date, very little R&D effort has gone into approaches that provide quantitative safety guarantees for AI systems, because they're considered impossible or impractical. What we're shooting for: by combining scientific world models and mathematical proofs we will aim to construct a 'gatekeeper', an AI system tasked with understanding and reducing the risks of other AI agents. In doing so we'll develop quantitative safety guarantees for AI in the way we have come to expect for nuclear power and passenger aviation. Our goal: to usher in a new era for AI safety, allowing us to unlock the full economic and social benefits of advanced AI systems while minimising risks. The third solicitation for this programme is focused on TA1.4 Socio-technical Integration. Backed by PS3.4m, we're looking to support teams from the economic, social, legal and political sciences to consider the sound socio-technical integration of Safeguarded AI systems. This solicitation seeks R&D Creators - individuals and teams that ARIA will fund - to work on problems that are plausibly critical to ensuring that the technologies developed a part of the programme will be used in the best interest of humanity at large, and that they are designed in a way that enables their governability through representative processes of collective deliberation and decision-making. A few examples of the open problems we're looking for people to work on: - Qualitative deliberation facilitation: What tools or processes best enable representative input, collective deliberation and decision-making about safety specifications, acceptable risk thresholds, or success conditions for a given application domain? We hope to integrate these into the Safeguarded AI scaffolding. - Quantitative bargaining solutions: What social choice mechanisms or quantitative bargaining solutions could best navigate irreconcilable differences in stakeholders' goals, risk tolerances, and preferences, in order for Safeguarded AI systems to serve a multi-stakeholder notion of public good? - Governability tools for society: How can we ensure that Safeguarded AI systems are governed in societally beneficial and legitimate ways? - Governability tools for R&D organisations: Organisations developing Safeguarded AI capabilities have the potential to create significant externalities - both risks and benefits. What set of decision-making and governance mechanisms are best to ensure that entities developing or deploying Safeguarded AI capabilities have and maintain these externalities as appropriately major factors in their decision-making? We are also open to applications proposing other lines of work which illuminate critical socio-technical dimensions of Safeguarded AI systems, if they propose solutions to increase assurance that these systems will reliably be developed and deployed in service of humanity at large. Options: Additional funding, scope and duration could be added to any contracts awarded. ## Key Details | Field | Value | | --- | --- | | Publication source | Find A Tender Service | | Latest notice | https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/033130-2024 | | Notice type | Tender Notice | | Procurement type | Standard | | Procurement category | Services | | Procurement method | Selective | | Procurement method details | Competitive procedure with negotiation | | Tender suitability | Not specified | | Awardee scale | Not specified | | All stages | Tender | ## Dates | Field | Value | | --- | --- | | Publication date | 15 Oct 2024 | | Submission deadline | 2 Jan 2025 | | Future notice date | Not specified | | Award date | Not specified | | Contract period | Not specified | | Recurrence | Not specified | ## Values | Field | Value | | --- | --- | | Tender value | Not specified | | Lots value | Not specified | | Awards value | Not specified | | Contracts value | Not specified | ## Status | Field | Value | | --- | --- | | Tender status | Active | | Lots status | Active | | Awards status | Not specified | | Contracts status | Not specified | ## Buyer | Field | Value | | --- | --- | | Main buyer | ADVANCED RESEARCH AND INVENTION AGENCY | | Locality | LONDON | | Post town | North West London | | Postcode | NW1 2DB | | Country | England | | ITL 1 | TLI London | | ITL 2 | TLI3 Inner London - West | | ITL 3 | TLI36 Camden | | Local authority | Camden | | Electoral ward | St Pancras & Somers Town | | Westminster constituency | Holborn and St Pancras | | Delivery location | Not specified | ## CPV Codes ### Divisions - 73 - Research and development services and related consultancy services ### Codes - 73110000 - Research services ## Release History - 15 Oct 2024 at 11:42 - Tender - Tender Notice - https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/033130-2024 ## Notice URLs - https://www.aria.org.uk - https://www.aria.org.uk/faqs-funding/ - https://www.aria.org.uk/programme-safeguarded-ai/ ## Provenance This Markdown file is an alternate public rendering of the D3 Tenders contract record. The canonical page is https://d3tenders.com/contract/?ocid=ocds-h6vhtk-04ac25. The underlying structured data is available as OCDS JSON at https://d3tenders.com/contract/ocds-h6vhtk-04ac25.json.