£1.2bn secured for national innovation.
Policy cited in the House of Lords.

No policy existed for how AI should be funded, governed, or trusted.

The agency had no cohesive AI policy and no internal governance framework to guide it. Major innovation investments were being made without a consistent view of oversight, risk, or responsibility.

High-impact funding decisions needed a framework the agency simply didn’t have. Without one, there was no consistent way to judge which bids for national innovation funding deserved backing, or how to hold programmes accountable once the money was committed.

Three constraints were non-negotiable:

• No cohesive AI policy in place
• No internal governance framework
• No framework for high-impact funding decisions

One person wrote the policy, then chaired the boards that used it.

They authored the agency’s first internal AI use policy, embedding responsible AI principles into it from the start, and used it as the backbone for national AI, cyber, and IoT strategies.

That policy needed teeth. They chaired the multi-million-pound programme boards deciding where innovation investment went, and sat as Board Observer on national digital innovation initiatives to keep oversight consistent across programmes.

As Senior Responsible Officer for emergency funding competitions, they set the strategic guidance on GVA impact per £1 invested, turning an abstract governance principle into the actual test applied to real funding decisions.

£1.2bn later, the policy is now national record.

What started as a policy gap became a national reference point. The frameworks built here shaped funding decisions worth £1.2bn, were adopted across government-backed innovation initiatives, and were cited in the 2024 House of Lords report, proof that governance done properly doesn’t slow innovation down, it’s what lets you back it with real money.