Dr Tariq Umar, Associate Professor in Sustainable Construction and the Built Environment (UWE Bristol), has secured British Academy funding for a new cross-university collaboration emerging from the British Academy Elevate Programme 2026.
The successful Elevate grant will support a new initiative, “AI Governance in Democratic Societies”, bringing together Early Career Researchers from across disciplines to explore one of the defining questions of the rapidly evolving artificial intelligence landscape: how should democratic societies approach the governance of AI?
The funded collaboration brings together researchers from UWE Bristol, University of Warwick and The Open University, with Dr Umar working alongside Dr Sadi Shanaah (University of Warwick) and Dr Sumedh Rao (The Open University).
From leadership development to interdisciplinary collaboration
The award builds directly on Dr Umar’s participation in the 2026 British Academy Elevate Programme, which supports researchers in developing practical leadership capabilities through training, mentoring, coaching and peer networking.
A key feature of the programme is encouraging participants to translate leadership development into practice through collaboration and activities that benefit the wider research community. The new project is one outcome of the relationships, ideas and interdisciplinary discussions developed through Elevate.
The collaboration brings together complementary perspectives from politics, psychology and engineering. Dr Shanaah’s research addresses large-scale risks, polarisation and deliberative democracy; Dr Rao contributes expertise in social and political psychology and intergroup relations; while Dr Umar brings expertise in engineering, digital technologies and applications of artificial intelligence in the built environment.
This interdisciplinary combination enables the team to examine AI not simply as a technological development, but also through its relationships with governance, society, trust, identity and human interaction.
AI governance in democratic societies
The programme will combine online engagement with two in-person, two-day deliberative forums planned for early 2027.
The activity will begin with an online opinion-mapping exercise in which members of the British Academy Early Career Researcher Network will be invited to explore and map different perspectives on AI governance.
Participants will subsequently be selected for the in-person forums, with the project seeking to bring together researchers from diverse disciplinary backgrounds and with different perspectives on the governance of artificial intelligence.
The first part of the programme will focus on structured deliberation around AI governance, supported by expert input representing differing perspectives. Rather than promoting a particular position, the aim is to create an environment in which participants can engage constructively with contested questions surrounding AI development, governance and regulation.
The second element will examine AI, social cohesion and democratic life, including how AI systems and large language models can influence identity, narratives and perceptions of different social groups. Participants will also engage in an interactive Intergroup AI Lab, examining real-world cases and co-designing practical approaches for recognising and responding to these emerging dynamics.
An important aspect of the initiative is that participants will not only engage with the substantive issues surrounding AI. They will also gain experience of structured deliberation as a transferable methodology, with potential applications in research, teaching and public engagement.
Turning Elevate learning into action
For Dr Umar, the award represents an important continuation of the Elevate experience.
“One of the most valuable aspects of the British Academy Elevate Programme has been the opportunity to develop leadership through collaboration rather than simply learning about leadership in theory. This project allows us to translate that experience into practice, bringing together researchers from different institutions and disciplinary backgrounds around a complex challenge that cannot be understood through one discipline alone.”
The collaborative approach reflects several themes developed through Elevate, including leadership without hierarchy, stakeholder engagement, reflexivity and the empowerment of others. The team’s approach to developing a shared objective across three institutions and distinct research areas demonstrates how those principles can be translated into collaborative research and engagement activity.
Dr Umar added:
“Artificial intelligence increasingly intersects with many areas of research and society. Engineers can contribute important insights into how technologies are developed and applied, but questions around governance, trust, social relationships and public participation require much broader perspectives. Bringing engineering together with politics and psychology creates an opportunity for a genuinely interdisciplinary conversation.”
The award further strengthens Dr Umar’s research and external engagement activities around artificial intelligence, digital transformation, sustainable digital infrastructure and interdisciplinary technology research, while demonstrating how leadership-development programmes can create new collaborations and opportunities beyond the programme itself.
Further details about AI Governance in Democratic Societies, including opportunities for Early Career Researchers to participate, will be shared as the programme develops. Meanwhile, if you have any questions or need further information, please contact Dr Tariq Umar.