Working Groups

Five working groups were convened to work on the strategic themes outlined in the scoping document The AI of the Possible - Developing an AI Strategy for Scotland.

The purpose of the working groups were to:

• To bring in diverse expertise to develop the strategy and its roadmap.

• To focus on key strands of Scotland’s AI ecosystem and the areas that need to be strengthened over the next five years.

• To review consultation and engagement outputs for inclusion in working group discussions and outputs.

• To develop an ambition for the strand which contributes towards the common vision of the AI strategy.

• To identify the key steps and milestones in the strand and strategy roadmap to deliver the ambition and vision.

• To ensure strand priorities contribute to the development of a productive and effective ecosystem. This will include exploring links to other initiatives in Scotland, UK and internationally.

• To identify how to develop shared ownership and responsibility for delivering the strategy and roadmap.

The job titles below were correct at the time of the Strategy’s development

Ethical & Regulatory Frameworks Working Group

Susie Braham, Head of Digital Identity Unit, Scottish Government
Kate Dodgson, Project Manager and Lawyer, City of The Hague - Data Science Initiative
David Gourlay, Partner, MacRoberts LLP
Adam Lang, Head of Nesta Scotland, Nesta Scotland
Ewa Luger, Fellow of the Alan Turing Institute (Ethical AI By Design), Alan Turing Institute/University of Edinburgh
Helen Martin, Assistant General Secretary, Scottish Trades Union Congress (STUC)
Eilidh McLaughlin, Associate Director, Cyber Security and Information Governance, NHS NSS
Ewan Nicholson, Lead Data Scientist, BBC
Stephen Peacock, Senior Policy Officer – Scotland, ICO
Matthew Rice, Scotland Director, Open Rights Group
Anna Ritchie Allan, Executive Director, Close the Gap
Shannon Vallor, Baillie Gifford Chair in the Ethics of Data and Artificial Intelligence, University of Edinburgh

Skills & Knowledge Working Group

James Aitken, Education Officer - Scotland, Unite
Vicki Byrom, Analytics Solutions Chief, Merkle Aquila
Dominic Chalmers, Senior Lecturer in Entrepreneurship and Innovation, University of Glasgow
Claire Gilespie, ICT and Digital Technologies Sector Skills Manager , Skills Development Scotland
Helen Hastie, Professor of Computer Science, Director of CDT-RAS Heriot-Watt University/SICSA AI
Scott Heald, Head of Profession for Statistics, NSS/Public Health Scotland Robin Huggins, Director of Academy & Client Services, MBN Solutions
Lesley Laird, Director, Equate Scotland
Kirsty McFaul, Senior Education Officer - Technologies, Education Scotland
Alison Muckersie, Programme Director - Data-driven Innovation Skills Gateway, University of Edinburgh
David Reid, Head of Skills, Highlands & Islands Enterprise
Gareth Williams, Head of Policy, SCDI

Data Infrastructure Working Group

Robert Atkinson, Senior Lecturer, Electronic and Electrical Engineering, University of Strathclyde
Andrew Berry, Director, Deloitte UK
Colin Birchenall, Digital CTO LA, Digital Office
Anne-Marie Ermstein-Burns, Data Delivery and Acquisition, Administrative Data Research Scotland
Derek Graham, Programme Director SFT Connect, Scottish Futures Trust
Sally Kerr, Data Standards Project Manager, Scottish Government
Blair Lochrie, CTO Public Sector Scotland, Microsoft
Neil Mackin, EMEA Technical Leader for AI/ML in Public Sector, Amazon Web Services
Dean Mann, Director, BlakesEye
Deryck Mitchelson, Director of Digital and Security, NHS NSS
Mark Parsons, CEO, Edinburgh Parallel Computing Centre
Kirsty Ramsay, Vice President Consulting Delivery Delivery Centre, CGI

Developing AI & AI Enabled Services and Products Working Group

Mark Graham, Product Manager, Sharktower
Katy Guthrie, Head of ScotlandIS Data, ScotlandIS
Emma Hart, Professor Nature-Inspired Intelligent Systems, Edinburgh Napier University/SICSA AI
Andrew McDonald, Director | Data and Integration Services (DAIS), Barclays
Stephen O'Neill, Digital Economy, Scottish Government
Ehud Reiter, Professor of Computing Science, University of Aberdeen Ritche Somerville, Head of DDI Strategy, University of Edinburgh
John Straw, Senior Advisor, McKinsey & Co
Áine Uí Ghiollagáin, CTO, Deepminer
Tirath Virdee, Director for Artificial Intelligence, Capita Consulting
Qi Wang, Professor in Next-Generation Networks, University of West of Scotland