Oxford and OpenAI launch collaboration to advance research and education

Through the five-year collaboration, students and faculty staff are now able to gain access to research grant funding, enterprise-level security and cutting-edge AI tools to enhance teaching, learning and research. The initiative builds on Oxford’s investment in strengthening the AI capabilities and skills of all staff and students with its AI & Machine Learning Competency Centre. 

Anne Trefethen, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Digital at the University of Oxford said: 'This new collaboration marks an exciting step forward, offering fresh opportunities to enrich our research, expand our AI capabilities, and foster skill development. By working together, we can learn from one another, advancing the frontiers of artificial intelligence, understanding its impact on education and unlocking its vast potential for the benefit of our university community and beyond.'

Bodleian Libraries digitisation 

The collaboration will involve a pilot research project to digitise public domain materials held in the collections of Oxford University’s Bodleian Libraries. The collections which have previously been unavailable online, will become searchable and accessible for students and researchers worldwide. 

One of the collections to be digitised will be 3,500 of the Bodleian’s global dissertations from across disciplines from 1498 - 1884. The project, part of the Future Bodleian initiative, demonstrates how the Bodleian Library is using AI to imagine the library of the future. 

Richard Ovenden, Bodley’s Librarian and Head of Gardens, Libraries and Museums (GLAM) said: ‘The Bodleian’s mission is to acquire, preserve and make available knowledge for the benefit of our students, researchers and the wider public. Over the centuries we have constantly sought new ways to take this mission forward and have in more recent years been an innovator in the use of technology. This initiative with OpenAI comes as part of this long tradition, as part of our Future Bodleian initiative.  

‘The Future Bodleian campaign intends to expand digital resources and infrastructure to accommodate the needs of scholars across the world and to respond to the ever-changing nature of how information is created, stored and accessed.’ 

Research grants and funding 

Oxford researchers will also receive access to OpenAI’s latest models including o1 and 4o and to accelerate their work. Research grant funding will also be made available through OpenAI’s NextGenAI initiative for Oxford researchers working on collaborative projects with OpenAI. This will present opportunities to accelerate the research of academics working in new areas including health and climate change. 

This work will complement Oxford’s existing AI research programmes that are developing complex solutions to major global challenges, from cancer diagnosis and drug discovery to fusion energy and robotics.

Professor Patrick Grant, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research said: ‘Artificial Intelligence (AI) is accelerating the pace of scientific discovery and enabling researchers to work with increasingly complex data sets.  The University aims to be at the forefront of AI research and the application of AI for all researchers, by producing ground-breaking studies to help both scholars and society not only adapt to these technologies but also harness them wisely to their full potential.’

Roll out of ChatGPT Edu

Following a successful 500-user pilot of OpenAI’s ChatGPT Edu offering - a secure version of ChatGPT based on OpenAI’s latest models including o1 and 4o - the University of Oxford will be rolling out ChatGPT Edu to 3,000 academics and staff. Faculty using ChatGPT Edu will regularly come together to share novel use cases focused on removing admin burden and using the tools as a super-assistant for a wide range of tasks including research, summarisation and ideation. ChatGPT Edu features access to OpenAI’s flagship models, offering advanced tools, security, and controls for education institutions. 

University of Oxford joins NextGenAI

This collaboration is a result of the University of Oxford’s participation in NextGenAI, a consortium with OpenAI and 15  leading research institutions dedicated to using AI to accelerate research breakthroughs and transform education.

As part of NextGenAI OpenAI is committing $50M in  research grants, compute funding and API access to support students, educators and researchers advancing the frontiers of knowledge. Other founding NextGenAI partners are Caltech, the California State University System,  Duke University, the University of Georgia, Harvard University, Howard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Michigan, the University of Mississippi, The Ohio State University, the University of Oxford, Sciences Po, Texas A&M University, as well as Boston’s Children’s Hospital and the Boston Public Library.  

Brad Lightcap, OpenAI COO said: 'The field of AI wouldn’t be where it is today without decades of work in the academic community, and continued collaboration is essential to build AI that benefits everyone. The NextGen AI Initiative will accelerate research progress and catalyse a new generation of institutions equipped to harness the transformative power of AI.'

Read more about use of generative AI at Oxford: https://www.ox.ac.uk/gen-ai

Read more about opportunities for Oxford staff and students: https://staff.admin.ox.ac.uk/article/what-the-openai-collaboration-means-for-you