People around the globe are set to benefit from new breakthroughs in AI-driven drug discovery, the UK Government has said, thanks to the work of a newly-announced UK consortium called “OpenBind.”

The new consortium will use experimental technology to generate “the world’s largest collection” of data on how drugs interact with proteins, the building blocks of the body. This will be twenty times greater than anything collected over the last fifty years, the government stated, and will help with “cementing the UK’s position as a global hub for AI-driven drug discovery.”

It will also support the training of new AI models that can identify new drugs, giving researchers the ability to open up new fronts in the fight against disease, and slashing development costs by up to £100 billion.

Based at the Diamond Light Source, the UK’s national synchrotron facility at the Harwell Science Campus in Oxford, OpenBind is being backed with up to £8 million in investment from the government’s newly-established Sovereign AI Unit, a part of the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology.

The consortium will be led by leading scientific minds including Professor Charlotte Deane at the University of Oxford, Professor Frank von Delft at Diamond Light Source and the University of Oxford, and David Baker, Chemistry Nobel Prize winner and head of the Institute for Protein Design at Washington University.

“OpenBind realises a major gear-shift for AI in drug discovery by investing in the data that powers it,” said Professor Deane.

“This funding will mean we can begin generating a catalogue that not only dwarfs in quantity everything messily accumulated over half a century, but transcends it in quality and is geared towards powering the AI algorithms.”

The announcement comes during London Tech Week 2025, where the UK’s technology secretary, Peter Kyle, is setting out the range of actions the government is taking to harness technology to boost growth, improve public services, and unlock new opportunities for the UK.

“London Tech Week is where we lay down a marker – not just as a government with technology at the heart of our agenda, but as a country that will harness its opportunities for the global good,” Kyle said.

“OpenBind is a prime example of how we’re doing exactly that. Through home-grown AI expertise, we will be the driving force that doesn’t just treat, but beats disease – benefitting every person in the world.

“This week, we’ll have plenty more to say on how we’re using technology to drive growth, improve public services, and transform communities all over the country – delivering a Plan for Change grounded in action, not words.”

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The news of OpenBind also comes during an announcement that Imperial College London will partner with the World Economic Forum to deliver a Centre for AI Driven Innovation based in the UK.

The centre will join the World Economic Forum’s Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution (C4IR) Network—a global network of 21 independent centres which bring together public and private sectors to maximise technology benefits while minimising risks.

This centre in particular aims to help cement the UK’s position as a leader in AI technology, and drive innovation by unlocking AI’s potential to transform economies across various sectors.