Cambridge University policy school to harness AI and reinvigorate industrial regions

The public policy school will focus on AI usage in private and public sectors, and the revival of post-industrial regions.

The Bennett School of Public Policy is due to open in October 2025. Researchers are investigating AI adoption by business and working with the Civil Service on AI workflows.

The University says the school will harness its academic community to develop practical solutions to urgent policy problems, such as technology disruption, climate damage and inequality impacts.

The school leaders say it intends to be defined by overcoming policy and academic silos to foster a generation of 'tech-savvy and socially-aware policymakers'.

It is launching a new Masters course in Digital Policy, starting in 2026, and will deliver Cambridge's Masters in Public Policy.

'Today’s challenges, from effective uses of AI to reviving towns and regions, demand solutions that reflect expertise across disciplines and sectors,' says Professor Dame Diane Coyle, Co-director of the Bennett School of Public Policy and member of the UK's Industrial Strategy Advisory Council and its New Towns Taskforce.

As an example, Coyle and colleagues are looking at how businesses from auto-engineering to special effects are using Epic’s Unreal videogames engine in their processes, and separately at how officials can better utilise Language Learning Models with a Bennett-produced AI toolkit.