Call for Applications: Fully Funded Training on Designing Secure and Trustworthy AI Platforms in Early Stage Product Development

NewsAssist AI, in partnership with JournoTECH, is inviting applications from early career developers, AI engineers, startup founders, data scientists, researchers, and product managers who are building or interested in AI-driven tools and platforms to participate in a fully funded two-day online training designed to strengthen practical knowledge and skills for building secure, responsible, and trustworthy AI products in fast-moving environments.

Funding & Consortium

The training is funded by SPRITE+, a consortium that brings together people involved in research, practice, and policy focused on digital contexts. SPRITE+ comprises the University of Manchester, Imperial College London, Lancaster University, Queen’s University Belfast, and the University of Southampton, and is funded by UKRI EPSRC (UK Research and Innovation’s Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council).

The Challenge

As AI products continue to grow rapidly, many teams are under pressure to launch quickly, attract users, and secure funding. In this fast-paced environment, important issues such as privacy, security, trust, and responsible design are often treated as secondary concerns or delayed until after deployment. This training program is designed to address that challenge.

Training Program Overview

This fully funded two-day interactive training will provide practical guidance on how to build AI systems that are secure, trustworthy, and responsible from the beginning. Participants will explore how to integrate privacy by design, security by design, and ethical thinking directly into the foundation of their products instead of treating them as compliance requirements later on.

Throughout the training, participants will learn how early-stage teams can balance speed, innovation, and user safety while building scalable platforms. The sessions will examine how decisions around data collection, model training, cloud infrastructure, and access control can affect vulnerable communities, including journalists, activists, civil society organisations, and underrepresented groups.

The program will also create a safe space for collaboration and discussion among participants from different countries and sectors.

Who Should Apply

Applications are open globally to early career software developers, AI engineers, data scientists, startup founders, co-founders, technical product managers, and researchers moving AI products from research into real-world deployment. We especially encourage applications from people building tools that support civil society, independent journalism, vulnerable communities, and marginalized groups.