Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what discussions he has had with the (a) science, (b) technology, and (c) research sectors on using his Department's expertise on conflict prevention abroad.

Working closely with the science, technology and research sectors is an integral part of our approach to conflict prevention. Since 2022, the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) has partnered with open-source investigation (OSINT) organisations that use remote technology to identify conflict risks and enable us to act earlier to help protect civilians. In regions where there are risks of violence, the FCDO has funded projects such as the Centre for Information Resilience's (CIR) Witness Project, which uses remote sensing technology to verify events in Sudan for the purposes of early warning of atrocities and to de-bunk denial and disinformation. We regularly engage with academic and research institutions to discuss the challenges and opportunities that technology poses to conflict prevention efforts. Most recently, we discussed Artificial Intelligence (AI) in conflict risk forecasting at a roundtable meeting with researchers from University College London and several other institutions at Chatham House in March 2025.