Dr Benjamin Peters, Lecturer in Computational Cognitive Science at the School of Informatics, University of Edinburgh, has been named one of the recipients of UK Research and Innovation’s (UKRI) Future Leaders Fellowships. The award will support his cutting-edge research at the intersection of Cognitive Science, Neuroscience, and Artificial Intelligence, helping to shape the future of NeuroAI. Recognising Emerging Research Leaders UKRI’s Future Leaders Fellowships (FLF) programme supports outstanding early-career researchers and innovators across the UK. In its latest round, 77 fellows were selected to receive long-term funding totalling £120 million. The scheme enables recipients to pursue ambitious, multidisciplinary research and innovation projects while developing their careers as future leaders in their fields. The fellowship provides up to seven years of support, including access to leadership training, mentoring, and collaborative funding opportunities through the FLF Development Network. Fellows are based in the most appropriate environments for their work, including universities, businesses, charities, and independent research organisations. Dr Peters’ Vision for NeuroAI Dr Benjamin Peters’ research explores how humans and machines perceive structure in complex and dynamic environments. His work bridges Cognitive Science, Neuroscience, and Artificial Intelligence, focusing on how objects and their relations are represented and understood. He develops novel task sets that move beyond simplified cognitive science paradigms to better reflect real-world visual complexity. His brain-computational neural network models aim to explain human behaviour, eye movements, and neural data, offering mechanistic insights into perception and cognition. Dr Peters is also a fellow of the Generative AI Laboratory (GAIL) at the University of Edinburgh. Prior to joining the School of Informatics, he held a Marie Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship at Columbia University’s Zuckerman Institute and the University of Glasgow. He earned his PhD in cognitive neuroscience from Goethe University Frankfurt. A Platform for Bold Ideas The Future Leaders Fellowship will enable Dr Peters to expand his research programme and build new collaborations across disciplines. His work contributes to the growing field of NeuroAI, which seeks to integrate insights from brain science into the development of intelligent systems. UKRI’s Future Leaders Fellowships offer long-term support to outstanding researchers, helping them turn bold ideas into innovations that improve lives and livelihoods in the UK and beyond. Professor Sir Ian Chapman Chief Executive of UKRI Related links UKRI announces winners of £120 million Future Leaders Fellowships Link to Dr Benjamin Peters's personal website Publication date 23 Sep, 2025
