Tribes Digital wins grant to enhance DevCheck with university help
Tribes Digital has secured an innovation grant from the Greater Manchester Business Growth Hub to support further development of its AI-driven vetting engine, DevCheck, in collaboration with the University of Manchester.
The Manchester-based company, which has experienced considerable growth this year in both its studio and talent offering, is now placing increased focus on enhancing its proprietary technology, DevCheck. This system was initially developed to evaluate developers for Tribes' internal projects and has since been used with external clients and partners, with long-term plans to evolve it into a standalone software-as-a-service product.
Grant and collaboration
The awarded grant will be used to accelerate the next phase of DevCheck's development. The University of Manchester will provide academic expertise to strengthen the platform's methodology, aiming to deliver higher standards of accuracy, transparency, and scientific validation. The university's support underscores a growing trend of partnerships between tech firms and academic institutions, particularly in the context of AI and digital skills verification.
"We are extremely grateful for the support from Business Growth Hub. This innovation grant will enable us to not only accelerate the development of DevCheck, but will also enable our incredible team to collaborate with some of the world's leading academics at the University of Manchester. This collaboration will aid DevCheck's evolution and ultimately see our DevCheck product be further enhanced with academic approval, before entering a rigorous development stage with our clients and partners, before a global role out."
This was stated by David Elkabas, Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of Tribes, who emphasised the importance of both the funding and the academic partnership in reaching the wider goals of scalability and quality for the vetting platform.
Founder's perspective
From the perspective of Tribes' founder, the partnership reflects a significant local achievement. Bruce Thomas, Founder of Tribes, stated,
"It is a very proud moment as a Manchester based business to be working with the University of Manchester. This collaboration brings my original vision closer to reality and will enable Tribes and their DevCheck to become the global leaders in our field and change the way that businesses assess and access developers, and help developers understand where they are, and how to further develop their skills and capabilities."
Thomas pointed to the potential global impact of the collaboration, aiming to transform approaches to technical skills assessment and development for both businesses and individual developers.
Grant process and support
The awarding body, the Greater Manchester Business Growth Hub, recognises this project as a strategic step in the city's innovation ecosystem. Karen Dudley, Commercialisation Specialist for the Innovation Service at GM Business Growth Hub, commented,
"After a rigorous application and selection process, Tribes Digital were successful in securing funding for their next project which has enabled them to collaborate with the University of Manchester. I am delighted to be working with them on the next phase of their journey. Having worked with Tribes over the last few years it has been really great to see them engage with the innovation eco system and successfully secure funding, enabling them to develop their AI enabled Dev Check technology and accelerate the time to commercialisation."
Dudley underlined the significance of the commercialisation timeline and the engagement with local innovation networks.
Academic involvement
The University of Manchester, through its head of SME partnerships, also welcomed the collaboration. Caroline Stanton, Head of SME Partnerships, The University of Manchester, said,
"We are delighted to be partnering with Tribes Digital on this exciting consultancy project. This collaboration highlights how the University's academic expertise can help innovative businesses translate new ideas into impactful, market-ready technologies, while reinforcing Manchester's position as a leader in AI-driven innovation."
The project is led by Professor Xiaojun Zeng and builds on previous academic work that laid the foundation for DevCheck, which has undergone validation in a prior partnership with the University of Salford.
According to Tribes, DevCheck is currently used to qualify over 23,000 developers worldwide and addresses increasing challenges in the recruitment sector, particularly the verification of talent in an environment where AI-generated CVs and enhanced résumés are becoming more common. The new collaboration with the University of Manchester is expected to improve the scientific underpinning and reliability of the vetting methodology before a broader rollout to clients and partners globally.
