Dr Jean Innes is to step down as the chief executive of the Alan Turing Institute amid concerns raised by staff of governance challenges at the charity.

Their concerns are linked to calls by the government to focus on defence research.

Last month the Charity Commission confirmed it is assessing a complaint lodged by staff about changes at the charity, which was set up a decade ago to be the UK’s national organisation for data, science and artificial intelligence.

The charity confirmed last month it is moving away from a strategy of working on many individual research programmes to instead focus on a small number of projects.

It has also said it will "step up its work on defence, national security and sovereign capabilities" in response to a letter from science, technology and innovation secretary, Peter Kyle, "which addressed a need for the Turing to meet the evolving needs of the nation at this critical time".

In a statement released this week the charity says that Innes is leaving as CEO as the charity completes this transformation programme. This also reiterates that its strategy shift will see the organisation “move away from working on a large number of research projects to focus on a smaller number of initiatives that deliver impact at scale”.

The charity will “also drive forward carefully selected high-impact projects in environment and health that support the Government’s priorities and the interests of the Institute's philanthropic and private funders”.

Innes will remain in post until later this year.

“It has been a great honour to lead the UK’s national institute for data science and artificial intelligence, implementing a new strategy and overseeing significant organisational transformation,” said Innes.

“With that work concluding, and a new chapter starting for the Institute, now is the right time for new leadership and I am excited about what it will achieve.”

The charity’s chair Doug Gurr said the charity is “now looking for a successor as CEO to drive the next phase of the organisation, ensuring our unique capabilities are used to deliver high-impact work that increases our capacity and expertise in defence and national security, and continues to drive forward exciting innovations in environment and healthcare”.

He added: "I and the board would like to thank Jean for her major contribution, ensuring the national institute's priorities are streamlined and focused on delivering real-world impact in priority areas for the UK."

Last year more than 90 staff complained to the charity’s board amid concerns over a cost-cutting programme including redundancies.

A previous whistleblowing complaint that had been lodged with science funding body UK Research and Innovation was independently investigated and found no concerns.

---