European coordination, awareness, standardisation & adoption of trustworthy European AI, Data and Robotics (AI, Data and Robotics Partnership) (CSA)

Deadline: Oct 21, 2021  
CALL EXPIRED

Proposal results are expected to contribute to either of the following expected outcomes, depending on their focus (the proposals should focus on one of the two expected outcomes exclusively):

1. Outcome 1:
   1. Efficient AI, Data and Robotics Public-Private Partnership supporting the community and the implementation of the SRIDA^[1].
   2. Reinforced links among initiatives in AI, Data and Robotics in H2020, Horizon Europe, Digital Europe Programme, and other programmes (Networks of excellence centres, DIHs, pilots, data platforms, and other projects).
   3. Widespread educational and outreach programmes
   4. Increased adoption of AI technologies in all Member States and Associated Countries, towards elimination of gaps between Member States and Associated Countries.
   5. Increased adoption of trustworthy AI, data and robotics in procurement both public and private (B2B, B2C, B2G, etc.)
   6. Standardisation methods for trustworthy and ethical AI to foster AI, data and robotics industry, and in support of the Commission regulatory framework.

2. Outcome 2: Efficient support to the research community via the AI-on-demand-platform^[2], a public community resource.

The proposals should address one of the following focus areas:

Focus 1) the first type of proposals (EU contribution around EUR 4.00), will address the following aspects:

• Support to the PPP on AI, Data and Robotics to develop a strong and inclusive network bringing, academia, industry, and public and industry users, including the major industrial European sectors and all relevant stakeholders, to guarantee strong coordinated efforts toward trustworthy AI, for the economy, society and environment. The network will also include national representatives, to link to national programmes and to foster synergies and coordination between the various European, national, public and private initiatives. Such coordination of efforts in research, innovation and expertise will be important for Europe’s leadership in AI. The objective is to support the community in defining and implementing the AI, Data and Robotics strategy for research, innovation, and deployment, and support the PPP in its coordination and support of the community in non-R&D tasks as well.
• Coordinate and establish links with all relevant initiatives in AI, Data and Robotics in Horizon 2020, Horizon Europe, Digital Europe Programme, and other programmes (Networks of excellence centres, DIHs, pilots, data platforms, and other projects), in view of sharing knowledge, developing synergies, and coordinate the efforts when possible. Synergies should be developed with the relevant projects through efficient mechanisms (e.g. joint task forces), organisation of joint events gathering projects, etc.
• Support and encourage the adoption of AI technologies in all Member States and Associated Countries, with particular emphasis on geographical aspect and elimination of gaps in digital competences and access between Member States and Associated Countries
• Widespread educations and outreach programmes including public awareness and addressing acceptability and trustworthiness, informing about potentialities of AI but also ensuring that expectations are realistic to avoid backlash in the adoption. Such activities should target in particular the business community, with a particular focus on SMEs, as well as public administrators, and citizens at large.
• Investigate and promote the potential contribution of AI, data and robotics to social welfare and sustainability, for example as framed by the UN SDGs (sustainable development goals) and highlight the value generated by the combination of AI/data/robotics in different environments.
• Promote the adoption of trustworthy AI, data and robotics in procurement both public and private (B2B, B2C, B2G, etc.): this is crucial to foster the development of European AI industries and applications built on European data and compliant with the European regulatory framework, and to foster vast deployment of AI-based solutions.
• Support to standardisation in view of boosting AI, data and robotics industry, helping to create, and guarantee trustworthy and ethical AI, data and robotics, and in support of the Commission regulatory framework.
  • Standards should guarantee that AI, data and robotics technology in industry brings a high level of trust and safety of operations, and that it respects fundamental values and human rights. Standards should also ensure appropriate governance of AI, data and robotics throughout the system lifecycle and make sure that decision systems are trustworthy by being robust, un-biased, safe and secure.
  • Developing a coherent and broadly accepted set of AI, data and robotics standards requires a minimum level of support to ensure that all essential players are involved and that their voices are heard and in order to disseminate information and collect essential requirements. Support is also needed to coordinate and encourage contributions to standardization activities around the world.
  • An important dimension will be to explore needs for standardisation and qualification of equipment and processes, notably the application of Artificial Intelligence to business processes

The standardisation activities should include:

• The creation of an online observatory of published standards and ongoing standardisation activities in AI, data and robotics worldwide
• The identification of gaps and recommendations for key topics for future standardisation, in particular building on on-going activities in European Standardization Organizations (ESOs) and other relevant standardisation initiatives.
• Support to a mechanism for information exchange between international and European Standardization Organizations (ESOs) to increase the transparency of ongoing work at international and European levels.
• Support participation of European stakeholders in the international standardization initiatives
• Networking of all key players, collection of essential requirements for AI, data and robotics standardization and dissemination of information
• Recommendations on links between standardisation, certification and regulation
• Recommendations for research and innovation activities supporting standardization

One large CSA is expected to cover all the aspects above. Close cooperation is expected with the second CSA supporting the AI-on-demand platform.

Focus 2) the second type of proposals (EU contribution around EUR 9.00), will address the following aspects:

The second type of CSA proposals will be in charge of the maintenance and necessary developments and services provision for the AI-on-demand-platform^[3], a public community resource, with a focus on supporting the research community. Such platform should support the research community in providing modules, codes, tools, knowledge base to share and continuously strengthen the S&T excellence. It should also provide the necessary access to resources (data, compute power, equipment, etc.) to offer the AI, Data and Robotics R&D community an environment in which to develop new solutions and to ensure a leading position to Europe in S&T in these fields. It should also implement methods to compare solutions, and demonstrate progress. Proposals should demonstrate how their methodology will promote excellence, by serving the needs of the scientific community. In close cooperation with the first Coordination and Support Action, it will further develop the platform services that offer a common portal gathering relevant information, success stories, etc. The activities of this AI-on-demand-platform funded through Horizon Europe will serve the needs of the research community while the AI-on-demand platform funded through the Digital Europe Programme will focuses on AI tools at higher TRLs, to serve the needs of the market. Synergies will be developed between the two platforms to ensure complementarity and avoid overlaps. Results from this platform should be transferred to the other platform, after reaching sufficient level of maturity.

This topic implements the co-programmed European Partnership on AI, Data and Robotics.

All proposals are expected to allocate tasks to cohesion activities with the PPP on AI, Data and Robotics and funded actions related to this partnership. Proposals should include activities to collaborate with projects stemming from topics relevant to AI, Data and Robotics, primarily in destinations 3, 4 and 6 of Cluster 4, but also in other destinations and clusters, and share or exploit results where appropriate. Proposals should also develop synergies with relevant activities in Digital Europe Programme.

In this topic the integration of the gender dimension (sex and gender analysis) in research and innovation content is not a mandatory requirement.

Co-programmed European Partnerships
Socio-economic science and humanities

[1]Strategic Research, Innovation and Deployment Agenda of the AI, Data and Robotics PPP

[2]Initiated under the AI4EU project https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/825619 and further developed in projects resulting from H2020-ICT-49-2020 call

[3]Initiated under the AI4EU project https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/825619 and further developed in projects resulting from H2020-ICT-49-2020 call