good afternoon everyone welcome back to our second day of the info days now
we're we will start with destination six of cluster 4 of the Horizon Europe
program um this afternoon what awaits us we'll start as I said with destination
six we'll cover 14 topics that will cover uh four objectives after each
objective our amazing slido team will help us to gather your questions and uh
to answer to them and then uh after we conclude destination six we would
continue with the public procurement that it's AI for public good uh and the
four public procurements um I can see that uh our
speakers are already here so uh we can start
um we'll start with the first objective on the virtual worlds and uh the four uh
topics that we'll cover cover our human 14 human 15 human 16 and human 17 the
first speaker it will be um Yugo can you please uh take the floor i
will put the slides yes so good afternoon uh I'm Y Bhan from DJ connect
G2 interactive technology digital for culture and education so uh I'm pleased to introduce
the first topic which is called code technologies for virtual world and it
will be a research and innovation action this research and innovation action is a
joint effort from the virtual world partnership and the photonix partnership so was built together with the both
communities uh we have an indicative budget of 43 million so and we are
expecting project around five six million so roughly we will we will
finance or we will grant up to seven project at at the maximum and uh we
expect the technology readiness level starting at three and achieving at five
at the end of the project so um for this uh for this uh call um the
proposal I expected to contribute to developing core technologies for virtual worlds with a focus on better and more
realistic and more performant multiodel interaction and immersion at application
and components levels um the application should aim at
increasing awareness acceptance adapt and adoption of virtual worlds
application sector and the key word let's say will be transdisiplinarity across sections
across sector sorry and research domains so as you can see uh we are expecting
two outcome two main outcome and the proposers will have to focus on either
area A or area B so for area A we are expecting a proposal regarding better
and more realistic immersion through multimodel and interaction so here we
are expecting improvement of a multimodel immersion experience combining extended reality with advanced
and innovative technologies so in a nutshell what we are the scope will be to develop and
demonstrate novel application for virtual world that combine several modalities and aim to provide a seamless
and more realistic and immersive interactions to investigate also novel
scientific approaches for to push the the limit of ex existing ones to improve
the synchronization and integration of the different modalities and then also
to focus on enhances use of multimodel technologies integrated at least two
modalities within an extended reality application so we need two modalities
and at least one application domain for the second part we uh it will be more
let's say hardware related so we are expecting innovative innovative
photonics technology for projection sensing and perception in virtual worlds here we
need uh we are expecting to improve performance of micro displays or sensing devices serving virtual world by using
innovative optics and photonics technologies also just in a nutshell we
the scope will be to uh to further improve current and micro display
uh regarding power consumption device efficiency resolution and dynamic range color gamut
contrast and refresh rates for truly immersive experience uh for sensing device also to improve
accuracy in diverse lightning condition and with the different eyes uh with different eyes
uh physiology sorry um I think the we can also focus on the
essential aspect the quality of integration both from a user and technological in
perspective we want to focus on human perception and experience from subjective objective and functional p
perspective and also to take into account EU values such as inclusivity
privacy security safety of user and the protection of their personal data as
well as diversity and of course we want to have reliable robust and interperable
solution and I think with this uh it's uh it's done for me and I will give back
the floor to Adelina thank you so much uh Yugo please stay for the questions at
the end of the um objective and uh for people sending uh questions we'll share
the slideo um QR code and when you write a question please specify for each topic
it's your question and now we will continue with the human 15 and
Adelina Adelina can you hear me Yes hello perfect thank you thank you so
this is the second call that we have uh on virtual worlds and this time we have an
innovation action that we are uh looking for and this uh innovation um uh action
aims for better performance and hyperpersonalized and immersive experience with the help of Genai this
time this this call is a joint effort from two partnerships the partnership on
virtual worlds and the ADRA partnership and in this particular sense proposals
should allocate tasks to um allow for cohesion activities with these two uh
partnerships and also with uh the topic uh 17 the CSA that I will present uh
later on so what we want to achieve with this goal we have two main outcomes in
view here and the first one is a better immersion and significantly improved
user experience and in order to to get to this outcome proposal are expected to
contribute uh either by creating a safe and inclusive virtual spaces realisting
environments or a creative and beyond uh reality uh environments or by developing dynamic
storytelling and scenarios in order to afterward lead to some creative and
personalized content or by creating personalized avatars to provide seamless
and more realistic immersive uh interaction leading to unique uh experience so what you what you see here
is that we uh want you to use the generic um the generative AI in order to
to produce um more realistic and more innovative more creative experiences so
this is let's say uh the the key um the key aspect as I said before we have two
outcomes the second one is to achieve a safe and inclusive navigation in in the
virtual worlds and uh here proposals can can contribute by using generative AI to
develop small digital assistants and 3D chatbots uh in order to enhance uh
education and training in order to remove uh different barriers like like
the language barriers uh also for language uh disorders but also barriers
uh for persons uh with disabilities uh also to offer sentiment analysis and
behavioral decision uh support systems and to enable users to um adapt to
interlocutors uh from various uh languages cultural uh
backgrounds uh proposals uh should build on on results from previous fund
deductions but also collaborate with existing relevant uh projects and uh
initiatives now some information about figures let's say uh the indicative uh
total budget of this topic is 20 million and we expect a project uh to have uh a
contribution uh in the range of four to to 5 million uh millions and by doing
the u the calculations so you would see that we would get to around uh five to
to to six projects uh in point of TRL uh we expect uh the projects to start at
the TRL 4 and get by the end of the of the projects to um
TRL6 um also what I could mention is about the duration uh we expect uh
duration of 36 uh months per per project to uh to be able to achieve uh let's say
the expected outcomes of uh of this um topic uh and I think that was all for
this topic thank you so much Delina will you again very later on yes yes i will
go to to present the uh call for uh the 17 call that is uh coordination and and
support action this is also um a joint call but this time uh between the
virtual worlds partnership and the uh initiative on uh web 4 uh.0 zero uh as
you can see from on on on the screen here we have a long list of of outcomes
that we expect from uh from proposals um first of all it's about the
strategic research innovation agenda for virtual words in Europe uh but you have
also the strategic research innovation agenda for web 4.0 uh also they established and uh running
a European virtual worlds uh partnership that supports the uh European virtual
worlds and also the web 4.0 community uh also as outcome we have a strong and
competitive uh ecosystem and here what you want is to include all European
companies that play um a leading role in the adoption and um and acceptance and
also in the development and and deployment of virtual worlds technologies uh as a whole we have also
uh very reinforced links uh among the different initiatives um in in the
virtual worlds a wide uh awareness and outreach
list of of programs a higher adoption of virtual worlds uh technologies uh but
also standardization methods for uh virtual world technologies that are also in support of um of the EU uh regulatory
framework so this is let's say the what and now let's see how to to get to to
this uh uh outcomes uh proposals um are expected to support the entire community
in implementing the virtual worlds um uh partnership and the strategic uh
research and innovation agenda for virtual worlds and ensure a close coordination at at all levels at
regional national also uh the higher uh European level uh the support
uh that should be given uh to the development of the research um and
innovation agenda for web 4.0 in Europe and here we expect them also to propose
an implementation agenda for the European um web 4.0 strategy for research and innovation to support also
uh the emergence of a European ecosystem for web 4.0 Z uh to provide support uh
for the partnership in order to um merge a strong and inclusive network that
brings together stakeholders from all uh uh sectors from academia from industry
uh but also public sectors and users um to promote the adoption of virtual
world technologies and solution um in member states but also in associated
countries uh to develop and implement uh different outreach programs that would
lead to a better understanding of um a virtual world and a better awareness of
uh of what it means for for the society and uh and economy um to identify
potential ethical legal societal economical um aspects related to to
virtual worlds and to identify also here um possible ways to tackle the the
eventual issues that they um identify and regarding the standardization here
we expect them to support the efforts in um in the uh aim to to promote the
uptake of uh interoperable um open uh trustworthy and um ethical uh virtual
world solutions uh again here also what I could say in point of figures uh we expect to have
one uh project selected uh for a budget of 2.5 uh million euro
uh and as I said before it's a coordination and and support um action
thank you so muchina then um you will see any further questions but now we'll
go back to human 16 uh with present
presenter Horge I'm going to present the topic about driving the raping evolution of the internet towards open and
interoperable 4 and virtual worlds now a little bit of background because I mean
for those who have been following following our activities in the past related to next generation internet
opensource and the communities that we have been supporting there have been some changes in this in in the new call
in the work program 2025 so we are moving from what we have been doing
doing in the past that it was more a bottomup approach where people could
present their ideas and work we are going to have a continuity in terms of the support to open source we are going
to have a continuity in terms of the support to to these communities but now there is a different focus we are
focusing on the area of web 4.0 and virtual worlds okay so this is this is
has to be a clear message so any proposal that come to us has to be put in the context on how the internet has
to work in this new context of web 4.0 and virtual worlds based on this the
expected outcomes of this call are related to having an early
demonstrations on how the new architectural framework related to the internet protocols standards h
applications will have to be developed open building on upon open-source
internet building blocks in priority areas in the next slide I will I will talk more in detail about which are
going to be the priority areas that we are going to focus but if we go back to the to the previous slide then I can
then there are a few other expected outcomes
so the the emergence of open and inter and interoperable web 4.0 zero and
virtual worlds and based on the open source and based on the different
technologies open standards open source digital common technologies that can h
can be aligned to the EU values and regulatory framework then uh we also try
to get new business opportunities and the emergence of new business and sustainability models for the data of
this call we have 14.5 millions and The EU contribution per project is between
one and three millions this means that we allow for relatively small projects but also a little bit larger and we are
expecting a number of projects who are going to work in parallel throughout this call next slide so here I I'm going
to talk about the five focus areas where we are where we were focused the call so
a clear message here is that proposals should address one of these five topic
areas so we are not expected proposals that are going to cover other different aspects that the ones that are is
indicated in the call for proposals so to give an example we have the one about
identity management identity management is is a is an area where we have been working for many years in the context of
the internet this is fine but in the context of virtual worlds web 4.0 this
may have a different approach okay what is the meaning of identity when you have AI agents avatars that are acting on
your behalf how this has to be modified the technologies that we are using the
approaches so that we can what is the concept of identity what happens with
payments what happens when an avatar or an ai agent attacks on our behalf on
social networks what is the responsibility so there is a new area that needs to be adapted and it's a
research that need to be carried on on in order to transform what has been done in the past and this in the context of
the policies that are being developed by the commissions in around the digital identity wallet and the EI trust service
framework the second topic is about software supply chain security so this
is relates to how to improve the security of the software supply chain and these address issues related to
trustability of code collaborative trust models among contributors and users detections of anomalous behaviors etc to
ensure that the software that we develop is secure and is not attacked the third
area relates to open hardware so this is focusing both on open hardware chips but
also on tools related to prototyping product and integration and all these in
real life use cases related to virtual worlds and web 4.0 we are also looking for alternative
solutions to centralized platforms okay so based on open source and that are
offering credible alternative to user supporting the mergence of web 4.c zero and virtual worlds and
finally we are focusing on demonstrators for virtual worlds making a use of
existing open-source building blocks for ensuring trust interoperation interconnection transactions and access
to resources in virtual worlds applications and services what is important to note here is that proposers
have to clearly identify which of the five topics they are going to address in the proposal and in the evaluation in a
selection process at least one proposal in each of the will be selected and so
as far as they reach all the minimum thresholds that are necessary and to
finalize it's important to note that we have included the possibility of having
FSTP P contribution so a maximum of the total requested 15% of the total
requested contribution could be allocated to FSTP third parties
allocated selected through open calls and with this I finished the
presentation yeah thank you so much uh Jorge now I
will share with you uh the slide with um slido code please scan the QR code and
do not forget to go to the allocated room for the destination 6 you can also
go to the web page at slido.com and type
the codes um so um slider team could you
please share if we already have some questions uh we start with Yugo with you
are the uh there specific use case domains that have priority is
entertainment a domain of interest uh we we don't uh we don't uh
we are not prescriptive regarding the domain so uh let's say proposers are uh
feel free to to propose any application domain that you want and the
entertainment I think is one of one of the domain that could be proposed but uh
I I don't see any issue there okay thank you so much uh then uh now we
have question to you Adelina the text states this is for human 15 the text
states "List one of the following expected outcomes does this mean proposal addressing both will be
preferred?" Okay thank you for the question no this is the the reply so
since the the call text specifies that at least one of the expected outcomes should be um addressed if it's one or if
it's both there is not uh a preference and no uh let's say uh extra points
gained that because the proposal um addresses both uh outcomes okay very
clear and now again back to you could you provide examples of what kind of
tasks you expect in order to show cohesion activities with the two partnerships yeah so uh as you saw there
are different um outcomes that we expect from the proposals and uh the respective
uh proposal for the uh CSA uh could be could take any of these uh outcomes and
have for example if it's about um awareness raising maybe have some um
organize some events together with the with the partnership or in point of uh
um strengthening of of the ecosystem so related to any of the outcomes uh that
are expected from from the proposals to have uh synergies with the with the two
um partnerships thank you so much Delina now we're going back to Ugo for you uh are the next two
questions the first one it's on applications should be tested and anchored in real world environments and
aimed at least one application domain this code is for developing core tech
for virtual worlds what word environments are the code specifying could you give a few examples of
application domains i think as we say previously this is uh
this is let's say left left to to to uh to to the proposer to propose
application domains there's no um there's no restriction per se on the
domain application it could be health it could be automotive it could be let's
say industry it could be u science there's no there's no restriction in
this uh and for application domain concrete example um uh let's say
if we um if we go for this kind of detail
it's maybe it's to enter to to to uh to directly to the to the proposal so I
would just give the name of few application domains such as health automotives industry
um as I say science but um we don't have any specific uh application domain per
okay thank you um I believe Adelina you already answered this question but uh
yet we're going to read it should support a partnership which is already established correct it does not have to
build the partnership itself yes and if I may I see there is a question afterwards so not the next time but the
other one that is also on on the same topic so the partnership is not yet
finalized let's say but we are in the last uh uh in the last uh line uh so for
the moment we are expecting really soon to have the the association legally uh
created and to have uh the partnership launched somewhere this uh this autumn
but by the time the project is supposed to to start that means uh next year
sometime next year the partnership will be uh completely in place so um it is
not supposed to help to develop it from from start but it will be already in place at the moment of the Okay
and uh is there official information available about the members that can be
shared publicly yeah so as I said it's not yet uh completely uh finalized the
process that is why the official information uh will be published uh the
time that the memorandum of understanding is signed that is uh somewhere this this autumn we do not
have a precise day of course uh yeah okay um thank you so much uh so now it's
a question that it's for human But also they they mentioned human 17
all proposals are expected to allocate task for cohesion activities with both
partnerships including the CSA in horizon cluster for human 17 if we aim
for area A does the proposal need to allocate task for photonix partnership
how can we link to CSA human 17 here the the idea is to uh let's say it's to um
to allocate task and effort for coision activity with this CSA so that means
communication and also interaction with the CSA uh of course for area A um the
link to the photonix partnership is not necessary I would say
um for the the type B for the photonix one as it's photonix for virtual world
serving virtual worlds maybe it's better also to have coision activities for both
uh both both partnership the virtual world partnership and also a photonix
partnership to a certain extent thank you so much yog now question to
all of you is there space for emerging XR technologies such as voluometric
video someone would like to take well maybe in
my case in the case of 16 we are not focusing on the specific XR technologies so we are
coming from the part of the internet so in our case we are not focusing on this specific technologies and we are just
addressing the topics that are in our call so but we are different than my colleagues so it's up to them now to
define well it depend depends on how uh this uh what would be the role of this
company inside the the consortium because it's um it should be uh a consortium you know the uh the
eligibility rules for creating a consortium for uh for this type of of um
proposals so if they have a valid role in in the consortium in which they address uh a particular uh part of the
of the tasks I would not say that it's not uh that it's uh not possible but
it's maybe not the the main or the t the core tasks of the of the project the
same goes also for 17 because it's about uh putting all the uh all the value
chain all the ecosystem together uh so I would there I would see them also yeah
somewhere okay thank you so much um then uh uh back to to you Adelina it's uh can
this be a single agenda instead of two agendas one for virtual words and one for web
4.0 um as after all web 4 includes also
the virtual works i know yes but in the context as it's um uh explicitly
mentioned that there are two different um agendas uh also because we have a a
virtual world's uh partnership and we have also a web 4.0 zero um initiative
uh so it there are different let's say uh they have different structures uh so
um I would say that it's um better to to have um to have different um different
uh strategic research um agendas for virtual worlds and for the web for the
maybe of course there are connections and you can have things in in in common for them and make references uh but I
would uh I unities on having two two different ones thank you so much uh for
you for the scope software supply chain security do you expect experts in cyber
security to deal with the scope or what expertise would be required to deal with the scope well certainly we need experts
in cyber security this is a this is a topic about security in the context of
software supply chain so obviously cyber security is very wide they cover many
different areas but focusing on the part of how of the security of the software
supply chain certainly we need a consortium that demonstrates that they have a
strong capacity strong knowledge and experience expertise in the area of
cyber security thank you um now Ugo for you it's do you
expect to have innovation on a global system or just different
technobicks for human cattle 14 sorry area B we are expecting something which
is not only a development of technology but also the integration of advanced
innovative and high performance optic and photonix technology so it's not only
a an assembly of different technobicks we want something integrated for this
one mhm and then it's again for the same area do you expect solutions for
application um AR glasses head-up display or immersive technologies in static room
well the the area B is more let's say onics and photonics so I would say my my
my primary let's say uh idea would to be focus on AR glasses head of
display but um if uh if let's say the propos have the idea of immersive
technology in static room as well they can also submit some u their ideas the
proposals okay and then we'll jump again one question so we stay with you on the
same area it's is technology validated in laboratory environment is
acceptable and do you expect solutions for applica uh yes then you reply to the
second one [Music] um uh for the the question I'm not sure
I catch everything but uh um we we we are expecting let's say
technology of course validated in laboratory environment but uh maybe also
outdoor technologies [Music] um I I'm not sure I I uh okay maybe we
can we can answer maybe a bit later by uh yeah in a written format we can
answer it of course okay um and then uh um it has been answered
this question on the human port in area B on the in the static room so we move
herhead to no 17 was Delina it's me yes uh for you are there hard commitments
expectations about the support to the virtual world partnership and if so will
these to made public before the co- closes so that new parties may enter or
is the idea that the current consortium will be drive the new consortium okay so there
are no hard commitments no expectation expect except to have those um let's say
cohesion um tasks that I mentioned uh before um regarding the current
consortium I don't know which current consortium they they refer to but definitely it's an open call uh so there
is no uh let's say uh no members uh that are um a close uh uh group to to
participate what is really mentioned in the um in the text uh on the contrary is
the fact that the DCSA should be prepared managed and coordinated by key
stakeholders in the field so that is what I think the most important so to be
uh key players in in uh in virtual worlds uh technologies okay thank you so much to all of you for
giving additional details and now we can move to the next
objective uh and uh this objective sits on AI generative AI data and robotics uh
we have one topic under this objective and this topic it will be presented by
chem ch the floor is yours thank you very much uh so I'm going to talk about
the genu jai for you central hub uh this is a CSA uh and uh this coordination and
support action uh aims to create a central nodes uh of the geni ecosystem
in Europe connecting all key uh strategic players uh in the different uh sectors uh the
GNI for you uh initiative has been announced beginning of 2024 and since then uh we have uh with other clusters
uh of the horizon Europe uh and also from digital and EIC uh we have designed
a number of calls that are about GNI4U uh and the role of this central hub of
the CSA is to support all these initiatives that are under GI for
initiatives uh the expected outcome of uh that call is the creation of the hub
of the uh as a central node linking all uh
geni4 projects aiming to uh support the take of geni solution across the different
sectors identified uh for the initiatives and linking all project from
the different clusters the CSA will also support the European Commission uh and the AI office uh within the European
Commission to promote uh the ecosystem of trusty uh genative AI um systems
the budget of the project will be uh 3 million uh and lumpsum funding will apply for
that project the area of work uh of uh the
CSA is uh to create this community of developers and users of uh geni solution
and to make this community visible visibility also play a crucial role in
the CSA uh it will uh also uh support uh
um or uh facilitate the connection with the AI factories
uh also uh with the data spaces
uh and all initiatives of the EC being uh supported by Horizon Europe uh
digital Europe program or others that are uh linking with GNAI
uh models it will also serve as an observatory for generative AI uh
conducting landscape analysis uh so landscape analysis means
um all actors developers users but also market research patent use cases etc and
disseminate the results of that uh landscape at least twice a year
it will also coordinate with the AI on demand platform with the geni foru skills uh initiatives under digital euro
program and also other uh ADRA funded actions uh and other uh national and
European initiatives in the field of generative AI
uh we want also DCSA to help uh for the
different uh sectors bringing industrial uh actors uh into the initiatives
uh as I mentioned this morning uh under destination for uh development of generative AI models requires uh
availability of data that only uh industrial uh actors holds and they have
to make this data available to make uh to to to allow the development of geni models so uh DCSA has a role in that by
connecting these industrial actors with uh the initiatives in the different clusters
uh it should also promote uh the reuse of um previous results or current results
funded by uh any initiatives in the U or uh nationally
uh and help uh to build uh let's say uh
a community of skilled people uh in the field of generative AI uh in
Europe And I think uh that's all for
that topic okay thank you so much CH and the next objective is standardization and
knowledge valorization in this uh objective we are going to cover seven
topics and uh um you can see uh which topics are here we'll start with the
first topic on horizon standardization booster presented by uh
thank you very much Rosit and uh good afternoon to everybody um so my name is
Eola I work in DG research and innovation in the unit for valorization
policies and IPR so uh we start from human 60 so this
is uh Horizon standardization booster uh this is a topic uh for a CSA uh the uh
budget is €1.5 million um a brief um background to the
topic uh uh standardization is uh an important channel for valorization of
research results standards are of course also very important for ensuring safety
functionality and interoperability of products as we have heard earlier in
this uh session um the commission published two years ago a recommendation
on a code of practice for standardization for knowledge powerization
it calls for considering standardization early on in research and when planning
uh research and innovation projects so the aim of this uh CSA uh is
to create a mentoring scheme uh for standardization uh which will provide
expert services to beneficiaries of publicly funded projects
this uh service uh will be uh available for beneficiaries
uh not only in ongoing uh and closed EU funded projects uh but also uh for
research and innovation projects uh funded at national level um this action
will uh build uh on the uh achievements u and results of the horizon
standardization booster pilot uh which was running for 3 years uh and finished
uh early this year um and this new action will uh assist the beneficiaries
to valorize uh their project results either by creation of new standards or
by revisioning of existing standards and this uh will be done by helping
researchers uh for example to work with standardization bodies uh through
technical committees or focus groups uh and by or or by drafting uh technical
specifications uh and reports and uh the primary focus uh of
this topic will be on technology domains uh identified in the commission
recommendation on critical technology techology areas uh for example uh AI
quantum biotechnology advanced connecting technologies robotics advanced materials etc you have the full
list in the uh one of the uh references uh for which you have the link in the
topic description so uh uh then another element here is
that this action should also uh increase uh the use of the training academy uh
which was created uh by the booster pilot um and and it's also to uh add new
elements to the academy uh based on the user feedback and the expected outcomes
uh include um as stated in the slide uh increased participation of researchers
in standardization activities so basically uh reinforcing the link
between research and standardization then uh uh increased development and adaptation of standards
to meet a new industrial needs and uh finally increased update of new
technologies through enhanced standardization activities uh let's then move to the
next uh yeah thank you so much uh now we're going to go to the next topic also
presented by you uh one back please so it's the uh 61 yes
yes so yeah so uh human 61 so this is a
standardization landscape analysis tool again a topic for the CSA
um standardization is also uh very important for many EU policies uh such
as the European Green Deal uh and the digital strategy
um but um information about the existing standards and the ongoing
standardization processes are uh very fragmented and and there is no uh
centralized database or repository uh which then makes it challenging for
researchers to access relevant standards and and this uh hinders uh their ability
to integrate standardization uh into the research uh effectively
so the objective of this uh action is to develop a standardization landscape
analysis tool uh to support uh RNI actors in identifying existing
standards um this tool uh will then help researchers to consider the existing
standards as a key input uh when they plan their uh project
activities and this tool should also uh include a mechanism to uh keep up with
the the updates of standards automatically uh as far it is
possible and um then um this uh this state-of-the-art information about the
standards will uh help uh technology development and uh help RNI actors to
comply uh with existing regulatory frameworks uh the expected outcomes um are uh to
provide an information tool on the standardization landscape accessible for all RNI actors and by which you can
search uh standardization deliverables at national European and international
level and secondly to improve uh valorization mechanisms for uh ensuring
uh the market relevance and scalability of RNI results and the budget for this
topic is uh €1 million so back to you Rosita thank you so much uh O we're
going to see you again uh very briefly now I'll give the floor to Lisa to
present human 62 or artificial intelligence for knowledge uh Lisa
thank you very much um my name is Lisa Vetsik and just as I work in DJ research
and innovation in the unit working on valorization policies and intellectual
property rights and I'm very happy to present um this topic on artificial
intelligence for for knowledge valorization um which is a coordination and support
action with a budget of 2 million and I would like to start by by briefly
setting out the the context here as this topic is based on the motivation to
address the innovation paradox so as we have excellent science in Europe yet we
observe difficulties to translate the research results into innovation that yield
um societal and economic benefit so what we would like to see here is to harness
the potential of artif artificial intelligence in order to contribute to
addressing that uh paradox and by supporting researchers and innovators and this shall be done by
identifying relevant existing tools and instruments and test at least 100 use
cases of AI for valorization from research to market and societal uptake
such uh use cases can uh take many different forms as AI provides an array
of application possibilities to support RNI actors um in order to identify opportunities
for valorization and uh innovation and then guide them in creating value from
research the description of the topic provides quite a few examples uh non-exhaustive
of course but um for example with applications ranging from supporting uh
matching with partners supporting uh feasibility assessment uh the management of intellectual asserts
um research on the implementation conditions understanding and fitting to to markets and end users and uh there
may be many more um and this uh action shall develop
an AI powered valorization toolbox that can be used by researchers and
innovators to make them aware of the opportunities for valorization in research and uh in order to then assist
them in leveraging such opportunities to bring their research to the market and
society and then uh abstracting from testing at least 100 use cases a
knowledge base shall be developed to deliver insights best practices principles uh guidance um to ensure uh
responsible use of AI for for knowledge valization and all of this should
support the multistakeholder collaboration as to reach and engage
various actors that are key to to valorization such asmemes ease social
enterprises NOS's local communities and others and uh just to summarize what we
expect as an outcome and as stated here on the slide the action will contribute to more efficient and effective
valorization of research results by market society and policy making powered
by AI this is to tackle the innovation paradox in Europe by supporting RNI
actors and um AI shall be used to deliver valorization road maps business
plans partnerships get market uptake strategies in at least 100 tested use
cases of research based innovative solutions addressing societal challenges
and uh with that I would give back to thank you very much thank you so much uh Lisa um now uh there is yet another
CSA it's back to you for human 64 uh thank you Ross it's a it's a human 63
so we go uh back one slide please yes sorry I'm skipping yes it's 63 yeah so
the title is uh value creation pilots for scaling up innovative solutions and
and this is again a CSA topic um and the budget is €2 million e so this topic uh
will focus on strengthening the EU capacity to respond to complex and
urgent challenges through transdisciplinary research and the aim
um of the the action here uh is to test the effectiveness of at least 10
transdisciplinary valorization pilots uh to be ready uh for scale up across
Europe and and these uh scale up uh pilots uh we use mature uh results from
research and innovation and then create new value creation opportunities
uh and promote transdisciplinary and cross sectoral collaboration
um of many different stakeholders and these pilots will also
uh provide new insights uh to the possibilities and challenges uh of
transdisciplinary approaches to address complex challenges and to the skills uh
resources resources and tools needed the scope of the topic includes also uh
targeted trainings uh for cross-disciplinary projects uh with
scale up potential uh and and also other uh methodological tools and guidelines
uh and it uh may also include uh best practices uh in harnessing the power of
uh cross-disciplinary and cross- sectoral collaboration uh to enhance
value creation across industry academia and public sector uh and um the expected
outcomes are uh to increase innovation capacity by drawing on uh transdisiplinary research and cross-
sectoral collaboration to create economic and societal value
secondly to promote twin uh transition by testing and preparing uh for scale up
at at least in valorization pilots uh combining uh research results in a
transdisciplinary mo mode uh building multistakeholder collaborations
uh promoting industry academia co-creation and engaging uh with citizens uh for swifter and humanentric
polarization ation and thirdly uh enabling more uh value creation uh to be
uh retained in Europe by testing resource based solution with high potential uh for scale up uh thank you
and back to you Ro thank you so much um now we're going to
give the floor to Guiam who is going to present this time human
64 the CSA guom can you hear me so good afternoon everyone um I'm G Milo working
in the DG research innovation is a unit responsible for industrial research innovation and
respons so we are launching a call for pilot initiative on technology infrastructures uh but first maybe let
me recall what technology infrastructures as it is still in concept um techn infrastructure so we
call them TI often are important tools for industry to lower the cost and risk arising during development testing
prototyping validation and upscaling phases the aim is to bring technologies to TL and eventually reach application
and market entry uh due to their function and importance for industry uh TIS are essential for the Europe
technological sovereignty strategic autonomy and competitiveness they come in various form and can be sector
specific or technology focused such as pilot lines testing facilities clean room demonstration sites living labs so
more like uh the kind of technology infrastructure that you probably know already if they are hosted by uh usually
by research organization or technology uh some companies can also have tis uh
they usually hosted by public organization we are developing in the open commission for TIS uh therefore I
will invite you to consult our dedicated technology infrastructure web page on the commission website there will be a direct link in the work program
published and you will find there relevant background information and also a call for public consultation running
until May 22nd so after this introduction about what are TIS uh what
are the goal of our call is to develop some CSA so some uh some uh
initiative of uh 0.5 to 1 million eur lump sum uh with a budget of 5 million
so we expect like five to 10 project which will have uh to target to provide evidence and understanding of the land
of tis so including uh their facilities and the services already offered uh
focus on the user needs uh for TIS we really want to have uh to have this user needs focused in order to improve the
ability of TI's uh facilities and their service to entrepreneurs the U with a particular look to SM and startup which
often do not get access to TIS and we think they they should they should have um an increased opportunity of access to
improve their facility to test upscale and develop new technologies our goal is to make clear
in Europe stronger and more resilient with improved project services offer better to user needs and to strengthen
the innovation development of the European industry like this it will contribute to validate European approach
to infrastructures that we are currently developing as I said and to test different
strategic experience so the the goal is really to to learn on um on how we can
improve access and use of TIS in order to develop to further develop our strategy and propose more action in the
further work program uh let me just briefly specify that um proposal should
take into account uh the section criteria for pilot actions that were developed in the final report of the
question group on technology infrastructures you will find this report again on the technical structure web page of the commission um and should
take in account what was developed by uh by this expire group uh proposal should
identify a specific technology area or industrial ecosystem in which they will implement the activities proposed for
initiative so it will cover different static steps needed to leave and to lead and achieve the expected outcomes
depending of different starting point depending of the proposed area and theatic uh which will be building on
earlier analysis consultation so that means that some areas uh and eos system will have different level of preparness
uh regarding tis and so it's normal that proposal will have transfer different challenges depending on the considered
areas and let me insist again on the fact that this action should result in an in-depth understanding of user needs
for tis in relevant in ecosystems the aim is to identify potential gaps in the
offer uh from the point of view of users and how to increase their access and
answer mismatch between supply and demand both in terms of facilities but also in services across with a specific
focus again onmemes and startup as well as large companies but we uh we really
want to have like a a wall a wall range of users to access TIS
thank you thank you so much uh Gon um briefly u
we're going to call you again for the next topic but now I'll give the floor
uh to Diana who is going to present uh okay the only innovation action in
this objective diana thank you very much my name is Diana i
work in DGRTD in the unit uh dealing with AI in science and um industry
5.0 so I would like to present um the call on system innovation experimentation for industry
5.0 um uh first I would like to say a few words about concept industry 5.0 and
what it means um it is a um a forwardlooking industrial paradigm that
goes beyond uh efficiency and productivity it emphasizes the societal
role um and the environmental impact of industry through the true uh through the
three pillars of industry 5.0 which are human centricity environmental
sustainability and resilience um industry 5.0 Zero prioritizes investment
in skills um fostering talent diversity and empowerment um and thereby helping
um industries in navigating the the green and digital transitions um industry 5.0 is um
framework uh grounded in system thinking approach
uh it aims to foster the economic and environmental resilience of companies
and also of industrial e ecosystems in general and to contribute to enhancing
the sustainable competitiveness um of EU industries um industry 5.0 Zero
innovations such as um human centric uh technologies or learning organization
models contribute to tackling the new emerging challenges uh linked to the ongoing green and digital transitions
such as addressing the skills gap uh attracting best talent or accelerating
uh uptake of clean technologies um the proposal should
elaborate on an industry 5.0driven zero driven methodology framework via system
innovation experimentation in different industrial ecosystems uh to support deployment of
industry 5.0 zero innovations or methods at regional local ind uh industrial
ecosystems level um the project should build on the results um of the existing
Horizon Europe industry 5.0 uh uh projects um such as prospects 5.0
bridges 5.0 sees mech AI radio 5.0 0 and also of
the um so-called community of practice on industry 5.0 which we have launched
in 2023 uh proposals should involve appropriate expertise in social sciences
and humanities uh in particular in systems thinking or complexity science
and their uh practical implementation as part of system innovation or
transformation um initiatives uh so what we expect from the project um
first uh we expect demonstrated successful incentives that could be a policy mix uh uh for systemic
transformation towards industry 5.0 uh and for skills upgrading and boosting
the competitiveness of EU industries second development and application of
industry 5.0 zero enabling conditions processes and methods um for systemic
transformation organizational learning capacities and revitalization of
industries at regional local and local level and finally to provide evidence on
the implementation of industry 5.0 zero innovations for better adaptation um of industries to new challenges linked to
the twin transition um and organizational agility um and to
contribute to tackling the skills gap attraction of best talent in uh regional industrial ecosystems the budget is 3
million um the overall duration uh 36 months and with this I give the floor
back to Rosita thank you so much Danna um now let's go back to Guom to conclude
this long session with seven topics and um Giam could you present 66
yes thank you and good afternoon again so uh for this action we want to develop
an assessment of tech infrastructures needs in Ukraine it will be a CSA of one
to 1.5 million euro for a project in form of lum so only one project and the
expected outcomes are to develop a compressive understanding of the extreme landscape of TIS in Ukraine including
its impacity and service of course assess the loss of capacities regarding this sector uh in order of the Eurosian
aggression uh to have a understanding of specific user needs from industrial
users both Ukrainian and also um other companies is working in Ukraine with
again a focus on uh onmemes if possible and to develop an investment agenda for
TIS in Ukraine which will address the gaps related to capacity loss due to the war and in view of future techn development capacity of industry in
support of the construction process and it will need to identify techn centers in Ukraine that will be uh
able to pilot such an integrated approach to the provision of TI facing services ukraine companies uh will be
will be needed to strengthen the connection between research industry capacities and uh for technical transfer
therefore lowering the risk for a investment which is which is of TI so we really want to develop TI in Ukraine
focusing first on what was lost during the war and what could be uh rebuilt and
to develop networks around the technology centers additional maybe things to to keep in mind is that your
activities should engage with current authorities at national and regional level of course and as well organization
within the arena ecosystem such as RTO's technical universities research institutes teach centers of course uh
which are in such structures due to Ukraine of course it will also need to rely on so European initiative and
things uh we do uh in Ukraine right now the activities proposed under this
action should include so aggressive analyst of user needs or TIS both in public and private sector it should take
into account uh strategic technologies and long-term development needs for the current economy and uh also an analysis
of capacity gaps and mismatch between supply and demand for PI service a bit like the action 63 as well but in the UK
in in Ukraine um this uh project uh will therefore develop an investment agenda
uh for TI in Ukraine in use the postwar construction of the country so this is very important action uh for
reconstructing Ukraine after the end of the war soon as Europe this action um
should set uh should identify set of centers in Ukraine so what we decided in the last line that we par the
establishment of network uh so there should be really a center organized network of ti services uh in technology
in ecosystem and they should be able to support after action later thank you
thank you so much uh gon with this we concluded this objective so now we're
going to slide and identifying uh uh questions for our four speakers we start
with uh human 62 uh could you clarify the requirement
of at least 100 use cases how diverse or unique are these use cases expected to
be um yes thank you for the for the
question and I think what I can say on that is uh of course valorization activities and methods are very diverse
and uh so we'll have to be uh 100 use cases it would only make sense if uh not
all 100 use cases are on patent searching uh tools but that uh the use
cases are complimementaryary to match the various uh pathways from from research to innovation
thank you we continue with you Lisa ai for knowledge polarization what is meant concretely
with the phrase AI powered valorization tools could you provide some examples
where will the 100 use cases come from uh yeah quite a quite a similar question
I would say um and uh yes what is meant with with this is AI tools and AI uses
specific for valorization activities and that's why we provide some some examples for for inspiration that sense but there
there's many more aspects to that be it the scouting research results with innovative potential identifying
relevant partners for valorization scenario building for for feasibility
developing an IP strategy or a business plan like uh the possibilities are almost uh endless I would say and uh
where those cases are supposed to be coming from it is uh it is explained
that the action shall identify relevant existing tools and instruments and test
their application for the purpose of valorization okay thank you the last uh question to
you for now it's um in terms of the eligibility the consortium composition
um I know the official threshold of minimum three participants but I'm more interested in practical information so
what is the expected size of the consortium uh this is uh not prescribed i would say
it's up to the applicants to demonstrate how their compilation capacities are adequate to achieve the expected
outcomes thank you so much now we're going to move to U topic 63 with O uh
could you please give an example of a valorization pilot
yes thank you very much for this question it's a well this is really I mean they could
be various types uh but uh um let me try
to come up with an example uh for example if you have um I mean you work
on the mature results uh uh from uh from research uh projects so for example if
you have uh created some uh sensor technology uh um uh and and AI tools uh
which can uh monitor for example uh uh crop growth and and and soil uh um
health uh then this uh uh in the scale up phase you could uh u use the these uh
mature technologies and uh integrate them into a larger uh system then involving the um end
users uh farmers uh also the tech companies uh uh
um maybe environmental scientists uh uh and and perhaps some policy makers also
um uh and and and then to optimize uh uh farming practices uh uh reducing waste
uh um and also uh uh increasing the the the crop yields for example so uh so uh
these uh very diverse uh stakeholders involved uh could then um uh create new
opportunities like uh creating more sustainable uh farming methods and
improving uh food security this could be one example thank you so much the next
question is also uh relevant to the same topic value creation pilots for scaling
up innovative solutions could you please explain the differences of the CSAs to the EAC programs from Pathfinder to step
scale up well this is a this is a CSA so uh
this is uh um these value value creation pilots are are not really for scale up
itself but it is uh to prepare uh for it so u uh so uh this this is uh this is
the uh the difference I would say okay thank you and then uh please
elaborate on the type of stakeholders addressed as beneficiaries here for the human 63 topic
well uh this is really calling for multistakeholder collaboration so uh
uh again a diverse array of um u stakeholders
um could be included uh um from uh u
industry um policy makers uh uh um
societal actors um so u uh and it also
um an important uh um actor could be uh
uh living labs and and uh um different um uh facilities supporting um uh
industry academia collaborations thank you so much um here we're staying
with you but we're moving to topic uh human 60 a report for a study by the EC
from two years ago was just mentioned by the current speaker the name of the study was not given can he provide a
link to the report mentioned um I suppose this is now uh referring to
the uh commission recommendation on the code of practice uh for
standardization u for knowledge valorization um I thought there is a link in the in
the u topic description but uh if not we will uh provide it in writing okay so
all questions answered uh all the answers will be provided also in writing
um on the human 65 Diana this is a question for you i
would like to know if only entities in regional innovation valleys are eligible to submit a project to this call
um so the answer is very simple no um the the text of the call says the
following proposal should elaborate on an industry 5.0driven methodology framework via
system innovation experimentation in different industrial ecosystems
um for example in European regional innovation valleys but also in other
regions so this is not uh not restricted to entities in regional innovation
valleys perfect thank you so much um then the last question is for topic uh
61 should SDOS's be a beneficiary in the consortium would letters of support from
SDOS's be enough
uh yes i mean the the uh topic description uh uh calls for um uh
involving uh uh SDOS uh in the project
um it's in the last paragraph of the um topic description so I would say that
there is a strong call for involving them uh and uh uh I would not
uh take any uh firm position on whether uh these letters of support uh would be
enough okay thank you now we're going to the
topic 63 will organiza organizations from the social sector be eligible to
this call
um yes uh the the answer is is simple yes they should uh
uh they they would be eligible to participate in
the in the in this call in the project
okay thank you so much um I believe uh there are no further questions now we
can move to the last objective from the destination six
uh which is on international cooperation this uh objective will cover two topics
one on human 19 international cooperation in semiconductors that it's
coordination and support action and the second topic it's on generative AI for
Africa um Verer maybe if uh you can start now i'm uh with connect uh DG
connect in the unit uh C3 and this is the unit in charge of micro electronics and
photonics um this topic is a CSA uh and it should help us in policy development
so uh it's uh as the title says about international cooperation few words to
the rational so as uh many of you know uh the commission has uh passed uh
launched the so-called European chips act um this the motivation for this
activity was uh that chips in sloppy language so so the be it electronic ones
or photonics ones can be in short supply over the time EU has become very
dependent on other world regions uh on the design from United States and on the
production and uh from from Asia so uh it would this is all about uh reducing
dependencies and guaranteeing ensuring supply so then comes the notion of
partnerships with other countries and uh this CSA is not the first one we have a
running CSA but uh we get good results from the running one so we this is what motivates awaits us to call again and uh
to have uh more activities on this what are the expected outcomes so
uh we are after uh advice uh evidence-based advice to us and also to
the member states on joint actions with uh potential partner countries and in
the semiconductor world this is for example Japan or South Korea um Taiwan
so Chinese Taipei Singapore United States Canada India potentially also
others and they should help us uh in in in our EU policies
um so the measures would be uh to strengthen EU's position industrial
position in the global semiconductor value chain by doing some partnering
actions it can be joint research so uh
within the we have digital partnerships with Japan for example but also with South Korea we have
a uh technology trade technology council a TTC with India and we have a
partnership with Canada so we can use those partnerships to do joint actions
um and in order to do that we need analysis so that's the fourth outcome uh
we would need to have some factual elements to map the supply chains in such countries uh looking at the
research part but also looking at the industrial part see what state-of-the-art is see what they can do
what trends are who should supply uh who should who should suppose actually for the CSA um
we think it's ideally um universities or and research institutes who are active
in uh in the semiconductor world so I say it again we mean electronic chips
but we also mean photonic chips also think tanks uh could be interested and
uh companies who are active uh but also interested in international
cooperation uh I won't say much about the scope so it's it's it's it's written
down in the in the text um but I should mention in terms of what are interesting
documents uh to read uh with this chips act uh we produced a so-called staff
working document uh in 2022 so that's certainly interesting to understand the
context and uh then I would uh point at the website of the project IOS so that's
the running project on international cooperation in semiconductor area and they have public deliverables and one
can see what they have done already um complimentarities with other
actions is also important we have uh it's written in the context we have a chips diplomacy action uh it's an
European Parliament project we have joint projects RIA research projects
with uh South Korea EU South Korea and um last but not least in the chips joint
undertaking in this work program 25 in the running work program there's an
action on EU Japan cooperation and the ones who propose here should uh
coordinate with this uh upcoming CSA it's also a CSA are they expected they
can be helpful so it's possible um are they eligible for funding no they are
normally are they are not eligible for funding if the country is associated uh
uh then they would but this is not the case i I think I hope this is clear
enough yeah maybe um
um if you want to give an examples about Japan the South Korea because there is a
newly um associated agreement with South Korea yes and I can give an example for
Canada where I'm sure so Canada is associated and then they can be funded yeah and uh for South Korea I I think
it's into force yeah so the experts may want to check please yeah but uh it's
the same situation for South Korea japan for example is not associated
yes hello good afternoon everybody thank you for being here it's now in the afternoon i hope uh you still have
some level of attention to pay attention to this initiative it's international cooperation it's called generative AI
for Africa it's a new call uh it's a new topic uh we want to use this as part of
international cooperation in the European Union supporting innovation clusters
so basically the spectrum outcome is uh African societies uh and local
innovation clusters basically we want to like to do some technological transfer based on
existing AI models and algorithms based on AJ and AI that could be applied in
African countries to address specific needs of our societies and I will
explain later on what are these needs using these local innovation clusters as kind of enablers er and
partners with European erh entities to together h train further the algorithms
and to do the technological transfer and so basically the expecting outcome is as
I said African societies and local innovation classes what we want here and it's very clear we want techn
technological companies h in partnership with local companies in some locations
in Africa that can harness the full potential of generi by tailoring solutions based on existing technologies
developed in the European Union the primary focus is rural communities in Africa and women being an
underrepresented group and uh what are these societal needs uh or areas where
we need to let's say apply these technologies tailor these technologies to the specific needs in African
countries is agriculture optimization healthcare infrastructure and urban planning digital skills uh and learning
so uh in the text of the course you can uh propose uh one of several of these
areas is in the text of the call and we aim to involve and support startups and
innovation clusters and local networks in three to five locations
uh in Africa the indicative budget is 5 million and uh per project we estimate
between one and two million it's research and innovation action and uh
TRL starting in four and achieve TRL six by the end of the project so this is in
a nutshell what we are looking for so it's important that those uh willing to
to make a proposal they check thoroughly what countries in Africa are entitled to
funding the information is available through the FAQ and related information
in Horizon Europe because there are some African countries that are under European Union sanction is just a few
but be careful and please uh reach out to local innovation clusters local
companies to create solid proposals so we can count on local players in Africa and we don't do things unilaterally in
Europe the goal is international cooperation and go to this innovation
clusters and to the technological transfer and to co-design existing solutions in the European Union looking
at specific needs in this area in Africa that's it from my side thank you so much
Miguel uh we have a few questions addressed uh for this topic uh now we're
going to see them on the screen yeah the first question is what
is the ideal consortium that you're looking for in terms of geographical coverage political policy stakeholder
involvement and infrastructure
good question thank you so much it's very interesting um geo geographical
cover is in the text of the call basically we want to to to cover some locations in Africa so
basically African countries the ideal consortion is a technological companies
in Europe already applying a concrete solutions with certain level of maturity
that's why we are aiming for this dial in in areas like agriculture optimization in partnership with local
partners in Africa preferably startups innovation
clusters there are few in Africa already where they are already starting to to
embage or to work in in this set of technologies and they have maybe use
cases in mind but here in Europe are we are more advanced and we have more technological capacity to team up with
them and to co-design the the solutions they are exploring together in these areas this is more or less so European
and African companies to do this technological transfer and uh it would
be also good to have let's say uh organizations in the
field erh that are already deploying uh
designing solutions as part of human humanitarian cooperation and there are in the European Union certainly entities
working in humanitarian cooperation and erh development of AI so it would be
good to have this kind of three three uh type of entities uh technological
companies with solutions on AI in these areas erh likewise mirroring startups of
innovation classes in Africa is starting to do the same and also people that understand much better the ecosystem in
Africa because it's a difficult continent in terms of the the political
situation the geographical situation the societal situation is different to that one in Europe so also your organizations
working in development of AI and international cooperation that can act as a bridge to bring together all
these technological companies and to make sure that the local actors are involved so that the solutions can be
applied later on to to the recipients uh society uh users citizens uh farmers
whatever can I answer the question i I do believe you answered quite
extensively thank you so much we're going to move to the next one uh
um yes what type of involvement fostering and overall concrete results are you expecting from startups both
from Africa and the EU i think I explained in the previous
question the involvement of a startups is basically to h to bring their capacities their
experience the technologies um further develop these technologies to
specific use cases and specific needs in Africa so European and African startups
could be ideal members of this uh consortia yeah how do you envision the ideal
budget distribution between the EU and African countries are there any specific
expectations in this regard or should we focus primarily on delivering the expected results and impact and allocate
the budget accordingly yes I think here we are extremely flexible uh we are not expect 50/50
equal contribution erh at the end of the day the the bulk of the work should be
uh carried out by the European partners in terms of technological transfer bringing the right technologies provide
providing consultancy services to similar uh startups or innovation hs in
Africa so the bulk of the work maybe 7030 is a good but it's we don't
preclude this what is important is the resource and the impact and then allocate the budget accordingly thank
you can African partners receive funding for networking and local living labs via
the project if yes how should they be integrated like direct member of the
consortium subcontracting something else
yes this networking probably will be needed as I said um not only African partners maybe also European partners
that are already working in the field uh developing deploying basic infrastructures uh enabling AI like
cloud services uh telecommunication networks and also specific use cases
looking at governmental needs so either African European partners should really
play a major role in my view it's the same I don't I can we cannot preclude this it could be direct members of the
consortion or uh the be subcontractors total flexibility here yeah maybe uh please uh
uh be aware of the restrictions for subcontracting and which task can be
subcontracted so go of the general information and the eligibility of the
costs uh the next question is would partners from any African country get
funded for activities in disco or is this restricted for only associated countries i think this is information I
gave earlier on uh there is a detailed uh PDF document explaining uh you need
to look at the basis of Horizon Europe and which entities from which countries are eligible for this uh funding uh
there are some sanctions uh in place in some African countries but my understanding is that for the other
countries they are totally entitled to be to be funded there there maybe there are some uh
restrictions in some specific uh elements but uh me I'm not an expert but I was looking at this information and is
is totally uh available for everybody so read carefully the the eligibility criteria but in principle yes they are
they are eligible many many entities established in African countries
okay maybe Rashita you know more than me but this is the information I found out yeah but the general rule it's really go
and uh uh see of all eligibility criterias in ter in terms of the
participants and composition of the consortium eligibility costs and there
uh it's already all settled um in terms of education is it targeting any
educational level like uh university school or TV any preference what is TV by the way
um not really sure but uh let's say whether it's technological vehicle
no sorry type of upskilling or supporting professionals uh but let's
focus on whether the you focus on specific educational level or
I think the text of the call is very broad when it comes to digital skills when it comes to technological transfer
certainly as we as we want local actors to uh in a way uh scale up this these
technologies that could be co-designed with European partners or European partners transferring some technologies
models and so on of course we need to count on
startups as I said but probably uh relevant stakeholders for instance in
the case of agriculture optimization maybe there are I don't know in Kenya h some
startups of an innovation cluster in this topic agriculture optimization so it would be good also to envisit how to
train the users of the the final users of the technologies that could be the the farmers themselves using drones to
with artificial intelligence to to see the irrigation that is needed in some fields to optimize water consumption so
here is training to to the companies to develop the solutions and to provide
support to the end users but also to the end users as the end users
mhm okay thank you so much now the next question is what regions partners or
countries are you considering for Africa given its size and multicultural national nature
i mean as we can aim for to make maybe three three projects
uh it could be good to have between to have a bit of a geographical
distribution it would be bet best if for instance the proposal for one one project the proposal of one
proposal is addressing two uh two or three areas in Africa but it's a bus
continent so of course we we we have to be realistic so some geographical v
violence would be decide but at least per proposal there should be some uh two or three areas cover or one or two
countries whatever is in the proposal we honestly we we cannot really now add
further requirements to this so there are no uh prescriptive no no but ideally
I mean at least if we are going to test uh technologies in in it would be good
to have two locations to make sure that this could work and the is the initial
scaling up so we can work together with into with two innovation clusters one in one country and another in another
country much better because also the solution could be designed taking into account
er let's say similar but at the same time more enrich requirements from do
the two different types of countries um or regions let's say regions countries
yeah okay thank you so much um you largely mentioned companies regarding
development of solutions are research organizations allegible
i think so we need to look at this TRL uh levels um and how far you can these
research organizations can uh bring maturity let's say this topic is
research innovation so how far this research organizations can deliver something that is mature enough this is
in a way h the limitation that uh for as long as we are not only prototyping h
but also developing something that could work at the end of the day that should
be okay okay thank you so much
um the proposal for EU Africa can it address two domains yes okay um does the
code target only generative AI or also other types of AI and other models no
generative AI I'm afraid does the this call also asking to evolve the digital
innovation hubs or more on the living labs how about African tech hub
yes uh it's very broad i think we can cover uh I think these
are more or less similar concept i understand there could be some uh fine
grain details the difference but both uh both concepts are really b valuable and
I think it could be added could bring added value on the previous question of course it's not black or white is
preferably is generative AI but if in the models algorithms that are suggested
there are something that is not purely generative AI is also valid but there should be a heavy weight of generative
AI because this is the concept behind we want to transfer
okay it's uh clear it's not exclusive it's not exclusive but it's a must
generative is a must from that on there could be other type of AIS in the the
proposals but the as a must is inative um I don't know whether verner it's
still here uh because the next question it's on the semiconductor ctor if he is
not here the question will be answered in written format later
on no I think uh he left uh okay thank you so much with this we conclude
destination six uh thank you for the numerous uh questions on uh the CSA
generative fire for Africa hello everyone we're back with the next
session which is on the public procurement AI for public goods and uh Miguel from
Dig Connect will uh provide more information on the four uh public
procurements uh Miguel the floor it's yours uh here I
will present a more topics on AI for public good uh
related to uh procurement this is purely procurement this is part of the AI
office portfolio of projects or solutions aiming to uh develop a game uh
practical applications of technologies based on AI in in areas that are uh
fundamental for society that's why we call it AI for public good um the first one is to develop a AI
power uh solutions for cancer imaging uh for
two type of diagnosis breast and prostate cancer the expected outcome is to train
test enhance and optimize existing AI models models that have been already
developed in the EU or they are in in in the making
models and algorithms for breast and prostate cancer diagnosis using image and uh to provide uh these
models as open AI or open models that can be uh offered to EU researchers as
well as stakeholders from other parts of the of the world in particular low to middle inome countries so it's
not necessarily Africa it could be Africa it could be some countries in Central
America and plan and initiate the steps towards the regulatory approval of the algorithms for use in real life
scenarios the algorithms are also to be tested and
initially verified in clinical trials in some low income countries getting data
from uh h from these local countries potentially in Africa for instance in
some clinical areas in a in centers in Africa is we expect the publication of
the procurement in coming coming weeks actually coming days hopefully so uh now
second quarter of 2025 and the budget is to 4 million euros from Horizon Europe
so that's it do I continue or do we stop here and we take questions on this particular
now you cover all four procurement and then we have questions okay then I go to
the next one the next one is uh innovative AI powered solutions for
emergency response and crisis management here the spectrum outcome is
to develop a multi-hazard platform to significantly enhance emergency response
capabilities during natural disasters with initial scope on wildfires so the
platform will be integrated with existing capabilities and systems that we have in the European Union covering
the entire the entire planet and used already in the EU but even beyond in the
EU for instance by the union civil protection mechanism like the global Wi-Fi information system and as part of
this procurement the platform and the wildfire capabilities for crisis
management will be deployed in several countries in Latin America mainly in Central America the Caribbean and
Colombia and the solution should support the EU as part of the union the union civil protection
mechanism and u this is a part of an agreement with
the joint research center and DG echo humanitarian organization so is the
colleagues of the of the joint research center that uh they are handling this
procurement and they will hire experts to to develop the solution
uh that is basically to model the behavior of a file using AI to predict
how a fire is going to evolve and to make informed decisions on the number of resources that have to be
uh brought to the to the field to put up the fire the next one please
the next one is urban reconstruction and here is again a
public procurement the goal will be launched in coming days is uh €2 million
euros and is to design and develop a local digital twin for reconstruction that is a vual v virtual replica of a
city or local community relying on algorithms on AI
algorithms to offer simulation and predictive services on reconstruction it
can be used by urban planners to make informed decisions on what kind of uh
reconstruction scenarios can be set up and the and quantify precisely the cost of rebuilding one area partially or
totally devastated after a natural or humanmade
disaster the goal is to test these algorithms one is for assessing the
level of disability of damage in buildings and the other algorithm is to
assess precisely uh reconstruction cost one the preferred scenario or the
scenarios set up by one planners are selected this should be tested in cities
in Europe and potentially as well in Ukraine and initial stages of deployment
uh should be conducted in order to scale up the
solution and productive solution in Ukraine later on this is totally beyond
the scope of Horizon Europe but some initial stages should be contemplated
and the last initiative is uh applying AI for electric electric
grid optimization erh open call also coming in coming days
3 million euro h and uh goal is to develop train and optimize a comprehensive set of AI based tools to h
make the electric grid in urban areas more flexible more autonomous
er and to be able to cope with pickoff demands and pick
off supplier laboratory simulations are to be envisaged to validate the proposed
data exchange mechanisms and simulate complex systems electric grid as you know especially those living in Iberia
two weeks ago how complex it can be h and the testing and validation of the
tools in real world conditions across very various EU locations but also with this international angle that initial
deployment or initial testing moreover should be conducted in third countries
with a specific needs like some countries in South America where the state of the electric grid is sometimes
is not the best one and applying AI could optimize the the current
connections that's it from my side
thank you so much uh now let's see whether there are any questions related to the public
procurement we'll just wait for a second uh to
Okay yes sorry I forgot uh please scan the uh slide code or enter uh with hash
horizon at slido and the first question it's already in for the first procure
procurement they don't have the typical three country consortium requirements right how does this Horizon Europe
cluster 4 public procurement code topic differs from RIA research and innovation action and
innovation action so one is grant another is procurement and Miguel for
you yes we are we are going for procurement because here we are procuring a solutions that we want to
use as part of our international cooperation especially towards low income countries so basically we want to
have a consortia composed of uh scientists uh technological partners
companies that they can bring this capacity and develop the solution we want to keep the IPRs this is something
the commission is procuring to give as open source open solutions to the
international community and there are different initiatives and there is seven Italy France and so on and so forth
that's why we cannot use a grant-based instrument because we need to retain the full ownership in order to transform and
to give this as opensource and open AI thank you very very clear answer uh so
far there are no other questions so thank you so much for your availability Miguel my pleasure thank you uh wait
there is another one for the public procurement if the EC the actual procurer so I assume is
the EC the actual procurer if so will be choosing the countries who will be acting as the solution testers
yes the procurer is the AI office uh did you connect and in the text of the open
procurement you will have all the details uh I cannot comment because this
is still in the making as soon as the text of the call is published you will have all the information and uh uh
consorcia can just uh make an offer based on the requirements uh established
in the in the open tender okay uh maybe uh for a second uh we may
have one more questions so uh please for people with questions
scand or join join at slido.com hash
horizon yeah should partners in third world countries be public or private
it depends on the nature of the of the solution um for instance in healthcare
uh this kind of cancer diagnosis through imaging
uh if the consortio is proposing a clinical trials
uh clinical testing in some clinical centers uh in African countries I
mean it could happen in private uh hospitals but what we do here is more
open and is for the good of society so we want to avoid uh the so-called vendor
lock in so it should be we preferably prefer to go for public organizations that they can scale up later on the
solutions uh for the public good so I would say public entities in the case of
electric grid it depends on the topic in the case of electricity you need to to to operate with a private companies but
the in the text of the call you will see the requirements and maybe will be much easier to to figure out by yourself the
best is I I don't think there is a simple answer but preferably we we we
want things that can be uh beneficial for society so it cannot be uh purely
given to private entities and these private entities they profit from these uh models and that's it it must be
ambition for scaling up and make it extensive to the whole of society so case of healthcare preferably public
health public hospitals and and reconstruction is urban is urban
reconstruction you need to do it in urban areas with the major with the cities with urban planners certainly mhm
okay then um about the AI solution for urban reconstruction can a private
company in construction industry participate or apply
yes uh I think it's the basis of procurement on what is entire what is
eligible what is not eligible uh for as long as uh in the offer the
the requirements and the let's say all the goals
are are fulfilled and is there is a clear explanation on what is the role
this private company can play certainly we are we we we are reaching out to private sector not only public sector
private sector they they have expertise on reconstruction they have technologies
GIS platforms the consideration of public private is more where you want to test
it and certainly um the recipient of the solution and the
testing it should be done in in cities so the recipient should be a certainly
public entities but the the consortion could be a a public private entities is
it's up to the consortion for as long as they comply with the requirements and it's crystal clearly clear what is the
what are the task of each member uh it should be fine
okay thank you so much uh for this information um so just to wrap up uh in
the next few days weeks uh the terms of reference and the public procurement
will be published