UCC has a strong track-record of participating in several EU-funded research and innovation projects. The AI4Europe project is coordinated by a team at Insight (www.insight-centre.org), an SFI Research Centre for Data Analytics for which UCC is one of the host institutions. Insight is among the largest data analytics centres in Europe and supports researchers across areas such as the Fundamentals of Data Science, Sensing and Actuation, Scaling Algorithms, Model Building, Multi Modal Analysis, Data Engineering and Governance, Decision Making and Trustworthy AI.

Örebro University currently ranks among the top 500 universities in the world according to Times Higher Education 2022. For a few years now, we have also been included on the Shanghai ranking (ARWU) and most recently on the Leiden ranking. Close ties between teaching and learning, research and collaboration, are the mutual starting points for all activities. We offer many attractive professional degree programmes in, among others, medicine, psychology, law and engineering. The university has strong research within medicine, psychology, environmental science and computer science.

KInIT is an independent, non-profit institute dedicated to intelligent technology research. They bring together and nurture experts in artificial intelligence and other areas of computer science, with connections to other disciplines:

• Web and user data processing including false information and malicious behaviour modelling
• Processing and comprehension of natural language
• Green and secure environment
• Ethics and human values in intelligent technologies

KInIT combines the excellent competencies of academic researchers and educators with innovative companies, their needs and experience.

By involving the private sector, we seek to create a healthy research ecosystem that is connected to existing universities, the Slovak Academy of Sciences and above all to the international community.

Since 1994, ITI has developed R&D applied to the needs and problems of companies, looking for technological solutions that respond to social and economic challenges, improve industrial competitiveness, promoting a more intelligent and sustainable society. The result are products and advanced and innovative technology services.

With more than 280 professionals from different backgrounds, experienced in customer satisfaction, and concern and vocation for research applied to real problems.

In the last year it has conducted over 135 R&D projects and around 240 companies have relied on ITI as a “technologic partner”.

All this using an open and collaborative model that allows it to generate knowledge and experience for developing innovative and advanced technological solutions and services.

Telenor Group is a leading telecommunications company across the Nordics and Asia with 158 million subscribers and annual sales of around NOK 99 billions (2022). 

Telenor is committed to responsible business conduct and driven by the ambition of empowering societies. Connectivity has been Telenor’s domain for more than 165 years, and our purpose is to connect our customers to what matters most.

From 5G connectivity to the application of artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things, Telenor strives to be at the forefront of digitalisation and innovation, often in collaboration with customers and partners. Our talented teams are focused on responsible, secure and pioneering technologies that benefit customers, businesses and societies as a whole.

Founded in July 1961 as a Research Centre for Nuclear Research, Demokritos is today the largest multidisciplinary Research Centre of Greece with approximately 180 Researchers in tenured and tenure-track positions and over 500 Research Personnel working in projects funded mainly by grants from State Funds, the European Union and Private Industries.

The Centre consists of five independent Institutes focusing on different scientific fields. It is governed by the Board of Directors and is supervised by the General Secretariat of Research and Innovation, which is in the Ministry of Development & Investments.

The University of Zaragoza is the main centre of technological innovation in the Ebro Valley and has great prestige among the group of both Spanish and European universities it has relations with.

Through the Vice-Rectorship for Internationalization and Cooperation, the University of Zaragoza participates in various exchange programmes, collaborating with universities and research centres from Europe, Latin America and the USA, thereby strengthening its international standing.

The German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI) has operated as a non-profit, Public-Private-Partnership (PPP) since 1988. Today, it maintains sites in Kaiserslautern, Saarbrücken, Bremen, Niedersachsen, laboratories in Berlin and Darmstadt, as well as branches in Lübeck and Trier.

DFKI combines scientific excellence and commercially-oriented value creation with social awareness and is recognized as a major “Center of Excellence” by the international scientific community. In the field of artificial intelligence, DFKI has focused on the goal of human-centric AI for more than 30 years. Research is committed to essential, future-oriented areas of application and socially relevant topics. Currently, with a staff of about 1,460 employees from more than 65 countries, DFKI is developing the innovative software technologies of tomorrow. The financial budget was 76.3 million euros in 2021.

EGI is the federation of computing and storage resource providers united by a mission of delivering advanced computing and data analytics services for research and innovation.

EGI research services include high-throughput and cloud computing, storage and data management, analytics, consultancy and support, training and co-development. EGI also provides a wide range of internal services for the federation and partners from the business world.

EIT DIGITAL embodies the future of innovation by mobilizing a pan-European multi-stakeholder open-innovation ecosystem of top European corporations, SMEs, startups, universities and research institutes, where students, researchers, engineers, business developers and investors address the technology, talent, skills, business and capital needs of digital entrepreneurship.

They build the next generation of digital ventures, digital products and services, and breed digital entrepreneurial talent, helping business and entrepreneurs to be at the frontier of digital innovation by providing them with technology, talent, and growth support.

EIT Digital answers specific innovation needs by, for example, finding the right partners to bring technology to the market, supporting the scale-up of digital technology ventures, attracting talent and developing their digital knowledge and skills.

EIT Digital invests in strategic areas to accelerate the market uptake and scaling of research-based digital technologies (deep tech) focusing on Europe’s key societal challenges: Digital Tech, Digital Cities, Digital Industry, Digital Wellbeing, and Digital Finance.

The Fraunhofer – Gesellschaft zur Förderung der angewandten Forschung e.V. (FhG) is Germany’s leading non-profit research organisation consisting of currently 72 institutes for applied research. 

The Fraunhofer Institute for Intelligent Analysis and Information Systems IAIS focuses on R&D on innovative systems for data analysis and information extraction, in software and in hardware. From sensor data to business intelligence, from media analysis to visual information systems: our research allows companies to do more with data. Fraunhofer IAIS is founding member of the BDVA. Further, Fraunhofer IAIS co-ordinates the Big Data alliance of Fraunhofer. 

Fraunhofer IAIS has comprehensive expertise in developing AI solutions and big data analytics technology, especially in pattern recognition and machine learning algorithms for audio, video and document analysis. Fraunhofer IAIS is strongly involved in several Big Data activities in Germany, and offers a diverse set of data scientist courses for the German industry.

The Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (AUTH), the sixth oldest and among the most highly ranked tertiary education institutions in Greece, is the largest university in Greece and in the Balkans. AUTH will be involved in the project through the Artificial Intelligence and Information Analysis (AIIA) laboratory, a unit within the Department of Informatics. AIIA has strong expertise in machine learning, computer vision, big data and semantic video analysis, including applications in autonomous drones. 

AIIA Lab is an active research group working for more than four decades in digital media and related areas. Its topics of interest span the areas of semantic media analysis and description, computational intelligence, computer vision, digital image/video processing, parallel/distributed computing, human-centered interfaces, multimedia security/protection and biometrics/privacy protection. It has undertaken more than 70 R&D projects in those areas.

Almost 1000 years old, the University of Bologna (UNIBO) is known as the oldest University of the western world. Nowadays, UNIBO still remains one of the most important institutions of higher education across Europe and the second largest university in Italy with 11 Schools, 32 Departments and about 81,000 students; it is organized in a multi-campus structure with 5 operating sites (Bologna, Cesena, Forlì, Ravenna and Rimini), and, since 1998, also a permanent headquarters in Buenos Aires. With regard to the international reputation, UNIBO has been awarded the use of the logo “HR Excellence in Research” and is among the top 5 Italian universities in the main International rankings, e.g., 1st Italian university (77th in the world) in the international QS – World University Rankings 2019 (“Academic Reputation” category), 1st Italian University in US News & World Report Ranking 2018, 3rd Italian University in World University Rankings Times Higher Education 2019.

On the European side, Unibo is member of the major European Networks and stakeholders thematic groups, such as: the 5GPPP the Public Private Partnership (PPP), the 5G Infrastructure Association (5G IA), the Networld2020 European Technology Platforms (ETP), the European Climate Research Alliance (ECRA); the ETP SuSchem, WSSTP, BioFules; the Joint Programming Initiatives (JPI) Water challenges, FACCE, Oceans; the Spire PPP; the KIC Climate and KIC RawMaterials; the EIP Water Challenges. At national level UNIBO is member of the SPRING National Cluster on Green Chemistry.

With regard to the capability of attracting funding for research and innovation, UNIBO is very active both at National and European level in all the research areas. Activities related to competitive funding programs are supported by the Research Division, with 10+ year experience and about 50 people assisting the research groups in the whole project lifecycle. A Research Development Office deals with the pre-award phase and the UNIBO strategic positioning at local, national and international level, through integrated networking and lobby activities in each specific research area. While the Programs&Projects Office supports the UNIBO researchers in the implementation phase of the projects with technical, legal, financial and administrative expertise. These Offices strictly cooperate between each other and in strictly connection with the Knowledge Transfer Office, for the Innovation Management expertise and the IP protection and exploitation, and the take up and commercialization of project results.

Thanks to its scientific excellence and a central Project Management support working closely, UNIBO has gained a considerable experience in International and European research projects, successfully participated in FP7: with 274 projects funded in 2007-2013; (58 of them as coordinator) and 87,8ML Euros of funding.

In Horizon 2020, UNIBO is so far involved in 271 funded projects (71 as coordinator) with more than 108 ML Euros of funding. UNIBO is also partner of the EIT Knowledge & Innovation Communities (“EIT DIGITAL”, “Climate KIC”, “EIT Raw Materials”) and many of the most important EU initiatives related to the Horizon 2020 framework program (ie. ETPs, EIPs, JPIs, etc).

With its leadership of a national Industry 4.0 competence center, UNIBO has a strong and innovation intensive industry pushing for AI. UNIBO also acts as an aggregator and facilitator of cross-discipline AI research and AI-driven applications, via its “Alma Mater Research Centre for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence” (ALMA-AI). The activities of the University of Bologna will be conducted within the Computer Science and Engineering Department (DISI). This is one of the strongest computer science and engineering research hubs in Italy, covering such diverse areas as artificial intelligence, autonomic and complex systems, bio-informatics, middleware systems, networks, programming languages, formal methods, hardware and software systems and their applications in medicine, energy, environment and society, to cite just a few. The core activities of the Artificial Intelligence group cover optimization and constraint programming, knowledge representation and reasoning, computational logic, the hybridization of symbolic and sub-symbolic techniques, abductive reasoning and argumentation and natural language processing for argumentation mining, with a wide range of applications from decision support systems and HPC to legal text analysis and the medical domain.

Aalto University is where people who think differently bring the best out of each other. A place where imagination and theory meet practice and reality. A community to solve challenges most consider impossible. Aalto was created with a mission to lead a way for a nation. To unite a diverse set of people through science, arts, technology and business. To create a better world by bringing quantum engineers, urban economists and fashion designers to collide and to elevate each other. Our way is to accelerate curiosity and responsibility towards solving the biggest challenges in the world. For this task we offer an academic environment that reimagines the way a university operates.

Aalto University creates the conditions needed for innovation, economic growth, employment and wellbeing. Our research focuses on seven key areas combining four core competences in the fields of ICT, materials, arts, design and business together with three grand challenges related to energy, living environment, and health.

Barcelona Supercomputing Center-Centro Nacional de Supercomputación (BSC-CNS) is the national supercomputing centre in Spain. BSC is specialised in high performance computing (HPC) and manage MareNostrum, one of the most powerful supercomputers in Europe, located in the Torre Girona chapel.

BSC is at the service of the international scientific community and of industry that requires HPC resources. Our multidisciplinary research team and our computational facilities –including MareNostrum– make BSC an international centre of excellence in e-Science.

Since its establishment in 2005, BSC has developed an active role in promoting HPC in Spain and Europe as an essential tool for international competitiveness in science and engineering. The centre manages the Red Española de Supercomputación (RES), and is a hosting member of the Partnership for Advanced Computing in Europe (PRACE) initiative. We actively participate in the main European HPC initiatives, in close cooperation with other European supercomputing centres.

BSC has been successful in attracting talent, and our research focuses on four fields: Computer Sciences, Life Sciences, Earth Sciences and Computer Applications in Science and Engineering. Our research lines are developed within the framework of European Union research funding programmes, Spanish and Catalan public research calls and collaborations with leading companies.

Established in the 1950’s, TU/e has always had strong values: optimism, collaboration and a dedication to society. These values helped Brainport Region Eindhoven flourish, and gave our university a prominent position in several rankings for collaboration with industry.

TU/e’s publications have high citation scores, consortia we are part of have won prestigious grants and our researchers receive scientific accolades on a regular basis. This distinguishing excellence is based on our three-pillar strategy: attracting talent, using a multidisciplinary approach and providing a stimulating research environment.

Societal challenges on Health, Energy and Smart Mobility are the driving force for our research. TU/e’s research institutes, Eindhoven Artificial Intelligence Systems Institute (EAISI), Eindhoven Institute for Renewable Energy Systems (EIRES), Institute for Complex Molecular Systems (ICMS) and the Eindhoven Hendrik Casimir Institute (EHCI) combine the strengths of our university with industry needs and government strategy.

UiT The Arctic University of Norway is a medium-sized research university that contributes to knowledge-based development at the regional, national and international level.

UiT The Arctic University of Norway is the northernmost university of the world. Its location on the edge of the Arctic implies a mission. The Arctic is of increasing global importance. Climate change, the exploitation of Arctic resources and environmental threats are topics of great public concern, and which the University of Tromsø takes special interest in. At UiT The Arctic University of Norway you can explore global issues from a close-up perspective.

Life in the High North is shaped by wild nature, contrasting light and weather conditions, geographic distances and multiculturalism. Many of UiT´s research centres and study programmes reflect the specific character of Arctic Norway. UiT’s study portfolia covers all classical subject areas from Health Sciences, Social Sciences, Education and Humanities, Science and Technology to Economics, Law, Social Work, Tourism, Sports and Fine Arts. UiT’s key research focuses on the polar environment, climate research, indigenous people, peace and conflict transformation, telemedicine, medical biology, space physics, fishery science, marine biosprospecting, linguistics and computational chemistry.

F6S is a leading global founder and startup network that helps public sector entities around the world to promote, communicate and disseminate technical and research projects. F6S stands for F-ounder-S. Our mission is to help founders and startups grow to solve the world’s pressing social, economic, environmental, sustainability and innovation problems. In addition to F6S’ work with governmental entities, we also work with corporates, investors, research institutions, programs, universities and others in the global startup ecosystem. F6S tools deliver company growth through grants, partnerships, funding, investment, pilot contracts, partnerships, jobs & talent recruitment, company services and more.

The Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts (ZRC SAZU) was established as an independent public research institution in 1981. It provided an institutional structure for a number of institutes that had already existed for several decades, organized as research departments of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts.

After forty years of turbulent, exciting, and successful transformations, ZRC SAZU has become the leading research and educational centre in Slovenia, mainly in the humanities and social sciences, and one of the most prominent academic institutions in central and south eastern Europe. More than three hundred researchers work within eighteen interconnected institutes that create a dynamic transdisciplinary research network. ZRC SAZU publishes around 60 to 90 monographs annually and from 25 to 30 volumes of each title from an array of their science journals. It is an active supporter of open science.

ZRC SAZU researchers conduct outstanding research that spans from linguistics to philosophy and archaeology to biology. Their findings are of tremendous importance for a better understanding of cultural, social, and natural phenomena in Slovenia and the world. Apart from publishing their results in academic publications, research groups also engage in data collection, documentation, and presentation to audiences beyond the academic sphere.

Over the last four decades, ZRC SAZU has become one of the driving forces of citizen engagement in science. It offers a forum for discussions of socially relevant issues and holds a series of public events. It was also central to the establishment of the Slovenian Branch of the March for Science, organizing protests in 2017, 2018, and 2019. In 2020, the Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts in a consortium with other Slovenian research institutions, launched a digital newspaper, Alternator: Misliti znanost (Alternator: Think Science).

LOBA – Customer Experience Design (www.loba.com): is the number one business and marketing agency in Portugal dedicated to customer experience, with headquarters in Oliveira de Azeméis and offices in Lisbon, Aveiro and Guarda. Established in 2000, LOBA has more than 120 qualified staff members, including senior executives, consultants, creatives, researchers, designers, programmers, as well as, a team of engineers specialised in the development of web-based solutions such as business/enterprise platforms.

 Through a comprehensive and integrated range of solutions from branding, promotion, communication, to relationship build-up and interaction with customers we put into practice our mission “to provide excellent customer experiences to the customers of our clients”.

Under the frame of European funded projects, LOBA is specialised in delivering the following services:

• Dissemination and Communication leveraging from the competences and experience in marketing, communication and dissemination, LOBA’s involvement in EU funded projects, usually under the role of leader of work package of communication and dissemination, is to provide the following services: branding and project identity, web-design, marketing activities, dissemination and exploitation of results, communication activities (i.e. events, workshops…), design, editorial and production of promotional material (i.e. brochure, posters, roll-ups), merchandising, social networks management, SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and SEM (Search Engine Marketing) management and PR management (i.e. press releases, newsletters).
• Consultancy with capabilities in the definition and implementation of innovation strategies in organisations (i.e. innovation processes, organisational development, technology and innovation audits).
• Management including project management, financial management, reporting, quality and risk management.

The European DIGITAL SME Alliance is the largest network of ICT small and medium enterprises in Europe, representing more than 45,000 enterprises in total. The Alliance is the joint effort of 30 national and regional SME associations from EU member states and neighbouring countries to put digital SME at the centre of the EU agenda.

The European DIGITAL SME Alliance aims at:

• Promoting exchanges of experiences, know-how and best practices in the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) sector among its members.
• Carrying out actions at the European level, dealing with topics of general interest to ICT small and medium enterprises in Europe; initiatives may, in particular, take the form of training programmes, organising conferences and seminars and carrying out research;
• Providing information to the members on Community policies;
• Promoting exchanges of experiences, know-how and best practices in the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) sector among its members.
• Carrying out actions at the European level, dealing with topics of general interest to ICT small and medium enterprises in Europe; initiatives may, in particular, take the form of training programmes, organising conferences and seminars and carrying out research;
• Providing information to the members on Community policies;
• Representing the interests and stances of the Association’s members on specific problems vis-à-vis the institutions of the European Union;
• Representing the interests of SMEs in the standardisation process at raising their awareness for standardisation and involving them in the standardisation process;
• Carrying out actions in third countries, especially in matters relating to the support and training of local ICT small and medium enterprises.

At the heart of a global network of knowledge and innovation, Université Paris Cité is France’s leading multidisciplinary university. It covers a wide range of disciplines, with one of the most comprehensive and ambitious educational offerings available in the world.

Born in 2019 from the merger of the universities of Paris Diderot, Paris Descartes and Institut de physique du globe de Paris, the ambition of Université Paris Cité is to lead and develop an exceptional potential to meet the challenges of tomorrow’s society.

Leiden University was founded in 1575 and is one of the leading international research universities in Europe. The University has seven faculties and a campus in both Leiden and The Hague. Leiden University is an internationally oriented, comprehensive University. Our scientific research and teaching inspire one another, and this cross-pollination shapes our contribution to society. The current overarching research theme of Leiden University is Artificial Intelligence.

The eLaw Center for Law and Digital Technologies at the Law Faculty was founded in 1985 and has a leading role in research and education on law and digital technologies. The Center studies the social, legal and normative impact of emerging digital technologies and is a multidisciplinary research institute, consisting of legal scholars, social scientists, philosophers, and technology experts. The focus of the research and education is particularly on digital technologies and their interplay with fundamental rights and the rule of law. Due to the complexity of this research area, the research questions addressed within eLaw often have a multidisciplinary nature and usually cover several areas of law.

Within eLaw, both fundamental and applied academic research is carried out, including conceptual research, empirical research and legal-positivistic research, on the legal, societal and technological aspects of regulating the internet and other digital technologies. The mission of the Center is to study the global rise and spread of digital technologies and their interplay with law and other forms of regulation. The core activities of the Center are offering education at bachelor, master, and post-graduate levels and carrying out academic research on the plurality of interactions between law, regulation and digital technologies.

Institute e-Austria Timisoara is a research institute created in 2002, which is dedicated to the promotion of excellence in scientific research and technological transfer in the field of information technologies.

One of the main goals is to promote cooperation between Romania and other European countries, both scientifically and economically.

The institute is a private non-profit research association between:

• RISC (Research Institute for Symbolic Computation, Linz, Austria)
• UVT (Universitatea de Vest Timisoara, Romania) and.
• UPT (Universitatea Politehnica Timisoara, Romania),