Agile and robust human language technologies for defence – Organisation of a technological challenge
Programme Category
Programme Name
Programme Description
The European Defence Fund (EDF) is the Commission’s initiative to support collaborative defence research and development, and to foster an innovative and competitive defence industrial base.
Identifier Code
Call
Summary
The objective evaluation of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies such as human language technologies (HLT) requires a specific organisation whereby systems are tested in a blind manner on data that is representative of the tasks under study, using common protocols. This scheme, which has been pioneered by the HLT community under the term “evaluation campaign”, is also often called a “technological challenge”. One objective of the call is to organise a technological challenge driving research toward enhanced HTL systems for defence applications.
Detailed Call Description
The proposals should address the organisation of a technological challenge on HLT based on the preliminary evaluation plan provided as part of the call document (cf. Annex 4). This includes the collection, annotation and distribution of data, and the writing of the evaluation plans.
Types of activities:
- Activities that aim to create, underpin and improve knowledge, products and technologies, including disruptive technologies, which can achieve significant effects in the area of defence (generating knowledge).
- Activities that aim to increase interoperability and resilience, including secured production and exchange of data, to master critical defence technologies, to strengthen the security of supply or to enable the effective exploitation of results for defence products and technologies (integrating knowledge).
The proposals must cover at least the following tasks as part of the mandatory activities:
- setting-up of the infrastructures for testing HLT systems in the framework of the technological challenge;
- collection and annotation of data, quality assessment, distribution and curation of databases;
- organisation of the evaluation campaigns, and in particular;
- coordination of the exchanges with the participating teams and any other relevant stakeholders on the evaluation plans and elaboration of these plans;
- management of the experimental test campaigns and of the objective measurements of the performances of the systems submitted to the tests by the participating teams according to the protocols and metrics described in the evaluation plans;
- organisation of the debriefing workshops.
A user board consisting of representative defence users should be set up and involved in the preparation of the evaluation plans and of the data. Data should be representative of use cases of interest for defence, such as peacekeeping operations, ISR and C2.
Call Total Budget
Thematic Categories
- Information and Communication Technologies
- Justice - Security
- Research, Technological Development and Innovation
Eligibility for Participation
- Central Government
- Large Enterprises
- Other Beneficiaries
- Private Bodies
- Researchers/Research Centers/Institutions
- State-owned Enterprises
Eligibility For Participation Notes
Applications will only be considered eligible if their content corresponds wholly (or at least in part) to the topic description for which it is submitted.
In order to be eligible, the applicants (beneficiaries and affiliated entities) must:
- be legal entities (public or private bodies)
- be established in one of the eligible countries, i.e.:
- EU Member States (including overseas countries and territories (OCTs)
- non-EU countries:
- listed EEA countries (‘EDF associated countries’, see list of participating countries)
- have their executive management structure established in eligible countries
- must not be subject to control by a non-associated third country or nonassociated third-country entity (unless they can provide guarantees – see Annex 2 – approved by the Member State or EDF associated country where they are established)
Consortium composition – Proposals must be submitted by minimum 3 independent applicants (beneficiaries;
not affiliated entities) from 3 different eligible countries.
Call Opening Date
Call Closing Date
National Contact Point(s)
Ministry of Defense
172-174 Strovolos Avenue, 2048 Strovolos, Nicosia,
website: https://mod.gov.cy/
Telephone: 22 807500
Email: defence@mod.gov.cy
Department of Research and Innovation
Phones: 22 807755, 22 807754
Email: research.innovation@mod.gov.cy
EU Contact Point
European Directorate-General for Defence Industry and Space (DEFIS): https://ec.europa.eu/info/departments/defence-industry-and-space_en
For help related to this call, please contact: DEFIS-EDF-PROPOSALS@ec.europa.eu