Programme Category
Programme Name
Programme Description
Horizon Europe is the European Union (EU) funding programme for the period 2021 – 2027, which targets the sectors of research and innovation. The programme’s budget is around € 95.5 billion, of which € 5.4 billion is from NextGenerationEU to stimulate recovery and strengthen the EU’s resilience in the future, and € 4.5 billion is additional aid.
Identifier Code
Call
Summary
The latest developments in AI are demanding computation infrastructures designed to maximize the number of FLOPS. Europe has a window of opportunity to leverage open source and ensure that the European industry is at the cutting edge of these new processing infrastructures. The current methods and tools to develop and efficiently deliver AI pipelines and complex generative AI applications present several shortcomings.
Current identified challenges include the continuous management of data pipelines, novel testing methods (e.g. differential testing or improved performance testing), optimized deployment strategies (in terms of using energy efficient resources or the best performant), management of dependencies with a diverse set of types of hardware, algorithm bias and discrimination against certain groups, determined by characteristics such as gender, ethnicity, age or disability, as well as the maintenance of the effectiveness of AI applications, notably generative AI ones. The explainability of AI models is another crucial challenge that must be also tackled at the software engineering level, possibly in synergy with explainability methods at the machine learning stage. Also, large language models and foundational models require the development and operation of complex system architectures that need to handle data processing at large scale, continuous training of models and inference. Furthermore, AI pipelines and generative AI application also strongly suffer from poor protection against learning dataset poisoning, as well as prompt poisoning; software engineering methods and tools providing support to protect against those attacks are thus direly required. This presents novel challenges for developers that will need to be addressed with the development of new methods, mechanisms and tools covering the above, including neuromorphic computing, but not limited to.
Detailed Call Description
The main objectives for the advancements of Software Engineering in this field are:
- Increasing the productivity of generative AI application developers, and operators, especially of foundational and language models.
- Define a reference architecture and framework for generative AI application developers to simplify integration and system modularity.
- Simplifying and automating the development and operation of such applications.
- Including novel techniques for the generation of labelled training sets for reinforcement learning (RL) from human feedback, to be evaluated with corresponding RL algorithms.
- Facilitating AI progress and advancement beyond the state-of-the-art in the EU at a faster rate vis-à-vis the rest of the world and contributing to the implementation of the AI Act.
- Establishing collaboration with EU-based chips designers to maximize how the hardware resources are fully optimized with the software to develop
The proposal should address at least one use case as an industry application (e.g., automotive, health, energy, food/agriculture, etc.).
Actions could build on, provide support or seek collaboration with existing projects, develop synergies and ensure complementarities with other relevant European, national or regional initiatives currently demanding this kind of optimisations possibly in different verticals: e.g. digital twins leveraging GenAI, data quality enhancement leveraging GenAI, development of energy-efficient AI algorithms.
Communicable results should be shared with the European R&D community through the AI-on-demand platform, and if necessary, other relevant digital resource platforms to bolster the European AI, Data, and Robotics ecosystem by disseminating results and best practices.
Call Total Budget
Financing percentage by EU or other bodies / Level of Subsidy or Loan
100%
Expected EU contribution per project: between €4.00 and €6.00 million.
Thematic Categories
- Information and Communication Technologies
- Information Technology
- Research, Technological Development and Innovation
Eligibility for Participation
- Businesses
- Large Enterprises
- Legal Entities
- Semi-governmental organisations
Eligibility For Participation Notes
A number of non-EU/non-Associated Countries that are not automatically eligible for funding have made specific provisions for making funding available for their participants in Horizon Europe projects.
Participation is limited to legal entities established in Member States, Iceland and Norway and the following additional associated countries: Canada, Israel, the Republic of Korea, New Zealand, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom.
Entities established in an eligible country listed above, but which are directly or indirectly controlled by a non eligible country or by a non-eligible country entity, may not participate in the action unless it can be demonstrated, by means of guarantees positively assessed by their eligible country of establishment, that their participation to the action would not negatively impact the Union’s strategic assets, interests, autonomy, or security. Entities assessed as high risk suppliers of mobile network communication equipment within the meaning of ‘restrictions for the protection of European communication networks’ (or entities fully or partially owned or controlled by a high-risk supplier) cannot submit guarantees.Call Opening Date
Call Closing Date
National Contact Point(s)
Research and Innovation Foundation
29a Andrea Michalakopoulou, 1075 Nicosia,
P.B. 23422, 1683 Nicosia
Telephone: +357 22205000
Fax: +357 22205001
Email: support@research.org.cy
Website: https://www.research.org.cy/en/
Persons to Contact:
Dr Angelos Ntantos
Scientific Officer
Email: antantos@research.org.cy
Mr. George Christou
Scientific Officer
Email: gchristou@research.org.cy