Dear members of the Alliance,

I am sending you this invitation on behalf of the SHERPA project (https://www.project-sherpa.eu/), which is a second EU Horizon 2020 project on AI, next to the SIENNA project.   

SHERPA investigates the way in which smart big data systems, combining data analytics and AI, impact ethical and human rights issues. It aims to develop ethical guidelines for the development and use of these systems, as well as policy proposals. 

We invite organisations involved in the design, use or regulation of such systems (including industry and industry associations, professional organisations, governmental organisations, and civil society organisations) to send a representative to two consecutive one-day SHERPA workshops on ethical guidelines for smart big data systems which will be held in Brussels on July 3rd and 4th, 2019.  The first workshop, on July 3rd, will focus on ethical guidelines for the development of such systems, and the second, on July 4th, will focus on their use by organisations.  We will distribute guideline options before the workshops to foster debate, which will be based on SHERPA investigations, and will also build on existing guidelines, including the HLEG on AI guidelines and the IEEE guidelines on Ethically Aligned Design.

The ethical guidelines, which will be developed in collaboration with the SIENNA project, will be used for the ethical review of AI research in the new Horizon Europe programme, in which AI research will have an expected budget of about € 9 bln.   

The workshop will be held at CEN-CENELEC (Rue de la Science 23, 1000 Bruxelles), and will consist of two one day workshops that can be attended independently by relevant stakeholders and members of the SHERPA consortium. After the workshop, there will be one or more additional commentary rounds, for which you will be invited as well.

SHERPA has a budget of € 3.0 million and a running time of 3 ½ years (May 1, 2018 – November 1, 2022). It is carried by a consortium of eleven organizations from the European Union and supported by an extensive stakeholder advisory board that includes many major and international organisations with an interest in AI and Big Data.  See our website:  https://www.project-sherpa.eu/

If you would like to attend, please contact Mark Ryan (m.j.ryan@utwente.nl) to confirm your attendance for either or both days of the workshop.