New projects to enrich the AI-on-demand platform

Six projects have been selected to enrich the EU’s AI-on-demand platform, initiated by the AI4EU project, following a call launched in May 2019 to bring together expertise to establish a central European AI toolbox.

The ambition is to bring AI technologies and resources to innovators and integrators – those who combine tools to optimise performance –  in all sectors. The new projects will also help actively engage with a wider user community, and to foster adoption of AI via use-case experiments.

What will the projects do?

  • Enrich and enhance the AI on-demand platform service offer
  • Further develop the service layer of the platform, advising the users ing finding the most appropriate tools for their needs 
  • Strengthen the platform’s sustainability
  • Boost the deployment of AI-based solutions and services
  • Enable a larger user community to reap the economic benefits of AI, especially small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and non-technology sectors

Six Innovation Actions to mobilise the best teams on key AI capabilities:

AI4Copernicus: will build on and improve the AI4EU platform service. It will offer datasets, tools and services relevant to Copernicus data to facilitate the use and uptake of the resources in sectors of high economic and societal impact, such as in Agriculture, Energy and Security.

AIPlan4EU: will bring AI planning (Automated Planning and Scheduling) to the AI4EU Platform by developing a uniform, user-centered framework to access the existing planning technology and by outlining concrete guidelines for innovators and practitioners.

BonsApps: will develop a fully functional and scalable AI-as-a-Service layer that will work with the AI4EU platform as an external service. The AI-as-a-Service layer will enhance an existing AI platform (Bonseyes Marketplace) to cover experimentation, benchmarking, deployment and secure licensing of AI solutions at the Deep Edge, such as the AI embedded in all our everyday smart devices.

DIH4AI: will build a network of regional AI-on-demand platforms, supporting joint development and provision of ecosystem-business-technology-transformation services. It will do so through a sustainable network of regional Digital Innovation Hubs (DIHs) specialised in AI and targeting local SMEs and local tech governmental agencies. The regional platforms will be by design able to work with systems in the pan-EU AI4EU platform.

I-NERGY: will develop new AI-based energy services, fully aligned with AI4EU service requirements, and strengthen  SME competitiveness on AI for energy. Furthermore, it will build an open modular framework for supporting AI-on-Demand in the energy sector by capitalising on, among other things, state-of-the-art AI, and the Internet of Things.

StairwAI: will facilitate the engagement of low-tech users to the AI-on-demand platform, enriching the capabilities of the platform by adding:

  • multi-lingual interaction layer enabling conversations with the Platform in the user’s own language
  • a first automatic matchmaking service to provide the best AI assets (tools, data sets, AI experts, etc.) meeting the user business’s needs
  • a second matchmaking service to provide the most appropriate hardware resources such as HPC, Cloud and Edge infrastructures.

Funding

The Commission invested €30m in these six projects under the current Horizon 2020 programme, after an initial investment of €20m for the creation of AI4EU, which initiated the European AI-on-Demand-Platform that allows the exchange of AI tools and resources across Europe.

Next steps

The AI-on-Demand-Platform is part of a larger future initiative through the next funding programmes. It is one puzzle piece of the Commission’s long-term vision to make Europe a powerhouse of AI, to unify the European AI community, and to foster the deployment of AI throughout Europe.  

Background

The 6 projects held a kick-off meeting in December 2020 to set the tone for future collaboration with each other and with the AI-on-demand platform, AI4EU. The platform was first established in January 2019. A call to bring together expertise to establish a European AI toolbox was launched in May 2019.