The Diplomat
A consortium coordinated by Iberdrola, which also includes Indra, has been one of the main recipients of 50 million euros in European funds for research projects in Artificial Intelligence (AI), according to Europa Press.
The consortium, which is made up of 20 entities in total, including several universities such as the Polytechnic University of Madrid, the University of Granada and the University of Salamanca and centres such as the Tecnalia Foundation, will receive 12.5 million euros to research ‘advanced intelligent technologies for sustainable energy transition‘. This is still a provisional resolution that can be appealed.
The call for ‘R&D Missions in Artificial Intelligence’ awards funds to long-term research projects presented by consortia made up of large companies, academic institutions and small and medium-sized enterprises.
The grants were awarded to projects for up to three years with budgets of between 10 and 20 million euros (although some awards have been for a lower amount) in which large companies could contribute up to 50% of the budget and SMEs ‘at least’ 20%.
Likewise, the aid intensity is up to 80% in the case of SMEs and 65% in the case of large companies in the industrial research phase and 60% for smaller companies and 40% in the case of large firms for the experimental development stage.
The ‘AI for early diagnosis and treatment of diseases with high prevalence in ageing’ project will receive the largest grant, 12.7 million euros, to be divided among its 16 members.
This project is coordinated by Altran Inonvación, known since October as the Capgemini Foundation, and counts as partners the Barcelona Supercomputing Center and numerous academic and business institutions in Valencia, Aragon and Catalonia, as well as the Red Cross.
GMV is also coordinating a project to apply AI to the agricultural production value chain, which will receive 9.9 million euros and brings together 24 members, the most of the whole list. The consortium includes Florette, Emergy and the universities of Seville and Salamanca.
The government envisages 100 million euros of investment by 2021 in these projects in its recovery plan, so there would still be 50 million euros left to tender.
