The Government presents to the university community the two new calls for grants that will boost research and training in Artificial Intelligence and microelectronics and semiconductors

The Government has presented to the university community the new calls for grants and subsidies that will be launched soon to boost research and training in cutting-edge areas, such as Artificial Intelligence and the microelectronics and semiconductor industry.

The special commissioner of PERTE Chip, Jaime Martorell, and the general secretary of Universities, José Pingarrón, have held an online meeting with the rectors and vice-rectors of research in which they have detailed the two new calls that will be published at the end of the month in the area of Artificial Intelligence and the ‘chips’.

The new calls for grants seek to boost training and research in two key areas in the new international context, in line with the programs and investments launched by the Government to strengthen autonomy and strategic industrialization.

This is precisely one of the key objectives of the addendum to the Recovery Plan sent to the European Commission to mobilise 84 billion loans and more than 10 billion additional transfers from European Next Generation EU funds.

Chip Chairs

During the meeting with the rectors and vice-rectors, the PERTE Chip commissioner explained the next call that will be launched at the end of June, Chip Chairs, aimed at enhancing the training of qualified professionals throughout the value chain of the microelectronics and semiconductors industry.

“In Spain we have the talent and we want to promote education in these areas through training and in collaboration with companies,” said Special Commissioner Jaime Martorell, stressing the high demand for qualified professionals that currently exists and that will continue to grow in the future.

The call for Chip Chairs has a budget of 80 million euros from the European funds Next Generation EU and is aimed at the training of students in the field of microelectronics and semiconductors and R&D in public and private universities in Spain, establishing collaboration agreements between universities and companies. The aim is to ensure that at least 1,000 people have specific high-capacity training.

Artificial Intelligence Research Plans

Likewise, the General Secretary of Universities, José Pingarrón, has advanced to the university community that the Ministry of Universities will soon publish the order of regulatory bases and call for the granting of grants for the financing of research plans in cooperation in the area of Artificial Intelligence developed by interdisciplinary research groups within the framework of the Recovery Plan.

The call, promoted in collaboration with the Secretary of State for Digitisation and Artificial Intelligence, is focused on creating networks of AI excellence and will have a budget of 31 million euros in the form of a grant, and a maximum amount of 2 million euros for each research plan in interdisciplinary cooperation, in which different universities, public research bodies, health research institutes, state-level technological centers and private R+D+I centers must participate, which meet the requirements set out in the call.

With this aid, it is intended to promote interdisciplinary and disruptive research of excellence in the area of Artificial Intelligence, incorporating this approach into the research culture of Spain, thereby facilitating better interaction between researchers and a greater cross-cutting of research, as well as obtaining advances with innovative lines of research.

The new grants will allow the creation of networks involving several leading researchers, collaborating researchers, as well as contracted postdoctoral and predoctoral researchers, in projects to be developed for two years and that fall within one of the eligible thematic areas that include fundamentals of AI, cognitive science, advanced algorithms, high-performance computing, human-machine interactions, quantum technologies, language technologies, environmental impact or other sectoral areas.

University-Business Chairs, already under way

These two new calls that the Government finalizes will be added to the one launched on November 14, 2022 by the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation, through the Secretary of State for Digitalization and Artificial Intelligence, to finance university chairs dedicated to research, dissemination, teaching and innovation on Artificial Intelligence (AI) and cybersecurity.

The objective is to research, disseminate and train in the application of Artificial Intelligence in specific subjects through public-private collaboration, so the chairs must have the contribution of the private sector, including cofinancing and the presentation of a sustainability plan that guarantees the subsistence of the chair beyond the financed period.

The chairs will develop actions aimed at training, research (both fundamental and experimental), experimental development and dissemination. Prior to the call for grants, in April 2022, the expression of interest regarding the creation of the chairs was launched with a great reception (133 expressions of interest were received between public and private entities).

The programme’s budget is 16 million euros and is aimed at public and private universities, in two subprogrammes: creation of national and international university-business chairs. At least eight national and eight international chairs will be funded. International ones must be presented with at least one reputable foreign entity, which will have to be a university or a company.

A contribution of up to 900,000 euros per national chair and up to 1.2 million euros per international chair is foreseen. As for the private financial contribution, the entity of the productive sector that enters the chair must guarantee the amount of at least 25% of the total amount of the project.

The chairs will focus on the following areas: Aeronautics and aerospace; agriculture; data economy; language technologies; robotics; green algorithms; law; responsible AI and ethics; geopolitics; music and arts; deeds