The Instituto de Engenharia de Sistemas e Computadores – Investigação e Desenvolvimento em Lisboa (INESC-ID), a research unit affiliated with Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa, secured total funding of €27.2 million for the establishment of the Sustainable Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (SAIL), a new Centre of Excellence dedicated to sustainable and trustworthy Artificial Intelligence (AI).
The team that worked on this project includes Arlindo Oliveira, Inês Lynce, and Rodrigo Rodrigues, professors at Técnico and researchers at INESC-ID.
SAIL will be led by INESC-ID, in collaboration with the Max Planck Institute for Software Systems and the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence. This initiative will involve researchers from Técnico working on research and innovation activities in areas such as explainability and reasoning in AI systems, computational sustainability, and the safe use of these technologies.
Additionally, the Centre of Excellence will provide for the creation of a Dual PhD programme in AI, jointly awarded by Técnico and Rheinland-Pfälzische Technische Universität, and the connection to the industry, through collaborative projects, the creation of a Living Lab, and of an ecosystem that fosters technology transfer.
SAIL will also establish an AI Ethics and Regulation Hub and develop physical and computational infrastructures for the development and testing of technologies.
The project has received total funding of €27.2 million under the Horizon Europe “Teaming for Excellence” programme. This amount includes a €13 million grant from the European Union, matched by €14.2 million in complementary national funding.
In the same call for proposals, Portugal secured European funding for six research centers, totaling €81 million. National applications account for approximately 30% of the indicative funding available, in a call that received 64 proposals.
* This text was written in collaboration with Instituto de Engenharia de Sistemas e Computadores – Investigação e Desenvolvimento em Lisboa (INESC-ID).
