The Coordination and Support Action (CSA) VISION coordinated the four new AI Networks of Excellence (NoEs) selected by the European Commission in the framework of the ICT-48 call “Towards a vibrant European network of AI excellence centres”. The aim of these NoEs AI4Media, ELISE, Humane AI Network, TAILOR was to foster the collaboration between the best research teams in Europe and addressing the major scientific and technological challenges in Artificial Intelligence more efficiently. Existing research capacities were expanded and concentrated through closer networks in the form of European AI centers of excellence to achieve a critical mass that will allow Europe to be competitive on an international level.

The project was fundamentally based on the the Confederation of Laboratories for Artificial Intelligence Research in Europe AISBL vision and objectives and is therefore led by Prof. Holger Hoos from Leiden University (Netherlands), who is also Chairman of the Confederation of Laboratories for Artificial Intelligence Research in Europe AISBL.

Within the 9 VISION consortium partners there were 31 Network members. VISION built on the Confederation of Laboratories for Artificial Intelligence Research in Europe AISBL and will leverage our community and network. VISION will reinforce and build on Europe’s assets in AI, including its world-class community of researchers, and thus enable Europe to stay at the forefront of AI developments, by strongly building on the success of our community and network, that brings together thousands of AI researchers and already helps to shape, consolidate and unify the AI research community across Europe.

Tother with VISION, and along with HumanE AI Net and TAILOR, we presented a series of joint so-called Theme Development Workshops (TDW) to bring together key players from specific industry sectors with key AI researchers, as well as additional stakeholders. The objectives were to jointly identify the strategic AI research areas and challenges in the scope of the workshop and to set up collaborative structures for further addressing them beyond the event.