Horizon Europe: Explainable and Robust AI (AI Data and Robotics Partnership) (HORIZON-CL4-2024-HUMAN-03)
Descriptions
Opportunity link:
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Eligibility
1. Admissibility conditions: described in Annex A and Annex E of the Horizon Europe Work Programme General Annexes. Applicants submitting a proposal under the blind evaluation pilot (see General Annex F) must not disclose their organisation names, acronyms, logos, nor names of personnel in Part B of their first stage application (see General Annex E).
Proposal page limits and layout: described in Part B of the Application Form available in the Submission System.
2. Eligible countries: described in Annex B of the Work Programme General Annexes
A number of non-EU/non-Associated Countries that are not automatically eligible for funding have made specific provisions for making funding available for their participants in Horizon Europe projects. See the information in the Horizon Europe Programme Guide
Summary
Program call: A human-centred and ethical development of digital and industrial technologies (HORIZON-CL4-2024-HUMAN-03)
Program Topic:
Projects are expected to contribute to one of the following outcomes:
- Enhanced robustness, performance and reliability of AI systems, including generative AI models, with awareness of the limits of operational robustness of the system.
- Improved explainability and accountability, transparency and autonomy of AI systems, including generative AI models, along with an awareness of the working conditions of the system.
Scope:
Trustworthy AI solutions, need to be robust, safe and reliable when operating in real-world conditions, and need to be able to provide adequate, meaningful and complete explanations when relevant, or insights into causality, account for concerns about fairness, be robust when dealing with such issues in real world conditions, while aligned with rights and obligations around the use of AI systems in Europe. Advances across these areas can help create human-centric AI[1], which reflects the needs and values of European citizens and contribute to an effective governance of AI technologies.
The need for transparent and robust AI systems has become more pressing with the rapid growth and commercialisation of generative AI systems based on foundation models. Despite their impressive capabilities, trustworthiness remains an unresolved, fundamental scientific challenge. Due to the intricate nature of generative AI systems, understanding or explaining the rationale behind their outputs is normally not possible with current explainable AI methods. Moreover, these models occasionally tend to 'hallucinate', generating non-factual or inaccurate information, further compromising their reliability.
To achieve robust and reliable AI, novel approaches are needed to develop methods and solutions that work under other than model-ideal circumstances, while also having an awareness when these conditions break down. To achieve trustworthiness, AI system should be sufficiently transparent and capable of explaining how the system has reached a conclusion in a way that it is meaningful to the user, enabling safe and secure human-machine interaction, while also indicating when the limits of operation have been reached.
The purpose is to advance AI-algorithms and innovations based on them that can perform safely under a common variety of circumstances, reliably in real-world conditions and predict when these operational circumstances are no longer valid. The research should aim at advancing robustness and explainability for a generality of solutions, while leading to an acceptable loss in accuracy and efficiency, and with known verifiability and reproducibility. The focus is on extending the general applicability of explainability and robustness of AI-systems by foundational AI and machine learning research. To this end, the following methods may be considered but are not necessarily restricted to:
- data-efficient learning, transformers and alternative architectures, self-supervised learning, fine-tuning of foundation models, reinforcement learning, federated and edge-learning, automated machine learning, or any combination thereof for improved robustness and explainability.
- hybrid approaches integrating learning, knowledge and reasoning, neurosymbolic methods, model-based approaches, neuromorphic computing, or other nature-inspired approaches and other forms of hybrid combinations which are generically applicable to robustness and explainability.
- continual learning, active learning, long-term learning and how they can help improve robustness and explainability.
- multi-modal learning, natural language processing, speech recognition and text understanding taking multicultural aspects into account for the purpose of increased operational robustness and the capability to explain alternative formulation[2].
Multidisciplinary research activities should address all of the following:
- Proposals should involve appropriate expertise in all the relevant sector specific use cases and disciplines, and where appropriate Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH), including gender and intersectional knowledge to address concerns around gender, racial or other biases, etc.
- Proposals are expected to dedicate tasks and resources to collaborate with and provide input to the open innovation challenge under HORIZON-CL4-2023-HUMAN-01-04 addressing explainability and robustness. Research teams involved in the proposals are expected to participate in the respective Innovation Challenges.
- Contribute to making AI and robotics solutions meet the requirements of Trustworthy AI, based on the respect of the ethical principles, the fundamental rights including critical aspects such as robustness, safety, reliability, in line with the European Approach to AI. Ethics principles needs to be adopted from early stages of development and design.
All proposals are expected to embed mechanisms to assess and demonstrate progress (with qualitative and quantitative KPIs, benchmarking and progress monitoring), and share communicable results with the European R&D community, through the AI-on-demand platform or Digital Industrial Platform for Robotics, public community resources, to maximise re-use of results, either by developers, or for uptake, and optimise efficiency of funding; enhancing the European AI, Data and Robotics ecosystem and possible sector-specific forums through the sharing of results and best practice.
In order to achieve the expected outcomes, international cooperation is encouraged, in particular with Canada and India.
Overhead
The budget categories and cost eligibility rules are fixed in the grant agreement, including indirect costs at a 25% flat-rate of the total eligible direct costs (excluding eligible direct costs for subcontracting, financial support to third parties and any unit costs or lump sums which include indirect costs).
Deadlines
Application deadlines
RSO detailed review deadline
RSO final internal review deadline
Program application deadline
Approvals
NOTE: Consult your Faculty Associate Dean (Research) (ADR) regarding Faculty-specific deadlines and submission processes.
Principal Investigators: Complete a Research Management System (RMS) record, including a copy of your complete application, and submit this for approvals in RMS.
Postdocs, students, and trainees: For fellowships and externally-sponsored research training awards or opportunities, you must complete the Research Funding Application Approval (RFAA) Trainee PDF form, and submit it, along with a complete copy of the application, to Research Services at rsotrainee@ucalgary.ca. Trainees should not use RMS at this time.
Approvals: The University of Calgary requires that all funding applications be approved prior to submission. Approval requires signatures via either RMS or the RFAA Trainee form, in the following order:
- Principal Investigator
- Department Head
- Faculty ADR/Dean
- Research Services (on behalf of the Vice-President Research)
Read the Meaning of Grant Signatures policy to understand what your approval means. Please see the agency guidelines for details about which signatures are required on your application, as it may differ from internal requirements.
Late submissions: Late submissions will only be accepted in cases of medical or family emergencies, or other exceptional circumstances. If you submit your RMS record to Research Services after the internal deadline has passed, you must secure additional approvals. Please read: Late Applications Process.
Additional Information
Call documents:
Standard application form — call-specific application form is available in the Submission System
Standard application form (HE RIA, IA)
Standard evaluation form — will be used with the necessary adaptations
Standard evaluation form (HE RIA, IA)
MGA
Additional documents:
HE Main Work Programme 2023–2024 – 1. General Introduction
HE Main Work Programme 2023–2024 – 7. Digital, Industry and Space
HE Main Work Programme 2023–2024 – 13. General Annexes
HE Framework Programme and Rules for Participation Regulation 2021/695
HE Specific Programme Decision 2021/764
Rules for Legal Entity Validation, LEAR Appointment and Financial Capacity Assessment
EU Grants AGA — Annotated Model Grant Agreement
Funding & Tenders Portal Online Manual
Contact Details
Keywords
Generative AI models
Human-centric AI
Neurosymbolic methods
Explainability