News

The AI Pilot has officially held its kick-off meeting on Monday, 17th May 2021, and presented its vision and its activities for 2021 to more than 100 participants attending the online event.

The day was opened by the welcome speeches from representatives of the coordinating Regions - Prof. Paola Salomoni (Minister for Education, University, Research, and Digital Agenda) for Emilia-Romagna Region and Dr.-Ing. Petra Püchner (Commissioner for Europe of the Minister of Economic Affairs, Labour and Tourism and Head of Steinbeis-Europa-Zentrum) for Baden-Württemberg.

The Pilot’s activities official presentation was followed by a short pitch round of different demo cases planned and ongoing within the Pilot, which offered the chance for interested Regions and Stakeholders to get a primer on concrete activities of the Pilot and to identify possible collaboration opportunities.

The meeting was also the chance to get an overview of the first Horizon Europe calls that specifically target AI and its uptake in the industrial ecosystem: Mr Dimitri Jungblut from the German National Contact Point provided in fact some insights on the funding opportunities for 2021 and 2022.
The Kick-Off meeting set the basis for structural and successful cooperation between all the partners involved in the Pilot, by providing a strategic overview of its objectives while at the same time presenting the measures and activities for the Pilot’s first year.

The next step is already planned for the 19th July 2021, when the first Steering Committee of the Pilot will convene to officially green-light the demo cases presented and discuss the activities for the second half of 2021.