25 million euro grant for AI programme ROBUST

Artificial Intelligence (AI) ROBUST programme receives a contribution of 25 million euros from NWO for the next ten years. The programme aims to strengthen the Dutch AI ecosystem, with a key focus on fundamental AI research.

ROBUST is an initiative set up from the Innovation Centre for Artificial Intelligence (ICAI). Several Dutch universities are involved in the initiative, including TU Delft, Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e), University of Groningen, TNO, University of Twente, University of Amsterdam, Wageningen Marine Research and Wageningen University & Research.

initiative aims to strengthen the Dutch AI ecosystem by stimulating fundamental research in the field of AI. In particular, ROBUST aims to develop reliable and explainable AI technology to address socially relevant issues. These include issues in healthcare, logistics, media, food and energy.

UvA is the initiator within the project. A total of 51 partners from industry, government and the knowledge sector are participating in ROBUST. These include 17 knowledge institutions, 19 industry parties and 15 civil society organisations. The Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate (EZK) is also contributing to ROBUST. Combined with the contribution from the NWO, the total budget for ROBUST comes to EUR 87.7 million.

Parties involved within ROBUST are setting up various projects. In total, this involves 17 public-private labs that are part of the Innovation Centre for Artificial Intelligence (ICAI). One example is a lab set up by LUMC, Leiden University and Philips, aimed at speeding up and improving MRI scans using AI. The lab is called AI4MRI and is part of SAILS, which aims to consolidate AI research in Leiden. AI4MR is also investigating the use of AI to produce high-quality scans if patients move slightly during an MRI scan. However, also consider the impact of AI technology in the workplace.

Maarten de Rijke, professor of Artificial Intelligence and Information Retrieval at the UvA is attached to ROBUST as programme leader. "What is unique about ROBUST is that the labs not only contribute to economic and technological goals, but also to UN goals aimed at reducing poverty, inequality, injustice and climate change," says De Rijke. "A key goal of all projects is to optimise reliable AI systems in terms of precision, reproduction, resilience, transparency and security."

Another example is FEPlab, a collaboration between TU/e and hearing aid manufacturer GN Hearing. FEPlab's mission is to improve the participation of hearing-impaired people in both formal and informal social environments. The focus here is on research around transferring a "leading physics/neuroscience-based theory of computation in the brain, the Free Energy Principle (FEP)" to practical use in human-centred tools such as hearing aids and VR technology.

A third example is the EAISI Mobility Lab, a collaboration between TU/e and NXP Semiconductors. In this lab, the parties aim to harness the advancing digitalisation of vehicles and transport services to achieve accident-free mobility. To this end, the EAISI Mobility Lab aims to design intelligent mobility systems that perceive, learn and understand their environment. They should also interact with people to reason about what action to take to achieve specific goals.

EAISI Programme Director Shane O' Seasnáin: "Robust is the exciting culmination of a long and intensive process with many partners. It is an excellent example of a large-scale national collaboration between research institutions and industry with a positive impact on the local economy. The new AI technologies that will emerge from this research are expected to have a strong impact and meet society's need for reliable AI. We are proud to expand our existing ICAI lab with NXP and add a fifth ICAI with GN Hearing."

Margriet van Schijndel, programme manager Responsible Mobility at EAISI: "For the EAISI Mobility Lab, the ROBUST programme means a further deepening of the developments in the current collaboration, and a further securing for the collaboration with NXP in the longer term. Besides this deepening of existing topics in the EAISI Mobility Lab, it also adds an important piece in the field of ethics and AI for mobility. This also fits well with our ambitions for an ELSA Mobility Lab".

Seven labs are led by Radboud University and Radboudumc. Professor of AI Bram van Ginneken leads the research at Radboudumc: "This project is unique because of its size and long duration of ten years. Thanks to our top research at Radboudumc, linked to the clout of companies, we can build an even stronger AI ecosystem. This is also a rare opportunity for the four researchers who will be driving the labs with us." A total of four labs are involved within Radboudumc.

Marcel van Gerven, professor of AI, is involved in the research at Radboud University: "The AI department of the Donders Institute will collaborate with ASM Pacific in the ASM ICAI lab, which will be located in the Maria Montessori building of the Faculty of Social Sciences. Our goal is to develop advanced machine learning techniques with applications in the semiconductor industry. The focus of the lab is the development of energy-efficient and robust intelligent technology for sustainable process control."

Author: Wouter Hoeffnagel
Image: Gordon Johnson via Pixabay