The Netherlands wishes to participate in the IPCEI-AI, a European project in which Member States jointly invest in artificial intelligence (AI) for industry. The government is allocating 120 million euros for this purpose in the 2027 budget.
IPCEI stands for Important Project of Common European Interest. It is a project in which EU Member States, companies and research institutions join forces to develop a technology. Specifically, it concerns technologies that are too large-scale or too risky for a single country to develop on its own.
Covers the entire AI value chain
If the European Commission approves an IPCEI, EU Member States may provide more support for it than is normally permitted. The IPCEI-AI has been in preparation since 2025, under Germany’s coordination. The project covers the entire AI value chain, ranging from data and computing power to base models and applications.
At present, the EU remains largely dependent on other countries when it comes to AI. The IPCEI-AI is intended to change this. A key objective of this EU-wide project is therefore to reduce dependence on other countries in the field of AI.
Exciting opportunities
The IPCEI-AI could offer interesting opportunities for the Netherlands. For instance, our country is well-positioned in sectors where AI has great potential. These include the high-tech sector and the manufacturing industry, as well as healthcare, the energy sector and logistics.
Organisations from these sectors are collaborating with European partners within the project on, amongst other things, new AI models and applications. AIC4NL is also among the Dutch organisations involved. This organisation previously provided the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Policy (EZK) with expert advice on the IPCEI-AI and advocated for Dutch participation.
“AIC4NL has supported the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Policy (EZK) with the call for expressions of interest and is delighted that the government now intends to set aside funds for this. AIC4NL will continue to support the Dutch AI ecosystem in its participation in the IPCEI-AI by providing expert advice and mobilising participants. In doing so, we will draw on our strong network of participants,” writes AIC4NL.
Paradigm shift
“The use of AI will lead to a paradigm shift in virtually every industrial sector. Autonomous production, AI-driven logistics, AI-controlled robotics, AI-supported design and the industrial metaverse are not possible without powerful AI. However, this requires highly specialised AI models that go far beyond generative large language models (LLMs)”, writes the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy.
The ministry continues: “Industry in Europe, and particularly in Germany, has access to enormous amounts of data that can be used to train specialised AI models. Europe has the potential to take a leading position globally, provided it not only succeeds in developing next-generation industrial AI models and highly specialised AI models, but also in deploying them productively and successfully.”
Not yet final
Although the government has set aside 120 million euros for the IPCEI-AI, this funding is not yet definitively available. The budget must first be approved by the House of Representatives and the Senate. Furthermore, the overall IPCEI-AI project still requires approval from the European Commission. Once all the necessary approvals have been obtained, an official national call for proposals will be published in the Government Gazette and via the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO), reports AIC4NL. From that point onwards, organisations will be able to submit grant applications for their AI projects.
