LTP Program ROBUST wins NWO support
ICAI is very proud to be able to expand the network of ICAI with the LTP ROBUST program “Trustworthy AI systems for sustainable growth”, supported by NWO in the new Long Term Program with €25 million.
AI technology promises to help with many tough societal challenges. For the technology to be adopted and benefit everyone, it is essential that the AI systems that we develop are trustworthy. The ROBUST Long-Term Program addresses this challenge and gets the opportunity to build the program.
First and foremost, ROBUST focuses on attracting talent to work on the challenges of trustworthy AI. Talent is the core of any AI ecosystem. Second, it makes trustworthy AI research and innovation a shared responsibility between knowledge institutes, industry, governmental organizations, and other societal stakeholders. And third, it practices learning by doing in the Dutch context, through use-inspired research, connections with startups and SMEs, and an extensive knowledge sharing efforts.
17 new ICAI labs
The ROBUST program builds on ICAI, the Innovation Center for Artificial Intelligence. It intends to add 17 labs to ICAI’s current ecosystem of 30 labs, in areas as diverse as health, energy, logistics, and services. The labs that make up ROBUST are driven by economic opportunities and contributions to the UN’s sustainable development goals. They will develop AI-algorithms that advance the state of the art in accuracy, reliability, repeatability, resilience, and safety of AI algorithms – all essential hallmarks of trustworthy AI.
ROBUST is a collaboration of 21 knowledge institutes, 23 companies, and 10 societal organizations. ROBUST is supported by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) and the AiNed National Growth Fund Investment Program.
Project team
The project leader for the ROBUST program is prof. Maarten de Rijke of the University of Amsterdam and ICAI. The co-applicants are prof. Mark van den Brand (Technical University Eindhoven), prof. Arie van Deursen (Delft University of Technology), prof. Bram van Ginneken (RadboudUMC), dr. Eva van Rikxoort (Thirona), prof. Clarisa Sánchez Gutiérrez (University of Amsterdam), and prof. Nava Tintarev (Maastricht University).
Contact: Esther Smit, esmit@icai.ai