Session
AI research funding in Europe: From NoEs to AI Continent Action Plan and beyond
Tuesday July 7, 2026 | 17:00-18:00 CEST
Albert II Auditorium
Description
The session will bring together European Commission officials and representatives from EU-funded projects to reflect recent developments for AI research funding across Europe. It will explore the key outcomes of the Networks of Excellence (NoEs) initiative and analyze the more recent strategic initiatives such as the AI Continent Action Plan that aim at shaping the European AI landscape. By fostering dialogue between policymakers and practitioners, the session aims to assess lessons learned, identify current challenges, and outline expectations for future funding frameworks and collaborative opportunities in European AI research.
Speakers
Cecile Huet
Head of the Unit “Robotics and Artificial Intelligence Innovation and Excellence”, European Commission
Cécile Huet is Head of the Unit “Excellence in Artificial Intelligence and Robotics”, part of the AI Office at the European Commission. This unit supports beneficial robotics and AI development within Europe, with a portfolio of projects up to 800M€. Under Horizon Europe, the unit launched the Public-Private Partnership on AI, Data and Robotics, and is co-leading the Public-Private Partnership in manufacturing. This unit is also at the heart of the AI Innovation Package in January 2024, a 4Bn€ investment, including close to 700M€ GenAI4EU initiative, aiming at developing GenAI solutions “made in Europe” for strategic industrial sectors, public sector and science. The Science for AI pillar of RAISE (Resource for AI Science in Europe) and the Frontier AI initiative announced in the Apply AI Strategy are also central to the unit’s priorities. Cécile joined the unit since its creation in 2004. Previously, she worked for the industry in signal processing after a post-doc at the University of California Santa Barbara and a PhD at University of Nice Sophia Antipolis, France. In 2015, she has been selected as one of the “25 women in robotics you need to know about”.
Alain Pagani
Principal Researcher and Deputy Director of the Augmented Vision research department, German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI)
His research interests include Artificial Intelligence, Computer Vision, Image Understanding, and Extended Reality. He is the coordinator of the Network of Excellence dAIEDGE about distributed AI at the edge, and the coordinator of the Horizon Europe project CORTEX² about remote cooperation using extended reality. He is a lecturer at the University of Kaiserslautern-Landau, and he has published over 100 articles in conferences and journals. His research finds applications in eXtended Reality for telecooperation, Artificial Intelligence and Computer Vision for Human-Robot cooperation, and Artificial Intelligence and Augmented Reality for analysis of extremely large data.
Dimitrios Tzovaras
CERTH
Dr. Dimitrios Tzovaras is Former Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Centre for Research and Technology Hellas (CERTH). He is currently a Research Director at the Information Technologies Institute (ITI) of CERTH. He has conducted very important scientific and research work, which is summarized in 3 books, 68 book chapters, 360 publications in International Journals with Referees and 810 presentations in International Conferences with Referees. His main research interests include network and visual analytics, computer vision, virtual and augmented reality, visual analytics, multidimensional data analysis, machine learning and artificial intelligence. Since 1992 he has participated with his team in more than 300 Research and Development projects funded by the EU and the GSRI. He has an extensive management record having been the project coordinator and/or the technical/ scientific manager of 65 projects, during the last 5 years. He is the co-founder of eight (8) spin-offs of CERTH/ITI. He is the owner of thirteen patents in the scientific areas of virtual reality, finance, health and artificial intelligence.
Prof. Dr. Georgios Spathoulas
Associate Professor, NTNU
Georgios Spathoulas is an Associate Professor at the Department of Information Security and Communication Technology at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU). He serves as the Technical Coordinator of the ENFIELD project, while he also leads the Trustworthy AI research pillar. His research background is in cybersecurity with a strong focus on cyber-physical systems security, Internet of Things (IoT) security, blockchain-based security mechanisms, and trustworthiness of AI systems. Overall, his work combines theoretical and applied cybersecurity research aimed at improving the resilience, trustworthiness, and security of emerging digital infrastructures.
Ana Solange Leal
Director, INOVA +
Ana Solange Leal is the Director for PARTNERSHIPS and a Senior Consultant at INOVA+, where she oversees both the Innovation and Education Units. She specializes in large-scale international initiatives funded by the European Commission. With extensive experience in European funding programs, among other activities, she provides strategic funding advisory services, assists in the development of strategic plans for various institutions, enables innovation management, and fosters international networks.