21 projects selected in the framework of the Franco-German call for projects focused on artificial intelligence

11 mai 2021

In October 2020, the French National Research Agency (ANR) and the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) launched a call for projects on innovation in artificial intelligence. The objective of this initiative was to strengthen research collaborations between France and Germany in the field of AI. 21 research projects were selected and will receive a total of 12 million euros in financial support.

A Franco-German call for projects focused on artificial intelligence

In a bid to create a common ecosystem dedicated to AI, a joint declaration of intent on the creation of a “research and innovation network in artificial intelligence” has been signed. At the same time, a call for projects was launched, co-financed by the ANR, which depends on the Ministry of Higher Education, Research and Innovation, and the BMBF.

This initiative allowed two types of projects to be financially supported:

10 research and development projects on AI applications with a duration of 3 years, involving at least one research organization and one R&D company in France and at least one research institute and one company for the German part of the consortium.
11 projects of 4 years duration associating a French research organization and a German research institute in order to strengthen Franco-German research collaborations in AI.

The selected solutions will receive an overall financial support of €12 million, i.e. €6 million per country.

21 projects selected in various research areas

The fields of mobility and transport, logistics and services, (renewable) energy, environment and protective resources, industrial and production technologies, robotics and health have been privileged in the framework of this initiative. The selected solutions have tried to put AI at the service of health, the development of conversational assistants, the prediction of video content, cryptography, automated driving or speech analysis.

Here is the list of the 21 winners:

AI4SCI, coordinated by Konstantin TODOROV: A hybrid AI approach to understand science in online discourse.
ANN4EUROPE, coordinated by Vladimir GLIGOROV: Artificial neural network for efficient, robust, and interpretable reconstruction in physics and beyond.
ARISTOTLE, coordinated by Liming CHEN: Looking, touching and manipulating. Robotic learning for dexterous bimanual object manipulation using vision and directed touch.
BAYOEN, coordinated by Laurie CALVET: Bayesian inference with organic electrochemical transistors for neuromorphic sensors.
FeMAI, coordinated by Nicolas PONS: Artificial Intelligence and Microbiome federated for Human Health
Lean2Grasp, coordinated by Alexandre CONINX: Learning to grasp objects using visual and haptic feedback.
MEDICARE, coordinated by Julien OSTER: AI-based reconstruction of cardiac MRI integrating motion.
NeuSPIN, coordinated by Lorena ANGHEL: Design of an integrated system on a neuromorphic chip based on very low power spintronics.
SMILE, coordinated by François WILLOT: Exploration of mechanical properties at failure by machine learning and virtual microstructures.
TRAITS, coordinated by Goran FREHSE: Trustworthy Artificial Intelligence by Set Propagation.
VideoPredict, coordinated by Cordelia SCHMID: Predicting the video future.
AFFAI, coordinated by Michele SEBAG: Affordable Artificial Intelligence.
AI4DG, coordinated by Nouredine HADJ-SAID: Artificial Intelligence for autonomous control of distribution networks with high renewable penetration.
AI4HP, coordinated by Marina REYBOZ: Artificial Intelligence for heat pumps.
COCOBOTS, coordinated by Julie HUNTER: Natural Language Programming for Conversational Co-bots.
CRYPTO4GRAPHAI, coordinated by Sandrine MURCIA: Advanced cryptographic technologies to preserve the confidentiality of information in enterprise knowledge graphs and Artificial Intelligence.
HAIBrid, coordinated by Arnaud DE LA FORTELLE: Hybrid AI applied to massive data for behavioral modeling and automated driving.
KIHT, coordinated by Eric ANQUETIL: Intelligent handwriting training based on Kaligo.
LOCAI, coordinated by Guilhem VELVE-CASQUILLAS: Cell growth in lab-on-a-chip devices controlled by artificial intelligence.
PI-CUBE, coordinated by Philippe DUFRENOY: Physics-based artificial intelligence to reduce brake emissions from electric vehicles.
REMATCH, coordinated by Stefan DUFFNER: source efficient tunnelling based on real-time excavation MATerial CHaracterisation.