Strengthening Digital Innovation Hubs with the European AI-on-demand platform: Recommendations White Paper

To support scientific excellence, and address challenges presented by uneven development, the European Commission has implemented several key R&D&I policies and innovations. Among these actions are the two initiatives, namely the AI on-demand Platform and Digital Innovation Hubs. These bodies and their proposed interaction are the subject of this White Paper.

What precisely will be the nature of the relationship and interactions between the pan-European on-demand platform and the regional (E)DIHs? What value can they offer one another? And how will they work together to serve the interests of the respective and sometimes overlapping stakeholders?

To add further complexity to these questions, it is necessary to consider the role and functions of other high-profile existing projects (e.g., EUHubs4Data, DIH4AI etc.), initiatives (AI, Data and Robotics Public to Private Partnership) and programmes (Digital Transformation Accelerator (DTA)) that are closely connected to the AI and DIH ecosystem.

It is precisely the objective of this document to consider the above questions and present a set of recommendations of how both initiatives can best support and complement one another. To develop a robust and considered set of recommendations, under the auspices of the AI4EU project, a group of DIH experts were consulted on how they viewed the current and future landscape and how the interests of stakeholders and the community at large could be best served through the interaction and collaboration between the on-demand platform and current and future (E)DIHs.