Recently, the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic underline that without ‘intelligent’ digitisation, societies cannot function today. It is of the utmost importance in the development of AI to include knowledge about technological, ethical, legal and societal aspects simultaneously. Think of the consequences for healthcare, education, politics, media, law enforcement, defense and security, democratic processes and trust in government and financial markets.
Worldwide, AI technology is seen as a transformational force for societal issues and economic development. In the Netherlands, AI has been labeled as a ‘key technology’. The ambition is for the Netherlands to acquire a leading position in the field of knowledge and application of AI.
In this call for proposals, NWO works closely with the Dutch AI Coalition (NL AIC). In this public-private partnership, government, industry, educational and research institutions and civil society organisations work together to accelerate national AI developments and connect existing initiatives. This NWA research programme connects AI as a key technology with AI research for an inclusive society. The national research agenda AIREA-NL and social and policy issues play an important role in this. The initiators of the call are the Ministries of Economic Affairs and Climate, Defence, Justice and Security, the Interior and Kingdom Relations and Education, Culture and Science.
Societal challenges
Research is conducted within co-creative environments. These so-called ELSA Labs (Ethical, Legal and Societal Aspects) are the places where coherent research into technological, economic and societal challenges takes place.
The research based on the NWA call ‘Artificial Intelligence: Human oriented AI for an inclusive society’ should support the development of technological innovations that safeguard public values and fundamental rights, respect human rights – where possible strengthen them – and can count on public support. The research thus contributes to building an ecosystem of trust.
Interested?
From the NL AIC, we wholeheartedly support this call for proposals. We hereby invite you to form or join consortiums and submit your research proposal. Selection is done by an independent committee of the NWO (Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research). Please see the programme page for more information. You can find more information there about this call for proposals, the available budget and the planning.
