THE BLOG

French School of Artificial Intelligence: Université Côte d’Azur secures €8 million in funding

Université Côte d’Azur is the winner of the “Skills and Future Professions” Call for Expression of Interest conducted by the ANR (National Research Agency) and the Caisse des Dépôts et Consignation (French national public financial institution).

As a result, the university has secured €8 million in funding for the French School of Artificial Intelligence project: EFELIA Côte d’Azur.

This project aims to enhance the skills of a wide range of audiences on artificial intelligence technologies and thus support the dissemination of AI in the French economy to strengthen its competitiveness in strategic sectors.

A project carried out in collaboration with prestigious partners

Université Côte d’Azur, as the project coordinator, will receive €8 million for a duration of 5 years to implement the project in collaboration with partners of the EFELIA Côte d’Azur consortium: Inria, CNRS, Inserm, Eurecom and SKEMA Business School.

The ambition of this project, managed locally by the 3IA Côte d’Azur Institute in connection with the 3IA network, is to structure a French School of Artificial Intelligence whose objective will be to develop and scale up AI training at all levels, whether for specialists or interdisciplinary professionals.

The EFELIA project will be implemented through several actions

the labeling of trainings under the “French School of AI” banner,
the development of AI training programs,
the implementation of computing platforms and challenges for training, and the creation of an offer of MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) in AI.

The creation of educational content will be done in coordination with the other 3IAs, according to the specialties of each institute:

AI & Health and Deep Learning for the 3IA Côte d’Azur.
Trusted AI for ANITI Toulouse.
Frugal AI and Natural Language Processing for MIAI Grenoble.
AI, Economics, Management, and Finance for PRAIRIE Paris.

These initial actions form the basis of the EFELIA project, which will be developed in a network with all 3IA Institutes with the aim of sharing the expertise acquired within the institutes at the national level, in order to attract and train talents in AI.

The 3IA Côte d’Azur confirmed for the period of 2022-2023

In March 2022, Université Côte d’Azur received a visit from an international jury composed of high-ranking personalities from academic and industrial sectors, whose mission was to evaluate, at mid-term, the actions carried out by the 3IA Côte d’Azur Institute. The jury thus issued a very favorable opinion on the continuation of the project.

In particular, the jury’s report highlighted the high-quality research carried out by the institute on the four application axes, a growing number of publications (585 to date), including a significant proportion of interdisciplinary publications, all supported by strong and varied industrial collaborations.

In addition, the jury appreciated the support for the creation and development of startups, and also noted the innovative character of the “3IA Techpool” (a pool of engineers specialized in Data Science and AI) and the importance of the institute’s relationships with local organizations.

The jury appreciated the richness of the AI training program, which adapts to several levels of learning, as well as the institute’s academic network, which is expanding to national and international partners.

The 3IA Côte d’Azur Institute is therefore confirmed in its missions for the period of 2022-2023, with an additional France 2030 grant of €3 million awarded by the state on the recommendation of the international jury.

This additional budget will make it possible to strengthen the devices already in place and to initiate new actions for the benefit of the institute’s ecosystem.

The 3IA Côte d’Azur in figures:

54.5 million euros of overall budget, including 19 million euros from the Investments for the Future Program (PIA in French)
47 chair holders
54 PhD students and 16 postdoctoral fellows
57 contracts signed with industrial partners representing an investment of €10.8 million from companies
21 training programs labeled 3IA Côte d’Azur