From March 30th to May 30th, applications are open for the Advanced Cloud Computing Projects in Artificial Intelligence competition, which will offer resources worth one million dollars. Learn more.
The Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT), through RNCA The FCCN (National Advanced Computing Network) and Google established a collaboration agreement in 2021 to support research projects in Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Portugal over the next two years. This partnership resulted in the provision of two million dollars of Google Cloud Platform credits to the FCT, with a target of one million dollars to be used in 2022 and one million in 2023. This agreement aims to provide computing capacity to support excellent research in Portuguese academia.
It is with the aim of making this computing capacity available that the FCT, through its unit Starting March 30th, the FCCN is accepting applications for an advanced computing project competition to utilize these resources. The competition defines natural language processing and ethics in artificial intelligence as the preferred areas of research and development, which comprise 80% of the resources. The remaining 20% are allocated to other scientific fields.
Various types of entities are eligible to apply, including research and development institutions, collaborative laboratories, technology centers, as well as science and technology infrastructures, networks, and consortia. Also eligible are private non-profit institutions whose primary focus is research and development, digital innovation hubs, and companies developing advanced computing projects (in research, development, or innovation activities). It should also be noted that applications are from individuals operating in Portugal who intend to develop advanced computing projects in any scientific field.
There are several types of access within the scope of the competition, namely: Fixed Access (Google Cloud Platform credits worth USD 25,000) and Variable Access (Google Cloud Platform credits up to USD 150,000).
Applications must be submitted in English by May 30th. – 12:00 Lisbon time. Information about the competition is available available on the official Competition page on the FCT website.
More information can be requested via email address rnca@fccn.pt. The regulation was published in the Official Gazette.
