The collaboration agreement between the FCT and Google will result in the provision of US$1,800,000 in Google Cloud platform credits over a two-year period for R&D projects in the area of artificial intelligence.
In this first edition, the competition's preferred areas were ethics in artificial intelligence and natural language processing.
The FCT published the preliminary results of the 2022 Advanced Computing Project Competition: Artificial Intelligence in the CloudEleven projects were approved for access to Google Cloud platform credits, totaling USD 799,364 (US dollars), earmarked for this year. The resources in the competition are the result of a collaboration agreement between the FCT and Google to support Artificial Intelligence research in Portugal.
THE list of recommended projects for access to computing resources is available at page dedicated to the contest as well as the Summary of Results.
The 1st edition of the competition will guarantee access to 11 advanced computing projects to Google Cloud platform credits for 12 months. The projects are distributed as follows, across the competition's preferred areas:
- 36% for natural language processing
- 18% for ethics in artificial intelligence.
In terms of scientific domain, the distribution is as follows:
- 90% are in exact sciences and engineering
- 10% in life sciences and health.
All researchers leading the funded projects work in Portuguese territory, the majority of whom are men, representing 82% of the total, and geographically 55% of the projects are associated with institutions in the Lisbon region, 27% in the north and 9% in the south and islands.
The application submission period ran from March 30th to May 30th of this year. Applications were evaluated by an external review panel, based on the competition's preferred scientific areas. The lists, sorted by access type, were approved at a review panel meeting. The success rate for the competition, considering applications from both types, was 100%.
This collaboration with Google complements the existing support provided by the FCT within the scope of the RNCA – National Advanced Computing Network, which provides high-performance computing resources through its network of operational and visualization centers. The second edition of this artificial intelligence project competition is expected to be launched next year. cloud and extend the initiative to more national users.
