The Artificial Intelligence Research Alliance in Catalonia (AIRA) was presented this Wednesday in an event at the Casa de la Convalescència of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) with members of the Catalan research ecosystem in the field of Artificial Intelligence (AI). The initiative, promoted by the Generalitat de Catalunya, counts with the participation of the Barcelona Supercomputing Center - Centro Nacional de Supercomputación (BSC-CNS).
AIRA's mission is to strengthen the competitiveness of the Catalan AI research ecosystem by boosting the knowledge industry and projecting Catalonia as a pole of reference, leader in southern Europe, in research in this field. Its main objectives are to bring together all the leading research capacity of the Catalan ecosystem, promote high-impact research, attract and retain talent and promote specialization in the field of AI.
AIRA is, together with CIDAI, DCA-IA and OEIAC, one of the four pillars of the Artificial Intelligence Strategy of Catalonia (Catalonia.AI), which establishes the priorities and lines of action to turn Catalonia into a pole of innovation, leadership and attraction of talent and companies in the field of artificial intelligence. Within this strategy, the AIRA is framed in the axis of "research and innovation", being a structure to promote synergies and collaborations between groups, institutes, universities and research centers specialized in AI.
The Alliance is formed by the Generalitat de Catalunya; the Centro de Visión por Computador (CVC), which also serves as coordinator of the initiative; the Barcelona Supercomputing Center- Centro Nacional de Supercomputación (BSC-CNS); the Intelligent Data Science and Artificial Intelligence Research Center (IDEAI-UPC); the Instituto de Investigación en Inteligencia Artificial Institute (IIIA-CSIC), and the Instituto de Robótica e Informática Industrial (IRI-CSIC-UPC). However, it is open to any institution doing research in artificial intelligence and achieving high levels of excellence in this field.