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Call key data
Alliance for Language Technologies (SG)
Funding Program
Digital Europe
Call number
DIGITAL-2024-AI-06-LANGUAGE-01
deadlines
Opening
29.02.2024
Deadline
29.05.2024 17:00
Funding rate
50%
Call budget
€ 20,000,000.00
Estimated EU contribution per project
max. € 20,000,000.00
Link to the call
Link to the submission
Call content
short description
This call addresses the first work strand which will support the language data collection and the adaptation of existing large language foundation models to specific languages, domains or industries, so as to support the onboarding of the latest language technologies by European actors.
Call objectives
The advent of generative AI, exemplified by models like ChatGPT, represents a transformative moment in technological innovation. Yet, most of the advances come from regions outside Europe and do not cover all languages equally.
Building an ecosystem around large language and AI models in Europe will provide better autonomy for the use and sharing of European data and will reduce the EU’s dependence on technologies from outside Europe.
Through federating Member States’ efforts, this action will directly contribute to preserving the linguistic and cultural diversity in Europe while effectively implementing the European Common Data Infrastructure and Service MCP’s objectives in the area of language technologies. By providing the necessary data and model adaptation capacities, the action will have a strong impact on the deployment of large language foundation models and their applications such as generative AI. This federated effort will be established around two work strands.
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Expected effects and impacts
- Increased accessibility to language data for the development and adaptation of large language foundation models, in consideration of issues linked to data privacy and security, as well as potential risks of disinformation.
- A repository of families of existing large language foundation models for public and industrial reuse in the EU.
- A repository of families of large language models fine-tuned to specific languages, domains or industries.
- Infrastructure and services for models fine-tuning.
Expected results
Data:
Leveraging on the Common European Language Data Space and other relevant Data Spaces, this activity will, in compliance with the applicable legislation (e.g. Copyright Directive (EU) 2019/790 and GDPR Regulation (EU) 2016/679), gather the necessary language data (text, audio, image and other modalities) from a broad array of European industrial, academic and institutional actors, and provide data in sufficient quality and quantity to build large language foundation models, ensuring a coherent coverage of all the official languages of the Member States as well as the most socially and economically relevant ones. This will also include providing data required to adapt such large language foundation models to specific languages, domains or industries. The action will also provide a repository of existing European Large Language foundation models as well as models adapted to specific languages, domains or industries. Once sufficiently advanced, the consortium may consider working on a future copyright infrastructure and related issues to allow efficient use of language and other data, while taking into account the interests of the rightsholders.
Fine-tuning:
- This activity will also provide large language models fine-tuned to specific languages, domains or industries as a result of further training of large language foundation models on specific language data. This process involves adapting, evaluating and optimizing foundation models for specific languages, domains or industries. It will facilitate the efficient deployment of these models across various industries, requiring less task-specific data compared to building models from scratch, which is particularly advantageous for SMEs. The action will also include the support for the ongoing maintenance and enhancement of these models, ensuring their adaptability to evolving tasks and domains over time.
- In addition, this activity will also provide, including through Financial Support to Third Parties, dedicated support and services, in particular for SMEs, to facilitate the fine-tuning of available models. This support and services will provide third parties with an infrastructure to fine-tune and evaluate existing models for their purpose.
The EuroHPC Joint Undertaking would provide access to their facilities for the adaptation and fine-tuning of the models when necessary.
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Eligibility Criteria
Regions / countries for funding
Moldova (Moldova), Albania (Shqipëria), Bosnia and Herzegovina (Bosna i Hercegovina / Босна и Херцеговина), Iceland (Ísland), Kosovo (Kosova/Kosovë / Косово), Liechtenstein, Montenegro (Црна Гора), North Macedonia (Северна Македонија), Norway (Norge), Serbia (Srbija/Сpбија), Türkiye, Ukraine (Україна)
eligible entities
Education and training institution, Non-Profit Organisation (NPO) / Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), Other, Private institution, incl. private company (private for profit), Public Body (national, regional and local; incl. EGTCs), Research Institution incl. University, Small and medium-sized enterprise (SME)
Mandatory partnership
Yes
Project Partnership
Proposals must be submitted by minimum 3 independent applicants (beneficiaries; not affiliated entities) from 3 different eligible countries OR minimum 1 European digital infrastructure consortium (EDIC) composed of at least 3 Member States.
To be eligible for funding, applicants must be:
- legal entities (public or private bodies)
- established in one of the eligible countries:
- EU Member States (including overseas countries and territories (OCTs))
- EEA countries (Norway, Iceland, Liechtenstein)
- other countries associated to the Digital Europe Programme (list of participating countries)
Specific cases:
Natural persons are NOT eligible (with the exception of self-employed persons, i.e. sole traders, where the company does not have legal personality separate from that of the natural person).
International organisations — International organisations are not eligible, unless they are International organisations of European Interest within the meaning of Article 2 of the Digital Europe Regulation (i.e. international organisations the majority of whose members are Member States or whose headquarters are in a Member State).
EU bodies — EU bodies (with the exception of the European Commission Joint Research Centre) can NOT be part of the consortium.
Entities without legal personality — Entities which do not have legal personality under their national law may exceptionally participate, provided that their representatives have the capacity to undertake legal obligations on their behalf, and offer guarantees for the protection of the EU financial interests equivalent to that offered by legal persons.
Associations and interest groupings — Entities composed of members may participate as ‘sole beneficiaries’ or ‘beneficiaries without legal personality’.
other eligibility criteria
Geographic location (target countries) Due to restrictions due to security: − the proposals must relate to activities taking place in the eligible countries (see above).
Projects involving EU classified information must undergo security scrutiny to authorise funding and may be made subject to specific security rules (detailed in a security aspects letter (SAL) which is annexed to the Grant Agreement).
Financial support to third parties is allowed in DIGITAL-2024-AI-06-LANGUAGE 01 and DIGITAL-2024-AI-06-LANGUAGE-02 grants or similar forms of support under the following conditions:
- the calls must be open, published widely and conform to EU standards concerning transparency, equal treatment, conflict of interest and confidentiality
- the calls must be published on the Funding & Tenders Portal, and on the participants’ websites
- the calls must remain open for at least two months
- if call deadlines are changed this must immediately be published on the Portal and all registered applicants must be informed of the change
- the outcome of the call must be published on the participants’ websites, including a description of the selected projects, award dates, project durations, and final recipient legal names and countries
- the calls must have a clear European dimension.
- Your project application must clearly specify why financial support to third parties is needed, how it will be managed and provide a list of the different types of activities for which a third party may receive financial support. The proposal must also clearly describe the results to be obtained.
Additional information
Topics
Relevance for EU Macro-Region
EUSAIR - EU Strategy for the Adriatic and Ionian Region, EUSALP - EU Strategy for the Alpine Space, EUSBSR - EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region, EUSDR - EU Strategy for the Danube Region
UN Sustainable Development Goals (UN-SDGs)
project duration
between 24 and 36 months
Additional Information
Proposals must be submitted electronically via the Funding & Tenders Portal Electronic Submission System (accessible via the Topic page in the Search Funding & Tenders section. Paper submissions are NOT possible.
Proposals must be complete and contain all the requested information and all required annexes and supporting documents:
- Application Form Part A — contains administrative information about the participants (future coordinator, beneficiaries and affiliated entities) and the summarised budget for the project (to be filled in directly online)
- Application Form Part B — contains the technical description of the project (to be downloaded from the Portal Submission System, completed and then assembled and re-uploaded)
- Mandatory annexes and supporting documents (to be uploaded):
- detailed budget table/calculator: not applicable
- CVs of core project team: not applicable
- activity reports of last year: not applicable
- list of previous projects (key projects for the last 4 years) (template available in Part B): applicable
- ownership control declarations (including for associated partners and subcontractors): applicable
Proposals are limited to maximum 70 pages (Part B).
Call documents
DIGITAL-2024-AI-06 Call documentDIGITAL-2024-AI-06 Call document(688kB)
Contact
Website
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