FCT and Google support Portuguese AI research

The Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) and Google recently established a collaboration agreement that aims to support research projects in the field of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Portugal over the next two years. This support, which translates into the provision of credits in AI services on the Google Cloud platform to the value of 2 million dollars, will be awarded through a Call for projects to be launched by the FCT as early as September of this year. The partnership will be presented today, July 19, in an online session.

For the first phase of this support, priority research sub-areas within AI were identified as Natural Language Processing, namely the creation of models and computational tools for the Portuguese language, and Responsible AI, which aims to develop systems that follow ethical principles and allow their behavior to be explained. The aim in the second year is to expand and broaden this initiative, with a view to creating an ecosystem to support AI research and innovation activities in Portugal.

The development of Artificial Intelligence research in these sub-areas makes it possible, for example, to provide large-scale access to information and communication between languages, cultures and skills, and Portugal already has great success stories in this field, such as Unbabel and Priberam.

This collaboration with Google will make it possible to complement the existing support provided by the FCT under the RNCA - National Network for Advanced Computing, which provides high-performance computing resources through its operational centers: Minho Advanced Computing Centre (MACC), Advanced Computing Laboratory of the University of Coimbra (LCA-UC), High Performance Computing of the University of Évora (HPC-UÉ) and National Infrastructure for Distributed Computing (INCD).

Fernando Pereira, Google Vice President, Engineering Fellow, said of this partnership: "Technology has an important role to play in building an inclusive, sustainable and green recovery. Public-private partnerships are the foundation of this work, and Google continues to join forces with the Portuguese government to ensure that no one is left behind in the digital transition."

Today, July 19, at 18:00, FCT and Google will host an online session entitled "Artificial Intelligence Research in Portugal", in which details of this joint collaboration to support Artificial Intelligence (AI) research will be presented. The session will be attended by Paulo Quaresma, Member of the FCT Board of Directors, Fernando Pereira, Google Vice President, Engineering Fellow, will be moderated by Helena Martins, from Google, and will open with a speech by the Minister of Science, Technology and Higher Education, Manuel Heitor.