Your country? Slovenia

Your organisation? Jožef Stefan Institute 

Your job title? Senior researcher

Your first and last name? Inna Novalija

Tell us about your successful project (you received funding for): The Department for Artificial Intelligence (AILAB) has been actively participating in European projects for the past 20 years. The Horizon Europe Research and Innovation project enRichMyData: Enabling Data Enrichment Pipelines for AI-driven Business Products and Services began in October 2022 and brings together 14 partners from 12 countries, including business case providers, large companies, SMEs, research institutes and universities. The aim of the project is to build rich and high-quality data sets for big data analytics and AI applications. AILAB’s role is centered around technology development and includes being a business case provider. Our team contributes by providing a number of tools for data processing, data streaming and data classification. Our business use case focuses on providing an Innovation Knowledge Graph intended to interconnect, model and understand the relevant aspects of the global innovation ecosystem from the inception of ideas to their potential realization in business, including providing support for decision making at both the research and policy level.

What was the added value of your NCP? Our collaboration with the NCP is a critical aspect of AILAB’s participation in European projects. The advice offered is of significant added-value when preparing submissions and making decisions regarding the structure and content of potential proposals. Discussing these topics with someone who understands the complexity of EU-funded projects and can provide up-to-date feedback regarding changes in policy and funding is indispensable. We are fully in favor and support the structure of NCPs within the European framework, evaluating their contribution to researchers as being immensely valuable.

Did you participate in any IDEALIST activities (First Proposal Check, training, networking event, brokerage event) or used the available tools? Yes

If yes, which one(s)? Idealist Topic tree and the Horizon 2020 Project Dashboard in order to gain a deeper understanding of the call topics, finding related projects, understanding the foreground and background of ICT and ICT related projects.

Tell us what you would like to share with your peers as inspiration? Developing AI based technologies is a dynamic task which is currently grabbing headlines and dramatically expanding the boundaries of human knowledge. Our research paves the way for innovations that can address some of the world's most pressing challenges. Continuous exchanges of ideas with our NCP is critical to ensuring that European AI research remains globally competitive.