The initiative aims to impact the entire territory, boosting the AI ecosystem through virtual actions and events in different cities, connecting sectoral agents and SMEs with the technological and scientific capabilities and resources of this infrastructure.
The BSC AI Factory of the Barcelona Supercomputing Center - Centro Nacional de Supercomputación (BSC-CNS) is extending the technological and scientific capabilities and resources of this infrastructure across the entire territory with the launch of five sectoral hubs (nodes).
This initiative is promoted by the Ministry for Digital Transformation and the Civil Service of the Government of Spain, through the State Secretariat for Digitalisation and Artificial Intelligence. It involves a strategic alliance of five technology centers that jointly support the activity through cross-cutting and collaborative actions, serving the entire strategic sector nationwide. These centers are: TECNALIA from the Basque Country, coordinator of the network, which will drive the Health, Pharma, and Biotech hub; Fundación CTIC from Asturias, responsible for the Agriculture, Climate, and Blue Economy hub; Eurecat in Catalonia, for the Communication and Media sectoral hub; Instituto Tecnológico de Galicia (ITG), to promote the Energy hub; and the Instituto Tecnológico de Informática (ITI) from Valencia, which will manage the Finance and Legal hub. These centers are officially recognized by the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities under the RED CERVERA program, which highlights centers with high scientific and technological capacity and R&D experience.
To this end, the BSC has awarded the creation of these sectoral hubs to the UTE AI4ES for 2.7 million euros, which works in a coordinated manner to develop and promote technologies based on AI and data.
AI adoption in strategic sectors and SMEs
The sectoral hubs are driving and support structures designed to boost the adoption, development, and application of artificial intelligence in strategic sectors of the Spanish economy, especially among SMEs and representative organizations of each sector. They aim to achieve a nationwide impact by energizing the ecosystem virtually and through various events that will take place in different cities. Specifically, work will be carried out across five hubs specialized in distinct strategic sectors: health, pharma & biotech; energy; agriculture, climate & blue economy; finance & legal; and communication & media.
The project's objectives are to systematically analyze the needs and potential of each sector regarding AI, adapting actions on an annual and strategic basis; to promote the creation of applied AI solutions with a real impact on the processes, products, or services of the corresponding sector; and to connect sectoral agents with the capabilities of the BSC Artificial Intelligence Factory, including its technological and scientific resources.
The first event will take place on June 16—an online workshop open to all agents and companies from the various strategic sectors. It will serve to introduce the program and host a participatory dynamic to identify the initial sectoral challenges and needs to address. A hybrid event is also scheduled to take place in Barcelona before the end of the year, featuring online streaming and networking workshops for SMEs.
This article was first published on 4 June by Barcelona Supercomputing Center.
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