The Artificial Intelligence and Earth Observation communities surrounding the AI on Demand Platform gathered in a two-day event on Thursday 29 and Friday 30 June 2023 in Athens, Greece which was organised by the AI4Copernicus project, and was supported by AI4Europe and the AI-on-Demand platform. The aim of the event was to bring the stakeholders together, so as to exchange ideas and discuss the domains’ future direction and emerging trends, policy and the needs of the market. The audience consisted of European Commission representatives, policy makers, leading stakeholders, as well as the research community including numerous European projects.

On Thursday 29 June 2023, the day started with a welcome note from the European Commission Project Officer, Mr Miguel Angel Rubio Escudero, and the presentation of the project’s coordinator, Dr Vangelis Karkaletsis of NCSR Demokritos.

PO of AI4Copernicus, Mr Miguel Angel Rubio Escudero, European Commission in his opening speech
Dr Vangelis Karkaletsis, NCSR Demokritos and AI4Copernicus coordinator welcomes delegates

A fruitful panel discussion followed with the participation of Mr Pierre Philippe Mathieu, Head of the Φ-lab Explore Office at the European Space Agency, Mrs Monika Krzyżanowska – Director Of Business Development at CloudFerro and Mr Geoff Sawyer – Strategic Advisor to the Board of the European Association of Remote Sensing Companies. The discussion was moderated by Mr Vasileios Baousis, ECMWF a partner of AI4Copernicus while the participants elaborated on the emerging trends and needs of the market.

Panel discussion on emerging trends and needs of the market

The 27 winning projects, which resulted from the five rounds of the AI4Copernicus Open Calls played a pivotal role in the event, with a dedicated Speed Pitching Session where the 27 projects presented in two minutes their winning ideas. After this session, the projects had the opportunity to demonstrate their services and network through the corresponding session, with interested parties.

Additionally, the ICT49 Cluster of projects – StairwAI, i-Nergy, AIPlan4eu, BonsAPPs and DIH4AI – had also a dedicated session during the first day of the event, with all the ICT49 projects coordinators presenting the Current Status & Future Steps of their projects. The agenda concluded with the Trustworthy AI in the AI-on-Demand Platform: Current & Future Perspectives Session, by Mrs Sara Mancini, DIH4AI, ICT49 Trustworthy AI WG members and Mrs Roberta Calegari, TAILOR & AI4Europe project.

On the second day of the Forum, Friday 30 June 2023, the AI4Europe project was introduced by the coordinator UCC represented by Gabriel Gonzalez-Castañé, and concluded by a hands-on session on AI-on-Demand Platform focused on the API, Information service, Reproducibility and Practitioners’ portal.

All the presentations of the AI Ecosystem Forum are available here.