NWO will fund ELSA Lab for Technical Industry led by UG researchers

The Dutch Research Council (NWO) has announced on March 28 that it will fund the research project of ELSA Lab for Technical Industry led by UG researchers. The responsible development of Artificial Intelligence (AI) requires the careful examination of its ethical (E), legal (L), societal and economic (S) aspects (A). This ELSA Lab project will be part of the National Growth Fund programme AiNed, implemented by the AI Coalition 4 NL.

The project will have a total budget of 2.4 million euros for five years. The consortium will be led by researchers from UG, including Prof. Ming Cao (main applicant, Faculty of Science and Engineering), Prof. Jeanne Mifsud Bonnici (Faculty of Law), Dr. Christos Emmanouilidis (Faculty of Economics and Business), as well as Dr. Mirjam Plantinga from the Faculty of Medical Sciences, Dr. Jonida Milaj-Weishaar and Dr. Jose Luis Cordova from the Faculty of Law, and Dr. Jos Bokhorst and Dr. Sabine Waschull from the Faculty of Economics and Business. The other co-applicants include researchers from the University of Twente and Tilburg University. The consortium also involves thirteen industrial partners.

The societal issue that this project addresses is the slow adoption of AI in the Dutch manufacturing sector because of the complex ELSA considerations. This multi-disciplinary project aims at creating user scenarios for the Dutch technical industry and providing practical guidance with a clear vision for the ELSA landscape in the coming ten years. The implementation of the project will be supported by the Jantina Tammes School of Digital Society, Technology and AI.