Collaboration

AI centre of excellence is being developed in Lithuania

Published on 23.1.2023

Tampere University

Roel Pieters, Aparajita Chowdhury and Aino Ahtinen from the AI Hub Tampere team visiting Health Hub facilities at Kauppi Campus in Tampere. Photo: AI Hub Tampere

Tampere University participates in creating a Centre of Excellence (CoE) for sustainable living and working in Lithuania. The new centre is specialised in the development and application of R&I solutions based on artificial intelligence (AI) in the manufacturing, energy, health, and transport sectors. EU Horizon Europe supports the project by EUR 2.5 million funding.

In the six-year SustAInLivWork project the four leading universities in Lithuania utilise the operating models built in AI Hub Tampere. The point is to develop activities together with advanced international partners Tampere University and Technical University Hamburg Harbour (TUHH) who will contribute with their knowledge to boost value creation from advanced technologies.

Tampere University will drive the research excellence in intelligent machines and AI in solutions covering sustainable living topics including energy and wellbeing.

“International collaboration in AI for impact in society and industry has been the target of AI Hub Tampere to drive the research into the next level. The team is extremely excited to have engaged in Lithuanian partner network together with TUHH,” says Mika Grundström, who leads the project at Tampere University.

Increasing sustainability by AI and new business models

According to Grundström, cooperation will strengthen Lithuania’s research and innovation in the national and international scope. The university partners in Lithuania are Kaunas University of Technology (KTU), Vilnius Gediminas Technical University (VILNIUS TECH), Vytauto Didziojo Universitetas (VDU) and Lietuvos Sveikatos Mokslu Universitetas (LSMU).

“The project aims to increase the sustainability of Lithuania by developing new business models and business process solutions with lower CO2 emissions. We will use AI to make those solutions safe, trustworthy, and transparent. Besides Lithuania this project will impact the whole Baltic Sea Region including Nordics,” Grundström adds.

The idea is to establish at partner universities special hubs that offer them new educational and training programmes. The target is to enhance cooperation with the private sector and public authorities and to create an AI cluster to foster transition towards sustainability in Lithuania.

“Finally, this project will improve the Lithuanian position in EU innovation scoreboards, increase the international collaboration, mobilise national, European and other international funding programmes by creating service packages, AI labs and different collaboration at both national and international level,” Mika Grundström concludes.

European Union funds the overall project with over EUR 14.5 million. The Tampere University share of this is EUR 2.5 million.

Read more on AI Hub Tampere on the website of Tampere University.