AI in Catalonia
Catalonia has a worldwide recognized ecosystem of science and innovation in Artificial Intelligence (AI).
The Catalan AI ecosystem encompasses 28 research groups in 16 universities and R&I centers. These research groups (many represented in the ELLIS Unit Barcelona) obtained >273 R&D projects over the last 5 years, for a total amount of >130 M€ making Catalonia the 3rd EU region in the ranking of participation in AI Projects of Horizon 2020. Likewise, in the private sector, the Catalan AI industry is composed of 179 companies and startups employing over 8.483 employees with an annual turnover of around 1,358 M€.
In 2019, the Catalan Government – with a strong commitment to making the region more competitive and turning this growing ecosystem into a leading European AI research and innovation hub – approved the Catalan Strategy of AI (Catalonia.ai), which is organized in four axes:
To implement the strategy, the government has created four instruments:
The ELLIS Unit Barcelona, created under the auspices of the Catalan government in the context of the Catalan Strategy of AI, will help consolidate the strong, but fragmented ecosystem of AI in Catalonia, and connect it to the pan-European efforts of ELLIS.
