FBK and Extended Partnerships

Success is the result of the ever growing reputation of the Foundation, combined with a well-focused strategy that is rooted in the “Carta di Rovereto”, a document that outlines the strategy of the Trentino Research System led by PAT.

Precisely in the face of this strategy, FBK has chosen to focus on some specific topics of the MUR call and on these it has built the prerequisites for the excellent result that sees it as “spoke” (subject involved in the implementation of the project and identified by the implementing subject) in two of the extended partnerships dedicated to two topics of primary relevance and strategicity: artificial intelligence and quantum technologies.

SSpecifically, in the FAIR partnership led by the CNR, FBK is among the founders of Spoke 2, which proposes a global interdisciplinary approach to integrative Artificial Intelligence, with a two-dimensional integration.

The horizontal integrative AI deals with the combination of different high-level elements: modelling, reasoning and deliberation in autonomous agents; interaction with the environment, including humans; cooperation among several artificial and human agents. The Vertical Integrative Artificial Intelligence is oriented instead to combine techniques and different scientific methods, skills and technologies in specific areas of AI.
The proposed funding for FBK is € 5.2 million. The University of Trento is also involved in this project.

NQSTI HUB, on the other hand, is the partnership led by the University of Camerino, dedicated to quantum technologies, and of which, again, FBK is a spokesperson. The aim is to facilitate integration and communication between different sectors: an extraordinary effort to develop new basic research that promotes industrial development. After a first phase of development and integration of existing devices, the complete quantum systems will be tested in laboratory experiments aimed at demonstrating their potential for possible industrial use, taking into account the indications of the partner companies and will be mainly dedicated to fields of application such as safety, space, environment, biomedicine and energy.
The possible funding for FBK in this case is 6.3 million euros.

FBK is also co-leader of spoke 4 of the network dedicated to health research on emerging infectious diseases, also thanks to its twenty years of experience in the field, which has been essential in the management of the Covid-19 pandemic.

IN-FACT, the name of the partnership led by the University of Pavia, aims to collect and converge data from different sources to improve the ability to analyse and understand the epidemiology of emerging and re-emerging diseases with epidemic potential and transform this data into information for public health action.
The proposed funding for FBK is €2 million.

Lastly, mention should be made of the Foundation’s affiliations to the spokes of two further partnerships:

• NEST, which has the objective of the growth of a new generation of energy technologies, researchers and research infrastructures for a sustainable and resilient future energy sector with specific focus on hydrogen, with a potential funding of 1.3 million for FBK;
• SERICS related to Cybersecurity and in particular to the security of operating systems and virtualization (spoke 4) and to the encryption and security of distributed systems (spoke 5), with a possible funding for FBK of almost 1 million euros.