Sebastien Charles’ Post

Increasing the Austrian budget for research and innovation (R&I) towards 4% of GDP - as proposed in this important paper below - would be an important step, even in economically challenging times, to secure and strengthen Austria's competitiveness. An ambitious target of 4% of GDP (which is also being discussed at EU level), would not only enable the financing of excellent basic research and market-oriented innovation projects, but would also promote targeted investments in key areas.

🚀 2nd 🇵🇱🇩🇪 Polish-German Call for Proposals for Joint R&D Projects has been launched   The National Centre for Research and Development (NCBR) and the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action (BMWK) have opened a funding opportunity to support joint Polish-German R&D projects in order to develop innovative products, processes or technical services from all technology and application areas.   Funding Availability: R&D projects in which new products, technical services or processes will in subsequent steps generate sustainable solutions with high market potential.   Funding Channels: In Poland, funding is provided through the #INNOGLOBO programme. In Germany, funding is provided through the Central Innovation Programme for SMEs (#ZIM #AIFProjectGmbH).   Eligible Partnerships: The partners must include at least one Polish company or research organization and one German SME   ⏰ Applications are open until September 30, 2024 This opportunity opens doors for companies and research institutions  to collaborate on innovative projects and solutions. If you're looking for partners in MedTech field from Poland or Bavaria, we are here to assist you! Contact us for further information. #KMU #Innovation #FuE #ZIM #INNOGLOBO #PolenBayern

From insight to impact:

Let me tell you a short story that defined my past decade 🤗 It was one of those afterparty conversations around the campfire in Passau. "Assuming you want a child, do you want the child to be kind or smart?", asked a friend. "rich", said another friend and we all laughed 😂 That question led an interesting conversation that was really enlightening for me. There, I noticed the value of compassion, sympathy, and empathy for us as humans (you can guess what my response was 😉 ). For me, it turned into a quest to ensure that our interactions with computers and AI is emotion-aware and empathic - as natural as interactions with humans. I was fortunate enough to find others on the same quest, namely Björn Schuller, Florian Eyben and Prof. Dagmar M. Schuller 🤗 In summer of 2023, we announced ERA, the world-premier Emotionally Responsive Assistant. Though performing seamlessly, the higher-than-human-level latency and the lack of physical appearance, made people less likely to interact naturally with it. Alas, this week, at the 37th year of AKWI, with the presence of our Digital Minister, Dr. Fabian Mehring , we announced the first ever human robot with the empathic capabilities. We are far from the end, but it's vital to celebrate important milestones once in a while 😋 In a few months/years from now, everyone will naturally talk to their AI assistants and their subtle vocal emotional expressions are picked up 💓 . Every little conversation in the world will be a bit more natural, and that's how we make the world a better place - Ensuring that our emotional expressions are not lost in the 0s and 1s ✨ That being said, special thanks to Shahab Oveysi whose sleepless nights made it possible. His dedication in the past few months to the team and our quest are nothing short of miraculous. And Kudos to the Gabriel Skantze and the Furhat Robotics team for creating such a great product which served as our physical appearance. #worldpremier #Socialrobot #audeering #AI #conversationalai #empathicai #compassion #empathy #ethicalai #AIforgood #innovation #bayern #germany #madeingermany #madeinbayern

#education: Talk is cheap. Complaining even cheaper. Close to our headquarters somebody is not just talking but improving technical education for teenagers and especially for girls and educationally disadvantaged kids: Frank Seuling has been establishing a MINT Center to further education in Math, IT, Natural Sciences and Technology. I‘m glad to follow his invitation to join his advisory board representing businesses alongside scientists and politics. I‘d love to be part of the solution to improve tech education. Frank put in lots of money and 4 years of preparation to improve technical education for hundreds of children starting in April next year. The Federal Ministry of Education added funding and the advisory board counts experts in different areas. That’s promissing. Take a look at the website and stay tuned. Great things will be happening. And what’s the relation to #payments? While payment seems to be simple it actually is extremly complex. We need well educated people to understand ECB regulation and local laws in different countries, to understand accounting as well as technologies like big data and AI in different idustries like #ecommerce, #retail, #hospitality and #mobility. When I look at the German schools‘ shortcomings I feel the urge to do something. Somebody once said „acting is like wanting, only more blatant“ :-) MINT-Zentrum Hirschaid

💡 Highlighting the Importance of STEM Education in the 2024 European Elections! 💡 Ahead of the European Parliament elections (June 6-9, 2024), the EU STEM Coalition, together with members like the Platform Talent voor Technologie and zdi.NRW | Zukunft durch Innovation, is drawing attention to the urgent need for STEM education reform (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) across Europe. Susanne Jakobs-Bohack from ZENIT GmbH in North-Rhine Westphalia emphasizes the necessity of promoting STEM education outside traditional school systems. “The more Europe supports extracurricular STEM education and regional initiatives, the more successfully young people's skills in key areas such as digitalization, climate protection, and innovation can be developed.” More and more countries understand the need to invest in #STEM education: 👉 German Chancellor Olaf Scholz & Minister Bettina Stark-Watzinger both highlight the great importance of STEM education for Germany's future on the National STEM summit taking place today 👉 Finland launched a National STEM Strategy in 2023, as did the region of Flanders in 2021 👉 Hungary set a goal to increase the proportion of students in higher education who choose fields related to mathematics, natural sciences, engineering, and information technology (STEM) to 50 percent by 2030 👉 The Netherlands invests 350 million euros for the upcoming 8 years in the tech talent of the future Now all we need is a European STEM approach to coordinate and step up these efforts! 💪

🌍 How can removing privilege from education change the world? Next week on the 11th of April we will be publishing our Impact Report for 2023. Find out what kind of #RealWorldImpact we generate as an organisation. Stay tuned for a week of highlights and join us in celebrating Excellence, Equity and Growth in the Tech World. #techeducation #codeequity #42berlin #42wolfsburg #makeit42

Without our European networks, we could not be as efficient in research and teaching as we are today." How important Europe is for the Ruhr-Universität Bochum, emphasizes Prof. Martin Paul, rector of our partner institution since 2021, in his statement of our European campaign. Because: With almost 6,000 international students and professors, many of them from neighboring European countries, the 'RUB' relies on its worldwide network. It is not only part of the guiding principle of the Bochum University that talents are promoted regardless of their social and geographical origin, the university builds on the foundation of its international connections - and not only these: The university landscape of the Ruhr area thrives on its human openness, fair educational opportunities and a literally boundless commitment to science. #InitiativeEurope: On the 9th The #European elections will take place in Germany in June. Together with many other partners of the Initiativkreis Ruhr, we want to draw attention to the importance of Europe with our campaign and call for elections. Because: There is more to move in the EUROPEAN community! 👉 More about our European campaign and the statements of our participating partners at: www.initiativeeuropa.de!

Germany is ready to start implementing the AI Act! Only one month <EDIT> not late! one month after the AIA came into effect; almost a year before the deadline!<!edit> :-) Seriously, tremendous work, and looking forward to staying engaged! cc Centre for Digital Governance Meeri Haataja Luca Bertuzzi #AIAct #DigitalGovernance #AIRegulation

Update on #AIgovernance in Germany. About a month after the #AIA came into effect, the German government has now decided on guidelines for its implementation. In broad strokes, I would call it a "hub and spoke" approach: (1) The Federal Network Agency (Bundesnetzagentur) should take a central role coordinating regulatory oversight and at the same time fostering #AI #innovation, (2) we will aim to create an efficient structure and minimize bureaucracy for companies and consumers by making full use of existing procedures and agencies, (3) we want to maximise synergies between the resources different agencies are building up in implementing different parts of the EU’s and Germany’s digital regulatory framework. Behind this decision stands a major effort by the fantastic teams at Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action and Bundesministerium der Justiz, as well as all other ministries responsible for AI governance in their sectors - and kudos to Dr. Amélie Heldt and Judith Peterka for guiding this process from the chancellery. I also think it has been crucial to have great support from so many stakeholders, such as AlgorithmWatch, Matthias Spielkamp, Bertelsmann Stiftung, Julia Gundlach, Thomas Koenen, Dr., Philipp Hacker, Prof. Dr. Mario Martini, Jonas Botta, DIHK, Joanna Bryson, Kilian Gross, KI Bundesverband, Vanessa Cann, Sebastian Hallensleben, Bitkom, Fabian Zacharias and so many others. Thank you all! Now the devil is in the detail and we'll need everyone’s feedback going into the legislative process, and I look forward to continuing our dialogue.