The Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) is funding nine artificial intelligence projects in cooperation with the Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR, France) and the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST, Japan). Researchers from all three countries will be cooperating on these projects, which will receive funding amounting to approximately 7 million Euro from the institutions involved; the funding will be spread over a period of three years. The DFG will only be providing the project funding required by the scientists in Germany, i.e. approximately 2.4 million Euro. The ANR and JST will be proceeding in the same way.
In April 2019, the DFG, ANR and JST decided to issue a call for a joint funding initiative for artificial intelligence based not only on criteria of scientific excellence but also on a similar system of values. The initiative is intended to focus on research questions relating to basic methodical approaches, autonomous decision-making systems, and approaches to interaction between humans and artificial intelligence systems.
In July 2019, the DFG, ANR and JST accordingly issued a call for proposals for trilateral interdisciplinary research projects in the area of artificial intelligence. From among 36 project proposals submitted nine were selected. The nine projects selected to receive funding will be launched on 16 November 2020 at a kick-off event to take place during the “Japan-France-Germany Trilateral Symposium on AI”. For the DFG, the trilateral cooperation is one of several modules intended to promote research in the area of artificial intelligence. Up until 2022, projects in all areas of AI research will be granted funding within the framework of various DFG programmes that will make up a strategic funding initiative.
