Public Funding for Tech

Yeah, go ahead. Okay. Hello and welcome everyone. So then we are just going to talk a little bit about the public funds are available for everything that it's related to ai, cybersecurity and tech, that this is why the reason everybody's here and first Yeah. Can You ask companies get access to this funding or Not? Some us some of the programs Yes. I sit here. Exactly. Okay. That's the first question.

First we are going to just take a look to the European approach for these type of initiatives just to give, give you an idea of like where are we standing at the moment and what they are trying to really achieve is like that is going to be really, they are trying to incentivize all the AI and cybersecurity but what they want to do is that they're reliable and that is also trustable, right?

And in order to do that, they are going to focus on these four points to then really have an excellence in AI that is going to be to enable the development and uptake of all these AI solutions to the European Union. Also then to be able to thrive from the left to market also the most important thing to serve positive people, to prioritize human security and also inclusivity and also build a strategic leadership in sectors that are really important as environment, health, sustainability, et cetera.

And then also we see that there are certain top of needs in terms of AI and cyber security across Europe. And these are going to be the five main ones, right? I'm not going to go really deep into this just because we have a a little bit of strain of time, but this is where also merge cybersecurity and ai, right? Like they go hand by hand all the time. And then I'm just going to talk a little bit of what really public funding is because we have been hearing for like different type of funds.

So this is going to be money that is provided by the government and it's giving to the public to benefit a public, a bigger audience and also it can be per private or project or public sector. And we are going to find that there's grants, loans and tax credits or tax exemptions. And what we don't consider public fund is going to be scholarships, loans from private banks, also awards from non-governmental organizations, tenders. This is not what we are talking about of public funds, right? What is happening at the moment?

We are seeing that Germany, France, Italy, Spain, UK and France, I dunno if I said France, but okay, they are spending more than 2 trillion euros this year in terms of public subsidies. And out of that 2 trillion 4, 420 4 billion are going to be available just for IT solutions. So what type of like cases we can see in here is like networking, cyber security, ai, IO, ot, cloud data centers, like there's a bunch of lists of what it can be covered by these public funds. But what is then really important to see is that we can categorize these funds into four categories.

That is going to be sustainability, digital transformation, community development, and emerging technologies. But this is always something that it can merge. It's not that they are divided, they can be combined. And then this is also something in terms that like what we are seeing the tendency of based on the necessities that the communities are needing, right? What also is important to mention is that not all the grants are going to be totally it, right?

Some of the grants like the, the lower ones are going to be mostly for IT solutions or like focus in it and then later on they are going to cover all their type of expenses. But then also we are going to see this is the most common thing, right? So then you can cover other type of expenses that are also like part of the technologies and this is why you have to also develop a project that is not just about the technology itself.

Also as I mentioned, there are going to be different resources and what we see is that we can see Europe, European Union, national governments and regional also state like governments. And these are the sources of public funds. And what we are going to see is that there are two types competitive that that means that then you literally have to compete to get that money and the other ones are going to be direct allocations. We see these direct allocations that could can be from the European Union to national governments, from national government to regional ones or the other way around.

And it's really clear that we see a correlation, not always, it's not the the rule 100%, but sorry, we are going to see larger award sizes in European Union grants and then we are going to see a smaller ones in the regional and provisional states. And of course there's a correlation between how much money you are going to get and how much time you have to invest into make the application and also how long it's going to take for you to take that money and start your project.

So just to go over like to to, to just give you some examples, we are just going to see an overview of the programs that are available at the moment. And then this is going to answer to your question Manu. So for example, in here we are presenting three of the, these are the major funding programs for these type of solutions. And we see these three ones are like programs that are allocating money from the European Commission to the member states. And these last two digital Europe and Horizon Europe. These are programs that are competitive at the European level.

But for example, horizon Europe has U US as one of the biggest winners of as known associated countries. So for horizon Europe even they can apply, you can apply wherever you are and this is where you see most of the money that is also localized for these initiatives. For example, in here I'm showing two, this is the first one, the the first set of calls that we are seeing, for example, that it was 2023 and 2024 that they have a budget of 112 million euros and you can see the variety of type of programs or calls that they were having, they were focusing on, right?

And then we have another one also from Horizon Europe that they are giving 290 millions and then they are focusing in more in researching data computed and also AI technologies. So as you can see, and these are just two examples of like set of calls from Horizon Europe focusing on this, but for you to have an idea of also what type of initiatives they are covering. And now I'm just going to focus a little bit in terms of like what kind of projects also they have been funded for you to have an idea. This one for example, is especially about mobility.

Then they have a contribution of all the 100% of what they needed. This is going to be four years project. And as you see, it's all about road safety and also safety management and support vehicle automat, automatization. And what you see is that especially because it's from the horizon Europe, you need to create a consortium. So then you need to collaborate with more than one entity. And they are especially like trying to promote that is also between the member states and also non-associated countries to create the cohesion of the European Union.

Here, for example, we have also another project that it was in terms of intelligence with without bias. And also there's a difference in terms of the countries that are supporting and also the budget, right? But in this case, we are seeing that it's giving a 100% of the contribution, the amount of the contribution is going to provide depending on the type of entities that are engaged in here, if they are research institutions, if they are private institutions, they tend to be a little bit less. And also depends on the type of action that you are following in horizon Europe.

That was about Europe. But then we are going to take a closer look to some examples in terms of countries. And then we are just going to talk about the UK just also because it's now out of the European Union. But they also have a national AI strategy that is also in terms of investments in AI and also that it has to be safe. They want to also access guarantee access to data, to everyone. And also they want to strengthen the AI research, robotic research. And of course they also want to be in the position of like be the first ones in all the, in terms of competitiveness, right?

And what they are doing is they are just also considering really important things or initiatives to take into account that is going to, it has to be safe, it has to be transparent, it has to be fair, it has to be also ready and accountable, right? So this is what exactly what they're talking about. And these are going to be the main focus areas of focus in terms of funding. So they are talking about vulnerability, vulnerabilities and risks, also research in cybersecurity and AI and of course how it can be adopted to the business.

And then I'm just going to focus in what type of programs, for example, the same as I mentioned, what, what are the main programs that are supporting in Europe, in the UK for example, we have these programs, innovative uk, UK Research and Innovation that we see it that is also supporting not just r and d, but also AI related projects. Also for health sector and social causes. We can also talk about a AI safety testing that we see that, for example, horizon Europe also is included in these main applica main funding programs because also the UK can apply.

Right now we are just going to focus in Germany very Briefly for me. Quick question.

Yes, of course. I'm, I'm from UK and obviously we don't, we're not in the eu, but you're still giving, you're in EU office, but you're you is they, are they old projects that you talked about there or? So for example, the horizon in Europe, it gives funds to also non-associated countries. And also they have a specific budget from Horizon in Europe.

They also, for example, have, there's a smaller program that is, that is for startups and they also get a specific allocation from the European Commission. So it's the agreement, there's the political agreement that they still have. Plus we still support the UK and Ireland as well.

Yeah, We have offices there as well. Yeah.

Ah, Offices. Ah Yes.

Yeah, no, we didn't kick you out Always. Yeah. So just very quickly to Germany and Italy, our European union members here today, they were presenting, we're not presenting all the countries just for efficiency and time. I think every country has some form of an AI action plan like made in Germany, made in Europe, in Germany. That one includes 50 current measures, 1.6 billion euro alone in the current legislative period. And the investments have double 20 fold since 2017. We're gonna go into detail a little bit on that one as well. We have a wide array of funding programs as well.

I think that really attaches very well to the previous talk. And we see funding for startups as well. Startups are very well funded in terms of grants, the innovation program we have and nearly every state cyber programs that support cyber high tech or genuinely even such things as doctor offices on the countryside. Anything really can be funded through public funding and more than people usually assume.

Another great program for digital companies and also for cybersecurity, digital identity, those type of things is a SIM program, which is one for the middle stand but really extends towards all forms of digital and cybersecurity as well. And of course also we also look into loans and tax credits, which can be relevant as well. Only German companies or for those ones.

Yeah, those are are only German companies or companies with a, a legal entity in Germany. So that is limiting. But then the European calls, again, like Vanessa mentioned, affiliated countries can apply for Horizon Europe. EDF is a European defense fund, which has very strict rules. So countries outside of European Union won't really be considered. But that's also really interesting.

One, if we're looking into digital countries and the German AI action plan, the fields of actions are mainly focused on continuous support of the research base. So it's very, very research heavy and the research agenda of course, but then also such, such things as the AI infrastructure, they're focusing heavily on the workforce as well and just increasing and developing competencies. And of course also the application area.

So how can we transfer those skills, but also the technology that we're developing on the startup base and in the research institutions onto the next level and help that advance other industries in areas. One really interesting one is the credit product or loan from the KFW. It's called innovation. This is a loan but still really interesting for companies in the area. And then I already mentioned that SIM program also really interesting. Like Vanessa said, eligible eligible costs do vary. So this one for example is 25 to 90%.

In Germany it's regular from anything between 30 and a hundred percent depending on the type of entities eligibility and the project itself. There are a couple of interesting events coming up from the ZIZI sim, I don't really know how to say it in English from the sim, just gonna say it in German that are interesting for people who are looking to apply, are just generally interested to find out more about the funding area. And Italy very quickly. Our colleague Adeela couldn't be here today, so I'm just jumping in for her. They also have strong funding developments.

One is the AI fund, which is similar to the action plan or what when, as I mentioned about the UK where the government is planning to set up an investment fund with an initial endowment of 1 billion euro to promote AI projects. And they are looking to raise an equivalent amount of that from the private sector. The second one is the digital citizenship. This is the RF fund, the recovery and resilience fund that were distributed in 2023 and our ongoing at 2026, which fund a large digitization projects across the Italian society.

So this is in the form of the digital acture of public administration, the the judiciary cybersecurity, all around the public organizations, but also in private ones. And this is over 2 billion in total that they're funding there. And the same goes from the same origin of funding as cybersecurity as well, where they're spending a lot on that as well. In Italy. One really interesting one that Dell shared with me is AI research innovation calls for public-private corporations. So here at least 10% of the funding is dedicated to create new AI startups.

And it's another one that's just really interesting if you're even looking into public and private partnerships as well, or contributing to AI research overall. And then, yeah, the multinational AI national champions as well.

Again, P-N-N-A-R-R and 1.6 billion euros for five national centers that are being created to just facilitate more ai. And with that one to the conclusion, but then it's you right? Me? Still me. Okay. Yeah.

So we, and it can see like in every country that where we're present, which is nearly every country in the European Union and the US as well, I would say in the North American region, US and Canada and the uk, we see those national AI plans, which are very important for us because they give us a policy plan, which does highly inform the funding plan for the next years of the funding strategy for the next years. So we, we can just see where the money will go is going already. We do see a call for a necessary European approach, which I think the European Union has been responding to.

But we do see just the danger of national silos building and we do need an overarching EU approach, which has been coming forward. And of course, yeah, application funding. That is one that we've been seeing the last two years before it was very research and starting based and now we're seeing more and more funding that goes with application of already existing technology. Do we have any questions so far? Give this back to You. This is your show. Nine? Nope. Okay. Okay. Sorry. Well thank you so much. Hmm. Okay. Thank you very much. Thank you.