CADA tracker · source extraction
Article 5
Experience and Acceleration Centres for AI
1. Each Member State shall establish Experience and Acceleration Centres for AI
(‘Centres for AI’). Those Centres for AI shall build on the European digital
innovation hubs established under Article 16 of Regulation (EU) 2021/694 and,
where applicable, any successor entities established under Union law.
2. The objectives of the Centres for AI shall be to:
(a) support the integration and scaling-up of AI use cases in strategic industrial and
public sectors;
(b) accelerate the broad adoption of cloud and AI technologies at regional and
local levels, notably for SMEs, SMCs and public sector bodies, in line with the
‘AI first’ principle;
(c) leverage relevant infrastructure to accelerate the development and fine-tuning
of AI models and systems.
3. The Centres for AI shall be tasked, in particular, with:
(a) helping organisations accelerate their digital transformation through access to
and use of AI technologies, including by connecting organisations with
European providers of cloud and AI technologies;
(b) ensuring or providing access to relevant upskilling and reskilling schemes, in
close collaboration with the AI Skills Academy;
(c) facilitating the transfer of expertise across regions;
(d) supporting the scaling-up of spin-offs and start-ups emerging from universities,
incubators and other accelerators by facilitating access to clients, companies
and organisations seeking specialised AI services.
4. The Commission may adopt implementing acts detailing the procedure for
establishing Centres for AI and further arrangements concerning the participant
organisation profile, selection criteria and details on the implementation of the tasks
and functions. Those implementing acts shall be adopted in accordance with the
examination procedure referred to in Article 46(2).
5. Centres for AI shall have substantial overall autonomy as regards their organisation,
composition and working methods, in compliance with the objectives set out in this
Regulation.
6. A network of Centres for AI shall be established to support collaboration and the
exchange of best practices among Centres for AI, and to provide specialised services
across regions where the required skills or compute capacity are not available locally.
7. Member States and the Commission shall cooperate with existing networks
established under other Union initiatives, including Union initiatives in the field of
semiconductors and data.