EU-Wide Advantages & Opportunities for the CSA "Artificial Intelligence for Knowledge Valorisation"

1. Single Market Access – 450+ Million Potential Users

• Pan-European customer base: A valorisation toolbox conforming to EU law can be rolled out simultaneously in all 27 Member States, giving each of the 100+ use-case owners instant access to a consumer and B2B market larger than the US.

• Unitary IP protection: By leveraging the Unitary Patent and the forthcoming Unitary Supplementary Protection Certificate (SPC), AI-assisted patent drafting in the project can secure affordable, uniform protection, lowering IP costs by 70-80 % versus national filings.

• Public procurement at EU level: Tools validated under Horizon Europe can later qualify for Pre-Commercial Procurement (PCP) or innovation procurement financed from ESIF/Recovery Facility budgets, multiplying uptake opportunities.

2. Cross-Border Collaboration & Knowledge Exchange

• Mandatory consortia diversity: Horizon-CSA rules require at least three independent legal entities from three different eligible countries, automatically embedding multinational co-creation.

• Living labs in multiple regions: Deploy at least 100 AI-guided valorisation pilots across varied innovation ecosystems (e.g. Germany’s Fraunhofer, Estonia’s e-Residency startups, Spain’s bioeconomy clusters) to capture cultural and sectoral diversity.

• Open-source community building: Align with AI-on-Demand Platform, European Language Grid and Gaia-X Data Spaces to crowd-source datasets, algorithms and best practices, reducing duplication across borders.

3. Alignment with Flagship EU Strategies

| EU Strategy | Concrete Alignment Opportunity |

|-------------|---------------------------------|

| EU Green Deal | Prioritise use-cases that turn research into green-tech products (e.g. AI-optimised recycling processes). |

| Digital Europe & GenAI4EU | Re-use HPC, cloud and GenAI compute vouchers for model training; ensure toolbox is “compliant-by-design” with the AI Act. |

| SME Strategy | Engage Enterprise Europe Network (EEN) nodes to recruit SMEs for the 100 pilots and channel them towards the Single Digital Gateway for market entry support. |

| New European Innovation Agenda | Feed resulting policy insights into Flagship 4 (Talent & Deep-Tech) and national Innovation Agendas via the ERA Forum. |

4. Regulatory Harmonisation Advantages

• AI Act readiness: Building the toolbox around forthcoming harmonised requirements (risk classification, conformity assessment, transparency) removes legal fragmentation barriers for innovators.

• Data Governance Act & Data Act: Common rules on data sharing allow cross-border training datasets to be pooled legally and ethically.

• Unified standardisation pathway: Liaise with CEN-CENELEC Focus Group on Trustworthy AI to translate project outputs into European Standards (EN) that are valid EU-wide.

5. Access to Europe’s Innovation Ecosystem

• Research infrastructures: Tap into ESFRI nodes (e.g. ELIXIR for life-science data, EuroBioImaging) to source high-quality datasets.

• Partnerships & KICs: Co-implement pilots with EIT Digital, Manufacturing and Health to exploit existing accelerator services.

• Talent pool: Use Marie-Skłodowska-Curie (MSCA) placement schemes or Erasmus+ Knowledge Alliances for AI ethics and SS&H expertise.

6. Funding Synergies & Leverage

1. EIC Transition & Accelerator: Mature top-performing use-cases into deep-tech start-ups with blended finance up to €17.5 m each.

2. Digital Europe Programme (DEP): Apply for Large-Scale Pilot funding to industrialise the toolbox post-CSA (up to €30 m per pilot).

3. Interregional Innovation Investments (I3): Enable cross-regional roll-out for TRL 6-9 solutions in smart specialisation domains.

4. ERDF / ESF+: Regional authorities can fund training modules and adoption vouchers for SMEs using the AI toolbox.

7. Scale & Impact Potential

• Critical mass of 100+ pilots: Generates statistically significant evidence on AI-driven valorisation, creating a de-facto EU benchmark.

• Replicability: Toolbox packaged as open modular micro-services (API-first) facilitates translation into all EU languages via eTranslation, fostering broad adoption.

• Policy feedback loop: Aggregated insights feed directly into the Commission’s Knowledge Valorisation Platform and the upcoming Code of Practice on Intellectual Assets, influencing future legislation.

• Economic impact: Even if only 20 % of pilots achieve commercialisation, the project could unlock ~€500 m in new turnover (assuming €25 m avg. revenue five years post-project), supporting strategic autonomy.

8. Unique Strategic Value of Operating at EU Scale

• Network effects: A single, EU-wide AI valorisation ecosystem avoids the fragmentation that plagues national initiatives, creating superior data network effects and model accuracy.

• Brand trust: EU endorsement and conformity with the AI Act increases user and investor confidence versus purely national solutions.

• Cost efficiency: Shared development of the toolbox under a lump-sum CSA spreads R&D cost over multiple countries and sectors, reducing per-participant expense.

• Geopolitical relevance: Positions Europe as a first mover in responsible AI for knowledge valorisation, reinforcing open strategic autonomy and influencing global standards.

9. Actionable EU-Wide Opportunities for Applicants

1. Build a consortium of 10-15 partners spanning at least 10 Member States, mixing universities, RTOs, SME clusters, digital innovation hubs and SS&H experts.

2. Integrate with existing EU platforms (AI-on-Demand, European Open Science Cloud, EIC Business Acceleration Services) instead of reinventing the wheel.

3. Allocate work packages to: (a) regulatory watch & AI-Act compliance, (b) IP & data governance, (c) pilot orchestration, (d) stakeholder matchmaking, (e) policy & standardisation outreach.

4. Secure Letters of Support from national valorisation agencies and EEN nodes to guarantee rapid post-project uptake.

5. Design the toolbox as an interoperable component of Europe’s forthcoming "Apply AI" strategy, ensuring sustainability and potential follow-up funding.