Call for research validation projects in WASP Research Arenas

Wallenberg AI, Autonomous Systems and Software Program (WASP) is Sweden’s largest individual research program, and provides a platform for academic research and education, fostering interaction with Sweden’s leading companies. The program addresses research in artificial intelligence, autonomous systems and software as enabling technologies for development of systems acting in collaboration with humans, adapting to their environment through sensors, information and knowledge, and forming intelligent systems of systems. WASP strengthens, expands, and renews the national competence through new strategic recruitments, a challenging research program, a national graduate school, and collaboration with industry. The program is conducted in close cooperation between leading Swedish universities with an aim to promote the competence of Sweden as a nation within the area of AI, autonomous systems and software.

WASP is now offering funding for collaboration projects between industry and WASP academic research groups aiming for research validation in one of the existing WASP Research Arenas (WARA). The project duration may be a maximum of 18 months. Expected additional outcomes of the projects are the formulation of questions about future research challenges and plans for continued collaboration. The call is open for the WASPs five partner universities Chalmers, KTH, Linköping University, Lund University and Umeå University as well as at the Affiliated Groups of Excellence at Örebro University, Uppsala University and Luleå University of Technology.

Project constellation

The project constellation should consist of at least one academic partner from WASP and at least one industry partner. The industry partner(s) can be any Swedish company with an interest in a specific WARA, including the existing WARA leading companies. The industry partner(s) must have research activities in Sweden. Each WASP researcher may participate in at most one proposal as main-PI.

Connection to WASP Research Arenas and Letter of Intent

The suggested project should involve one of the WASP Research Arenas. The research arenas are described at the following webpage for WARA. A Letter of Intent from the WARA X signed by an authorized representative for the leading organization must be attached. It should be certified that the WARA X has the capacity, resources, and interest to let the arena be used for the described project and to the extent that the application describes.

Contact information to the WARA X project leaders:

Budget

The total funding for this call is 20 MSEK.

Use of Funding

The focus of the call is to offer funding to validate research results in a real environment, i.e., in existing WASP Research Arenas. Funding is not provided for the construction of new arenas or expansion of existing ones. However, modification and some adaptation of the facility to enable validation can be funded.

Application process

A full application should be submitted to WASP according to instruction in the section Content of the Application below. The applicants apply for funding for the academic partner(s) in the project.

There will be an opportunity for the successful applicants to apply for additional funding, primarily dedicated to the industrial partner(s), in a separate call by “Avancerad Digitalisering” handled by Vinnova. See section Additional Funding below for further information.

Industrial partners have the option of withdrawing from the project if WASP grants support, but Additional Funding is denied.

Content of the Application

The proposal should contain the following:

• Project Description (max 10 pages including references, 12 font Times New Roman)
  • The following template should be used.
• Letter of Intent
  • The authorized representative for the leading organization of WARA X should certify that the WARA X have the capacity, resources, and interest to let the arena be used for the described project, and to the extent that the application describes. Use the following template.
• CV of the PI, max 2 pages:
  • Name, title and affiliation
  • PhD year
  • List of ongoing projects
  • List of current PhD students and postdocs
  • List of 10 publications including:
    • 5 most important publications (since 2009)
    • 5 recent for the project relevant publications (since 2019)
  • Link to Google Scholar profile
• Budget
  • The following template should be used.

The proposal should be submitted as a single PDF file to EasyChair Submission Portal.

Evaluation criteria that will be used for the project proposals to WASP are:

• Scientific quality of the proposal
• Scientific merits of the applicants
• Relevance and feasibility to fulfill the project goals in the WARA X
• The applicant’s ability and experience in academia/industry collaborations.

Timeline WASP

Additional funding

The funding from WASP is dedicated to the academic partners within the program. The successful applicants in the WASP Call will be able to apply for additional funding, dedicated for their industry partner(s), in an open call issued by the program for Avancerad Digitalisering handled by Vinnova. Information about the call is available on the web page Validera forskning inom avancerad digitalisering i verklig miljö.

Timeline Avancerad Digitalisering