Oxford is joining forces with the Saclay Cluster - which includes Institut Polytechnique de Paris, HEC Paris and Université Paris-Saclay - and the University of Cambridge, to create a strategic partnership in the field of artificial intelligence.
Named the Entente CordIAle Paris-Saclay - Oxford-Cambridge AI Initiative, the partnership brings together leading centres of scientific and technological excellence to foster the emergence of excellent, ethical and sovereign artificial intelligence on a European scale and create long-term cooperation in AI research, training and innovation to meet the major challenges of our time. The commitment was formalised on 9 July during President Macron's State Visit to the United Kingdom, with the signing of a Letter of Intent.
Home to one of Europe's largest academic communities of AI expertise, from core AI science across machine learning, computer vision, robotics, mathematical foundations and ethical development, to multiple real-world applications, the University of Oxford hosts six Centres for Doctoral Training (CDTs) which are supporting the next generation of AI researchers.
The partnership marks the continuation of the long tradition of scientific cooperation between France and the United Kingdom, and reaffirms the shared desire of the five institutions to move forward together towards a trusted artificial intelligence, supported by academic excellence, training and innovation.
The Entente CordIAle Paris-Saclay - Oxford-Cambridge AI Initiative is organised around five key areas:
- Encouraging academic mobility between students, doctoral students, researchers and teachers to enhance expertise and training
- Organising joint scientific events (seminars, workshops, symposia) on the major scientific and ethical challenges of AI
- Launching collaborative research projects: co-direction of theses, interdisciplinary programmes, joint applications for funding
- Involving industrial and innovation players, to accelerate technology transfer and support AI entrepreneurship
- Strengthen bilateral cooperation, in line with national and European strategic priorities
Professor Irene Tracey CBE, FRS, FMedSci, Vice-Chancellor of Oxford University said, 'I warmly welcome this new partnership between the Saclay Cluster, Oxford and Cambridge. At Oxford, we believe that international collaboration is essential to advancing responsible and impactful AI. As an ELLIS unit - part of the European Laboratory for Learning and Intelligent Systems - and home to four of the UK's ten Turing AI World-Leading Researcher Fellows, the Institute for Ethics in AI and the Ellison Institute of Technology funded doctoral training program in Fundamentals of AI, we are proud to be working alongside our French and UK partners to shape the future of AI. This initiative builds on our existing academic ties and reflects our shared commitment to rigorous science, ethical responsibility and innovation that serves society.'
