Presentation
Objectives and functions
The UDC-Inditex Chair of AI in Green Algorithms aims to promote research, innovation and knowledge transfer in the field of Artificial Intelligence and green algorithms, in order to contribute to sustainable development and environmental protection, some of the specific objectives being the following:
– Develop training programmes in green AI.
– Promote research and innovation in the field of green AI by identifying challenges and fostering public-private cooperation.
– Facilitate the transfer and exploitation of the research results of the chair through the commercialisation of services and products and the possible creation of spinoffs.
– Promote the dissemination of research results and knowledge in green AI through the publication of articles and the organisation of events and dissemination and citizen science activities.
– Position the Chair as a reference in the field of green AI at regional, national and international level through participation in events and working groups, collaboration with other institutions and the identification of funding opportunities.
History of the Chair
The UDC-Inditex Chair of AI in Green Algorithms was born in 2023, as a result of an agreement signed between the University of A Coruña and the Inditex Group.
In 2024, the Chair obtains competitive public funding for the development of its activity, being beneficiary of the “Aid for the creation of university-industry chairs Enia Chairs” call, aimed at research and development of artificial intelligence, for its dissemination and training in the framework of the PRTR, funded by the European Union-Next Generation EU. This aid has been granted by the Ministerio para la Transformación Digital y de la Función Pública, through the Secretaría de Estado de Digitalización e Inteligencia Artificial (TSI-100925-2023-1, according to the award resolution dated 01/08/2024).
Likewise, the Chair has private funding for the development of its activity, through the financial support of the Inditex group.
Promoters
The University of A Coruña is a generalist public higher education institution with 17 300 students. With two campuses in the cities of A Coruña and Ferrol, it has 23 faculties and schools offering 109 official degrees, and carries out an intense research activity, both at a general level and through its 4 Advanced Research Centres (CITIC, CICA, CITEEC and CITENI), which has allowed it to attract an average of 16.5M€ in research resources in the last 3 years.
Artificial Intelligence research began to develop in Galicia at the end of the 1980s, coinciding with the creation of university centres specialised in computer science.
One of the initial milestones was the creation of the Faculty of Computer Science at the University of A Coruña (FIC) in 1986, a pioneering faculty in Galicia, which promoted training and research in areas related to computing and Artificial Intelligence.
AI research at the University of A Coruña has therefore been going on for almost 40 years, which has been consolidated with the creation of CITIC, the ICT Research Centre of the UDC, in 2008.
The Inditex group is an international benchmark corporation in the Fashion Industry, operating in the distribution sector at a global level and maintaining a presence in 213 markets, both through physical shops and its online platform.
The group has a turnover of close to 36 000 M€ and has a strategy of continuous improvement of processes in all its areas of activity, commercial management and industrial and logistics processes, which makes it an important agent of transversal and collaborative innovation, as well as a qualified applicant for R&D applicable to its processes.
In July 2023, the Inditex group announced its new sustainability commitments, which represent a milestone in its sustainability and environmental policy, and constitute a firm commitment on the path towards zero net emissions in 2040. These commitments are grouped around six strategic lines: fibres, product manufacturing, climate change, circularity, biodiversity and community investment.
The incorporation and collaboration with the Inditex group will enable the new challenges faced by the industry to be addressed and, on the other hand, to serve as a platform for testing and scaling up the results generated within the framework of the Chair. In this sense, the intensity in the use of the technologies that are the object of the activity of the Chair by the group represents a magnificent opportunity.