Since the beginning of 2025, several European member states, together with the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs, are preparing a project for industry-specific Artificial Intelligence (AI). The aim is to create a powerful AI ecosystem in Europe that is specifically tailored to the needs of industry and simplifies the use of AI.
The project is being implemented as an IPCEI ("Important Project of Common European Interest") – an instrument for collaborative, application-oriented projects between several member states. The IPCEI-AI will also be linked with other European initiatives such as the IPCEI on cloud technologies and a planned IPCEI on edge infrastructure. At the 8th Friends of Industry Conference on November 3, 2025, the economic ministers from 17 member states signed the Berlin Declaration, which provides for the rapid implementation of the IPCEI-AI to increase productivity and competitiveness in Europe.
Artificial intelligence is transforming nearly all industrial sectors: from autonomous production to AI-driven logistics and robotics to AI-supported design and the industrial metaverse. The prerequisite for this is highly specialized AI models that go beyond general language models. Europe has extensive data resources that can be used for the development of such models – with the aim of taking a global leadership role in industrial AI.
The project takes a holistic approach across the entire lifecycle of AI models - from data provision to shared AI base models to sector-specific applications. Specifically, the following goals are to be achieved:
• Establishment of a sovereign European AI continuum with powerful foundational models, energy-efficient operation, and sector-specific solutions
• Provision of high-quality and structured industrial data in compliance with European data protection and security standards
• Promotion of new concepts such as AI-as-a-Service (AIaaS) for the widespread use of AI models in various sectors (energy, telecommunications, defense, finance, aerospace, etc.)
• Development of open-source solutions for developers and users
• Integration of AI models into economically relevant applications in companies and public administrations
The IPCEI-AI is part of the "AI Continent Action Plan" of the European Commission, which aims to position the EU as a global technology leader in the field of AI. Currently, 15 member states are actively involved in the content design. This year, expressions of interest from companies will be collected, and successful project ideas will be further developed into an integrated overall project.
Interested companies and project partners can contact the funding center in Germany via email: 8ra@bmwe.bund.de