Image: Transatlantic
Leader Martin Vechev says institute backed by Amazon and Google can set example for region
A major new research centre for computer sciences and artificial intelligence, backed with more than €100 million from public funds and global technology companies, has launched in Bulgaria with the aim of attracting the world’s brightest minds.
The Institute for Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence and Technology (Insait), which launched on 11 April, has been allocated $100 million (€91.9m) from the Bulgarian government as well as $3.75m from Amazon Web Services, $3m from Google and $285,000 from DeepMind, Google’s AI research arm.
Based in Sofia, Insait also has backing of $6.5m from the technology company SiteGround and a further $600,000 contributed by independent Bulgarian entrepreneurs.
Those backing the institute—launched in partnership with Switzerland’s ETH Zurich and EPFL Lausanne—hope it will generate world-leading research that will firmly place eastern Europe on the map for innovation in AI.
The project’s architect, Martin Vechev (pictured), a leading computer scientist at ETH Zurich, said the institute has been modelled on other top research institutes such as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and UC Berkeley in the United States, the Max-Planck Institutes in Germany and Cambridge University in the UK, where Vechev studied for his PhD.
“We want this to be a world-class institute that serves as a good example to others in terms of diversity, skills and innovation,” he told Research Professional News.
A project of this scale is “unprecedented” for eastern Europe, he said, adding that he hopes it will help to address a skills gap and reduce brain drain from the region.
An estimated 30,000 Bulgarian people leave the country every year for work and better careers prospects, including in the sciences. As the “first research centre of its kind in the region to provide globally competitive research environments and pay packages, it should also attract talent from around the world”, Vechev said.
‘Very little’ EU involvement
EU R&D commissioner and Bulgarian national Mariya Gabriel was among the high-profile speakers who appeared at Insait’s launch event on 11 April, alongside Bulgarian prime minister Kiril Petkov and European Research Council president Maria Leptin.
But Vechev said that the EU has had “very little” to do with the institute itself.
“It’s funded by the Bulgarian government, supported by Swiss universities and scientific partnerships with Switzerland, Israel and the US, and funded by Bulgarian business and big tech US companies. There’s almost no EU presence, which is very strange,” he said.
“I don’t feel negatively about it, I think Insait is a special operation that requires specific expertise and regional know-how. But now I would say to the EU, use this as a blueprint. Pick it up and say ‘OK, let’s make it work and get it funded.’”
“Eastern Europe is an unknown, and people are scared of that. But we are already talking to absolutely world class scientists who are planning to join,” Vechev said. “I think there will be many precedents set in this new centre for Europe that have never happened before.”
Jeff Dean, senior fellow at Google, said: “Eastern Europe has an incredible talent pool of computer scientists and engineers, and we want to help Insait become a world-class facility, attracting top researchers from within the region and further afield. There’s so much more work to be done in AI and computer science, and initiatives like these are crucial to ensuring that technology can benefit everyone.”
Specific areas of research the institute will focus on include machine learning, cybersecurity and computational biology.