Human-Centric Artificial Intelligence for Sustainable Future

For the EU to strengthen its role as the global leader in trustworthy AI, experts on ethical, human-centric and sustainable use of AI are urgently needed in public, private and third sector organisations across member states. This interdisciplinary expertise is not readily available through traditional doctoral training frameworks.

The fast-evolving field will continue to create opportunities for individuals with resilience and future-proof skills.

Human-Centric Artificial Intelligence for Sustainable Future (HAIF) is a doctoral programme for 25 doctoral candidates (DCs) hosted by the University of Turku (UTU), Finland, and supported by 17 associated partners.

HAIF will establish a novel doctoral training scheme that connects UTU’s Faculties of Technology, Social Sciences, Law and Humanities.

HAIF’s research themes are societally relevant, emphasizing humans as developers, users and decision-subjects affected by the technology.

In addition to individual and societal perspectives, HAIF produces technological solutions for improved safety, security, interpretability and technical robustness of AI systems.

Research on application areas such as health care, autonomous systems and cybersecurity will be transferable to different sectors.

HAIF’s academic collaboration network covers 7 EU countries and the U.S. 6 non-academic partners bring in business relevance and views of the public administration.

Besides enhancing DCs’ academic skills and producing new interdisciplinary knowledge, HAIF will train DCs on transferable skills such as communications and project management, which are essential for widening their career prospects.

HAIF DCs will be selected through a transparent, merit-based process with equity and inclusivity as cross-cutting priorities.

By training the future professionals in the critical themes of human-centric and sustainable AI, HAIF increases competitiveness, jobs and growth from the regional to EU scale.