The European Commission has awarded the esteemed Strategic Technologies for Europe Platform (STEP) Seal upon the multilingual AI project, OpenEuroLLM. This marks the first time a project funded under the Digital Europe Programme has received this prestigious recognition.

STEP is a novel EU initiative aimed at bolstering European industrial competitiveness by supporting critical technologies, particularly artificial intelligence. The STEP Seal serves as a symbol of excellence, facilitating projects in accessing additional EU funds and enhancing their investment profile.

OpenEuroLLM is spearheading the development of the inaugural family of open-source Large Language Models that encompass all official and future EU languages. By collaborating with EU startups, research laboratories, and supercomputing hosting entities, the project intends to train these AI models on European supercomputers. This endeavour aligns with European values of transparency, openness, and accessibility, ensuring compliance with the AI Act.

OpenEuroLLM boasts a total budget of €37.4 million, with €20.6 million allocated from the Digital Europe Programme.

STEP Seals are bestowed upon projects that meet the stringent quality criteria outlined in the calls for proposals under five EU budget programs, including the Digital Europe Programme. Projects receiving the seal are prominently displayed on the Commission’s STEP portal and receive a dedicated tag on the InvestEU Portal.

This article was orginally published on the  European Commission Website