New data labs will accelerate the development of AI

Data labs are needed to develop data access and help actors use data for innovation. Vinnova is now funding eight additional environments that will serve as national data labs for various industries and areas.

- The next step in digitalisation is more solutions based on data, which we now see in, for example, artificial intelligence. We expect the lab to lead to social and economic values through increased focus on data-driven decisions, says Erik Borälv, responsible for the call for proposal.

The data lab is intended to help ensure that data is of high quality and of a scope that enables the development of AI. The investment is a complement to Vinnova's other investments in digital infrastructure and artificial intelligence.

Eight computer labs receive funding for two years with a total of SEK 27 million:

Swedish medical language lab

Coordinator: Sahlgrenska Science Park AB
To make medical language data sets available for use in health care, dental care and computer-driven research and innovation in the life science sector. Access to training data and language models opens new possibilities for AI solutions by utilizing information contained in patient records.

AI platform for medical data sets

Coordinator: University of Gothenburg, Division of Clinical and Molecular Medicine
To make available high quality medical data. The platform will simplify the use of data for AI development by providing a secure research environment with access to relevant infrastructure. The focus is on a unique Swedish population study in cardiovascular status.

Property Data Lab

Coordinator: RISE Research Institutes of Sweden AB, Division ICT
The property data lab will create a national platform for sharing property actors between actors in the real estate industry. The purpose is to contribute to a more standardized way of handling data and to make data available to actors who want to develop new innovative digital services based on AI and smart analysis algorithms.

Road Data Lab

Coordinator: RISE Research Institutes or Sweden AB
The lab will be a platform that integrates data around roads from different sources, for example for autonomous driving, maps and navigation, timetables for public transport and maintenance and infrastructure planning. The lab will provide a technical infrastructure that enables innovation and learning.

Data lab for AI-powered networks and digital infrastructures

Coordinator: RISE Research Institutes of Sweden AB, RISE SICS
Will build an AI platform for open innovation, research and development within connected networks and digital infrastructures. These include, for example, AI applications in the cloud, control services for industry and support and decision-making systems for intelligent transport systems.

A computer lab for Sweden's museums

Coordinator: National Antiquities Office Visby
The data lab should make it easier for museums to use AI-based applications to enrich their collection data and thus make the collections more searchable and useful. The National Antiquities Office's computer lab will develop machine learning models for computer vision that are trained specifically on museums' image collections.

AI factory for railway

Coordinator: Luleå University of Technology, Department of Operations, Maintenance and Acoustics
The ongoing digitization and implementation of AI technology in the railways is highly dependent on the availability of data for a geographically distributed system. The AI plant for railways wants to facilitate this by providing a data sharing platform and speeding up digitalisation in the railroad.

Smarter City Labs

Coordinator: Helsingborg municipality, Digitization Department
Will support the establishment of a national AI center in Helsingborg, where business. academia, residents and the public sector gather around the development of concrete AI applications. The lab has access to data in the Internet of Things (sensors), real estate, logistics, cleaning, electric scooter, events, movements, traffic, parking, libraries and public open data.