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Project Overview

Come find more about EUSAiR Project!

Project Overview

background and mission

The AI Act mandates that Member States establish at least one AI regulatory sandbox. AI regulatory sandboxes are controlled environments for innovation, facilitating the development, training, regulatory testing, and validation of innovative AI systems before they are placed on the market.

EUSAiR  is a two-year project, funded by the European Union’s Digital Europe program, which will support the implementation of AI regulatory sandboxes across the EU to foster AI innovation and competitiveness, improve legal certainty for innovators and facilitate regulatory compliance with the AI Act.

EUSAiR aims to coordinate and support the implementation of AI regulatory sandboxes across the EU as mandated by the AI Act. The project focuses on providing standardised frameworks, enhancing technical and legal capacities, and promoting cooperation among Member States. It seeks to ensure broad access to sandboxes for AI innovators, particularly SMEs and startups, by reducing compliance costs and market barriers.

In supporting national authorities and innovators, EUSAiR will engage stakeholders and collaborate with other AI initiatives. The project emphasises interdisciplinary engagement and SME access, envisioning a network of sandboxes that includes key players in the AI ecosystem.

EUSAiR will foster policy advocacy, independent analysis, and scalable training models to enhance legal certainty, support regulatory compliance, and facilitate cross-border sandbox development. By synergising with other Digital Europe initiatives, it will conduct pilot tests within strategic European HPC infrastructures, ensuring effective collaboration with national authorities.

Project Overview

our objectives

Discover the key objectives driving AI innovation.

  • Foster AI innovation and competitiveness, improve legal certainty for innovators and facilitate regulatory compliance with the AI Act and other relevant Union legislation supervised in the AI regulatory sandboxes.

  • Accelerate access to the EU market for innovative AI systems by providing a safe regulatory space for innovation and removing barriers in the sandboxes, with a particular focus on SMEs, including start-ups.

  • Promote wide accessibility of the AI regulatory sandboxes across the EU Member States, common approaches and coordination in their implementation, economies of scale and scale-up of AI innovation projects at EU level.

  • Foster competent authorities’ oversight by providing guidance for sandbox operations, conducting training needs analysis, developing operational standards, and generating data on AI trends to inform policymakers on emerging risks and opportunities.

  • Contribute to evidence-based regulatory learning by analysing AI sandbox experiences, collecting best practices, and sharing lessons learned through structured dissemination on a co-creation platform for broad accessibility.

Project Overview

beneficiaries

  • 01. AI Providers, especially Start-ups and SMEs

    Regulatory Compliance Support

    They will receive guidance on complying with the AI Act, which enhances legal certainty and reduces compliance costs.

    Access to Sandbox Testing

    The opportunity to test AI systems in a controlled environment helps accelerate innovation and market entry.

    Consistent and Tested Framework

    A standardised set of guidelines, tools, and benchmarks across the EU to facilitate the establishment of AI regulatory sandboxes. This will enhance legal certainty and streamline regulatory compliance, reducing both the time and cost required for compliance through proven real-world testing.

  • 02. Member States and National Competent Authorities

    Enhanced Operational Frameworks

    They benefit from a harmonised framework for evaluating AI technologies, increasing their oversight capabilities.

    Collaborative Learning

    Engagement with other authorities provides opportunities to share insights and improve regulatory practices.

    Accelerated Market Access for Innovators

    An environment that enables quicker entry to the EU market for a large number of AI innovators, with half being SMEs and startups. By refining sandbox processes and removing entry barriers, this result will enable AI providers to expedite application approval, improve sandbox completion rates, and decrease time to market post-sandbox testing.

  • 03. Authorities Supervising Human Rights

    Incorporation of Ethical Standards

    Their involvement ensures that human rights considerations are integrated into the regulatory framework, safeguarding public interests.

    Coordinated EU-Wide Implementation

    Harmonious deployment of AI regulatory sandboxes across all 27 Member States, improving accessibility and efficiency for innovators. This includes developing standardised frameworks, promoting cross-border cooperation through a co-creation platform, and facilitating the scale-up of AI projects.

  • 04. National and European Standardisation Organisations

    Development of Standards

    Participation aids in establishing uniform standards for AI governance, enhancing interoperability and compliance across Member States.

    Enhanced National Authority Capabilities

    Detailed operational guidelines and developed a Train-for-Trainers Kit along with a micro-credential model to boost national authorities’ capacity for oversight and understanding of AI risks. This will enhance market knowledge and generate actionable insights for policymaking through pilot projects.

  • 05. Notified Bodies

    Clarified Compliance Processes

    They will gain access to predefined operational standards and benchmarks that streamline their assessment processes.

    Comprehensive Knowledge Repository

    A repository on a co-creation platform to collect, analyse, and disseminate documented best practices and lessons learned from sandbox operations. This will provide structured access to knowledge and insights, aiding in continuous improvement and regulatory learning.

  • 06. Civil Society Organisations

    Input to Policy

    Their involvement guarantees that societal concerns are represented in AI regulations, promoting transparency and accountability.

    Active Involvement

    Include active involvement of Civil Society Organisations in testing AI regulatory frameworks through sandboxes, contributing to ethical guidelines, reducing compliance barriers, and shaping future AI policies based on practical outcomes.

  • 07. AI Factories, EDIHs, TEFs, Sectoral Sandboxes

    Knowledge Exchange

    Beneficiaries can share best practices and experiences, fostering innovation across different domains and sectors, and enhancing the overall effectiveness of regulatory frameworks.

    Establishment of AI

    Include the establishment of robust AI Factories to accelerate AI development, enhanced support from EDIHs (European Digital Innovation Hubs) to foster digital transformation, the operationalization of TEFs (Testing and Experimentation Facilities) to validate AI solutions in real-world settings, and the development of sectoral sandboxes to test and refine AI regulations tailored to specific industries.