- The European project VALAWAI, coordinated by the IIIA-CSIC, has been invited to showcase its work at the EIC Summit 2026 in Brussels on 3–4 June.
- VALAWAI develops artificial intelligence systems capable of incorporating human values, ethical considerations, and social context into decision-making processes.
- Funded by the European Innovation Council through the EIC Pathfinder programme, the project has received nearly €3.9 million in EU funding and runs from 2022 to 2026.
- The summit brings together 2,500 participants: European startups, researchers, institutions, and investors working on emerging technologies.
The European project VALAWAI (Value-Aware Artificial Intelligence), coordinated by the Artificial Intelligence Research Institute (IIIA-CSIC), will take part in the EIC Summit 2026, organised by the European Innovation Council (EIC) in Brussels on 3–4 June.
The EIC Summit is one of Europe’s leading events on innovation and deep-tech entrepreneurship. The 2026 edition will gather more than 2,500 participants from across the European innovation ecosystem, including EIC-funded projects, startups, researchers, investors, policymakers, and public institutions.
During the event, the VALAWAI consortium will present its ongoing research on value-aware artificial intelligence — AI systems designed not only to support decision-making, but also to understand and integrate human values, ethical principles, and contextual factors into their reasoning processes.
Funded under the Horizon Europe programme through the EIC Pathfinder scheme, VALAWAI received €3,926,432.26 in EU funding and runs from October 2022 to September 2026. The project brings together an interdisciplinary and international consortium working at the intersection of artificial intelligence, ethics, cognitive science, and human-computer interaction.
VALAWAI explores how AI systems can become more transparent, explainable, and trustworthy in socially sensitive domains such as healthcare, social media, and human-robot interaction, where understanding how and why decisions are made is increasingly important.
For the consortium, participating in the EIC Summit also represents an opportunity to exchange ideas with other European initiatives developing responsible and human-centred AI technologies.
The VALAWAI consortium brings together leading European research and innovation organisations, including the Artificial Intelligence Research Institute (IIIA-CSIC, Spain), the Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute (IMIM, Spain), the Italian Institute of Technology (Italy), Ghent University (Belgium), Sony Europe BV (Netherlands), and Studio Stelluti (Belgium). Together, the partners combine expertise in artificial intelligence, healthcare, cognitive science, ethics, human-computer interaction, and innovation to advance trustworthy and value-aware AI technologies.
About IIIA-CSIC
The Artificial Intelligence Research Institute (IIIA-CSIC) is a research centre of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), Spain’s largest public institution dedicated to scientific research and technological development. The institute specialises in artificial intelligence research, with a focus on areas such as multi-agent systems, machine learning, logic, and responsible AI.
About the European Innovation Council
The European Innovation Council (EIC) is the European Union’s flagship programme for identifying, developing, and scaling up breakthrough technologies and high-impact innovations. Through funding instruments such as the EIC Pathfinder, the EIC supports ambitious research and innovation projects with the potential to create new markets and address major societal challenges.
More information:
VALAWAI project website
EIC Summit 2026
CORDIS project page