UK-EU Collaboration on AI: Establishing an AI Factory Antenna
Public research organisations can apply to host the UK’s AI Factory Antenna which would enable British research expertise to make use of Supercomputers across Europe.
What is an AI Factory Antenna?
The AI Factory Antenna is a one of the many aspects of the EU’s AI Continent Action Plan which aims to position Europe as a global leader in AI. The EU’s plan, which aims to set up thirteen AI factories across Europe, would create ecosystems around supercomputers which would offer SMEs and startups enhanced access to AI-optimised computing capabilities. These capabilities and services support the training and development of general-purpose, large-scale AI models, as well as the development, testing, and validation of emerging AI applications.
The EU’s AI Continent Action Plan offers EuroHPC Joint Undertaking participating countries (the UK formally joined the EuroHPC JU in May 2024 through its Horizon Europe Association) to set up an AI Factory Antenna to serve as a designated link to an EU-based AI factory.
Why set up an AI Factory Antenna?
The establishment of an AI Factory Antenna would provide UK players with support services on top of the existing ones under national AI/HPC ecosystems without the need for dedicated supercomputer infrastructure. AI Factory Antennas provide remote access to AI optimised supercomputing-resources of a linked AI factory located in an EU Member State.
By the end of 2025, all selected AI Factories and AI Factories Antennas will be fully operational, networked together, and connected to other major AI support initiatives, such as the Testing and Experimentation facilities for AI, offering dedicated resources for testing AI solutions, and the network of European Digital Innovation Hubs.
Setting up an AI Factory Antenna would therefore provide British expertise with full coordination with AI Factories and enable inclusion in all AI Factory related activities and generally extend AI Factory services to the UK. Additionally, an AI Factory Antenna may be allocated a budget of up to 5 million euros under Horizon Europe.
How to apply
UK public sector entities or a consortia of UK public entities are permitted to submit an Expression Of Interest (EOI) to host an AI Factory Antenna linked to an established AI Factory in Europe. This EOI will close at 23.59 BST on Wednesday 11 June 2025. Successful applicants will then be endorsed by the UK government to put themselves forward for EuroHPC’s call for proposals for AI factory Antennas (which closes at 17.00 CEST on Wednesday 9 July 2025).
techUK encourages eligible members to apply as this initiative would build on the UK’s growing momentum in compute infrastructure and further enable UK talent, startups, and public institutions to build lager, more complex AI models, while shortening development cycles and accelerating innovation.
For more information, please contact:
Theophile Maiziere
Theo joined techUK in 2024 as EU Policy Manager. Based in Brussels, he works on our EU policy and engagement.