AI Sub-CLUSTER
OVERVIEW
Europe does not only need more AI developers; it needs professionals across every sector who can apply AI ethically and securely to solve real problems and create measurable value. The AI Sub-Cluster will address the human capability side of AI along two axes: (A) AI best practices for societal improvement, human impact and empowerment rather than algorithmic performance and (B) ethical dilemmas arising from AI use. Its distinctive proposition is to act as the structured channel of the DEP AI portfolio into ongoing EU policy processes, notably the AI competences/ literacy reference under consultation and Article 4 implementation.
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The sub-cluster’s distinctive value lies in its role as a formal bridge between practice and policy. DEP-funded projects collectively form a distributed observatory of how workers, citizens and administrations are adopting AI in real conditions and this group gives that evidence a structured outlet, feeding directly into the AI competences and literacy reference under consultation by the AI Office and JRC, as well as into the practical implementation of Article 4 of the AI Act.
The sub-cluster’s indicative topic menu, to be validated with members at kick-off, spans both axes:
Axis A | Societal improvement
- AI literacy and competences as societal infrastructure, including how projects define, teach and assess them, and how Article 4 practices are applied.
- A comparison of skills academies, covering pedagogical models, micro-credentials, EQF referencing, and recognition and portability of DEP training outcomes.
- Human-centric AI adoption in the public sector, examining impact on service quality, inclusion, trust and administrative capacity.
- Creativity and human agency alongside AI, exploring what keeps people valuable next to AI, how sectors creatively absorb it, and how to measure “societal improvement”.
Axis B | Ethical dilemmas
- Moving from principles to assessable competence, operationalising ethics as observable behaviour such as oversight, bias detection and escalation.
- Transparency and labelling of AI-generated content under Article 50, covering disclosure, authorship and synthetic media in creative and educational contexts.
- Ethics of AI in education, addressing assessment integrity, learner data and over-reliance, with this session proposed to be led by A. Tsinakos.
- A dilemma casebook, where each project contributes a real ethical dilemma it has faced, consolidated by Bluspecs into a shared repository that feeds the sub-cluster’s final paper.
CHAIRS
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WHY PARTICIPATE?
Shape EU policy directly
Participating projects contribute real evidence to the AI competences and literacy consultation led by the AI Office and JRC, and to how Article 4 of the AI Act is put into practice, giving member projects a direct line into policy processes that will affect the wider DEP community.
Exchange practical, tested experience
Bi-monthly calls give projects a low-effort way to learn from peers tackling similar challenges in AI literacy, skills academy design, human-centric adoption and ethical implementation, without adding a heavy workload between sessions.
Contribute to a shared, citable output
Each project's input, including dilemmas submitted to the shared casebook, feeds into a consolidated paper addressed to both the AI Office/JRC consultation cycle and the broader DEP community, ensuring individual project experience gains visibility beyond its own network.
Influence the sub-cluster's direction
Members will vote on and help refine the topic menu at kick-off, and can shape the division of labour and working method, ensuring the sub-cluster's focus reflects the priorities of participating projects rather than a fixed external agenda.
PLANNED ACTIVITIES
The sub-cluster follows a light-touch, structured working method centred on regular exchange and a single consolidated deliverable.
Kick-off call (September 2026). Members endorse the sub-cluster’s scope and axes, map participating projects, and vote on the final topic menu.
Thematic calls (November 2026 – May 2027). Approximately five bi-monthly calls of 60–75 minutes, each featuring two project best-practice pitches followed by a facilitated discussion. A one-page harvesting template, maintained by Bluspecs in a shared folder, captures insights between calls with minimal additional workload for members.
Consolidation (June–July 2027). Bluspecs reviews and consolidates best practices and contributions, including the dilemma casebook, into a coherent draft.
Final paper (by September 2027). Publication of the short paper “Human-centric AI in practice: evidence and dilemmas from the Digital Europe AI portfolio”, with the dilemma casebook as an annex, addressed to the AI Office/JRC consultation cycle and the wider DEP community.
Throughout this process, Francesco Molinari leads the skills, competences, certification and regulatory strand, including liaison with the AI competences consultation, while Prof. Avgoustos Tsinakos leads the education, pedagogy and immersive technologies strand, including the ethics-in-education sessions. Bluspecs manages scheduling, the shared folder, the harvesting template and the review and consolidation of the final paper.