Catalonia concentrates 228 artificial intelligence projects within the framework of the Horizon 2020 programme of the European Union, the EU's reference instrument for the promotion of R&D&I, and it presents a degree of specialisation in this technology higher than the European average, according to the report “Analysis of the specialization in artificial intelligence in Catalonia”.

The aim of this report is to identify and analyse the main actors in Catalonia that carry out research and innovation in the field of artificial intelligence, their collaboration networks and their areas of specialisation. It also analyses the relative position of Catalonia in relation to the leading regions in Europe and the collaboration networks of Catalonia's actors in the EU and visualizes how artificial intelligence contributes to addressing the challenges of the society (SDGs) and the industry.

The 228 projects specialized in artificial intelligence in the framework of Horizon 2020 place Catalonia in the third position in the ranking of European regions within this programme: 11.3% of the projects have a partner from Catalonia. 45 projects in the field of artificial intelligence are also identified within the 683 RIS3CAT projects analysed (6.66%). 

The analysis also highlights the large number of innovation projects and the application of artificial intelligence in the field areas of RIS3CAT. In this section, Catalonia's artificial intelligence projects focus on the health industries sector (80 projects), followed by industrial systems (44), energy and resources (40), and sustainable mobility (33).

Finally, the report shows the increase in the number of artificial intelligence projects in 2015-2019 (last year of the analysed period) and highlights a clear trend of increasing annual activity, in line with the growing scientific, technological, business and public policy interest in this field.