On November 8, 2024, representatives of U15 universities met with their French counterparts from the Udice at the French Embassy in Berlin. The aim of the meeting: to strengthen Franco-German cooperation in the field of artificial intelligence (AI). At the conclusion of the meeting, representatives from U15 and Udice engaged in a dialogue with France’s Minister of Higher Education, Research and Innovation, Patrick Hetzel. The primary focus: concrete plans for collaboration in AI through the end of 2025.

Key Takeaways:

1. Building a Franco-German AI ecosystem
   Both Udice and U15 emphasized the importance of a systemic transformation to foster AI innovation in Europe. Germany’s and France’s top universities are ideal hubs to harness the potential of AI for Europe’s competitiveness. To achieve this, synergies and collaborations between the respective AI initiatives must be facilitated.
2. Strengthening collaboration: shared use of AI resources
   The participants at the meeting agreed that existing AI-related programmes, resources and infrastructures in France, Germany and Europe should be used more collaboratively. Nevertheless, there are still some gaps and obstacles, including in the health and medical sectors.
3. Overcoming regulatory hurdles: developing Europe's strengths in AI
   The experts in attendance agreed that regulatory challenges such as data sovereignty and the interoperability of infrastructures pose major hurdles to AI cooperation in Europe, especially in the area of ethical, health-related AI applications. Europe's strengths in this area have so far been underutilised, according to the experts.

U15 and Udice agreed to further intensify Franco-German cooperation. In March 2025, there will be a joint workshop at the Université de Lorraine to develop political recommendations for action in the field of AI, which are to be published in the course of 2025.