Project summary

We are EuroMedAIa group of 35 researchers civil society leaders across the Mediterranean, would use this to support essential fees as well as fellows stipends to launch the first openSouth Mediterranean AI Research Fellowship. Most research programs and field building initiatives on AI safety and governance are based in US, UK and EU. But, in the south, there is absence of structured field building activities in the region.

What are this project's goals? How will you achieve them?

• Equip selected fellows through 2 tracks: 1) governance track and 2)technical track across the region with needed resources, mentorship and community to build in a career in the field and empowered to amplify Mediterranean perspective in AI catastrophic risks.
• We will run an 10-week online course on AI risk and governance for selected Arabic-speaking academics, officials, regulators, parliamentary advisers, diplomats, civil society leads and journalists. A final meetup to assess and document the process and reshape the next cohort.

How will this funding be used?

It will support operational costs as well as fellow stipend to support their project and travel to key conferences to present their work and expand their network.

Who is on your team? What's your track record on similar projects?

The network is lead by a diverse team of 3 volunteers, who lead EuroMedAI, across the Mediterranean that combine AI governance, Technical AI governance and AI policy.

Mohamed Alouane: Founder and Chair, Southern and Northern Mediterranean zone

• Based in Morocco.
• Ran EU- and USAID-funded programmes in Morocco for [11/12] years, mostly grants screening and M&E. The website says "10+ years", so pick one number and use it everywhere.
• Built an AI oversight framework with Globethics for five Mediterranean city and regional governments.
• Speaks Arabic, Tamazight, English and French.

Ermelinda Kanushi: Co-Chair, Balkan zone; Policy Lead

• Doctoral researcher at the University of Technology Nuremberg, Germany.
• Her doctoral research compares AI governance systems in the US, the EU and China. She lists her interests as AI and geopolitics, AI ethics, AI for social good, and AI and the Sustainable Development Goals.
• Lecturer at University College Freiburg, and earlier at IES Abroad and the University of Hildesheim.
• MSc in European Studies (University of Gothenburg) and BA in International Relations (Istanbul University).

Dr. Alejandro Tlaie Boria: Co-Chair, EU zone; Technical AI Policy Lead

• Consults for think tanks in Brussels on the EU AI Act Code of Practice. Brussels, Belgium.
• Talos Fellow at SaferAI, where he builds tools to quantify cyber risks amplified by LLMs.
• PhD in Applied Mathematics (Technical University of Madrid), plus an MSc in Theoretical Physics and an MPhil in Philosophy of Science.
• Postdocs in information theory (Italian Institute of Technology) and computational neuroscience (Max Planck Society). Visiting scholar at Princeton and contractor for OpenAI.

What are the most likely causes and outcomes if this project fails?

• Availability of mentors
• VISA support to travel although travel is support is provided
• Discussions may drift toward general responsible-AI topics, which participants already know better.

How much money have you raised in the last 12 months, and from where?

• $3K from International Democracy Initiative
• Network gets in-kind support from INGOs like ALF, UFM, DG NEAR and others to draft research, attend meetings with officials as well networking to present our work and expand the network reach