Description of the project

Around 60% of today’s jobs are affected by digital technology and artificial intelligence, necessitating novel/updated skills. This percentage is expected to rise exponentially, with 90% of jobs requiring transversal digital/AI skills. EthicAI4CARE aims to address the EU’s top priority through a brand-new training for boosting transversal digital skills integrating ethics by design and EU ethical values in teaching curricula.

In doing so, EthicAI4CARE operationalizes the EC’s Digital Strategy for Europe 2030 based on trustworthy AI that asks to rethink higher education to train professionals that use and «shape technology in a way that respects EU values».

To this aim, EthicAI4CARE focuses on the healthcare sector, where the lack of digital/AI skills is perceived as a main barrier to digital innovation and future employment. The EU parliament calls for leveraging EU projects to update educational programs in healthcare/medicine, increasing their interdisciplinarity with courses devoted to training educators, professionals, and students on both digital/AI systems and the ethical and legal implications they raise.

EthicAI4Care aims to address this call by integrating SSH and STEM in a new interdisciplinary ethics by design approach for trustworthy AI in healthcare through which upskilling university students and professors, and involving professionals in the field of healthcare to address the novel societal challenges and the labor market needs created by the advance and use of AI.

In particular, the project will achieve the following specific objectives:

• Integrate SSH and STEM in a new interdisciplinary ethics by design approach for trustworthy AI in healthcare, including a framework and a self-assessment tool.
• Upskill educators in healthcare with knowledge and skills in AI and ethics to stimulate innovative learning and teaching practices fostering innovation and entrepreneurship.
• Enhance students’ knowledge/skills in trustworthy AI in healthcare to increase employability skills through innovative, challenge-oriented learning methods to match labor market needs.
• Foster cooperation among HEIs and other stakeholders by involving non-academic organizations throughout the project creating a network lasting after its completion.

And the following results:

• R1: Ethics by design framework and self-assessment tool for AI in healthcare.
• R2: Upskilling educators in healthcare (professors, teachers, researchers) in trustworthy AI and AI ethics.
• R3: Innovative training modules for students in healthcare.
• R4: Policy recommendations and HEIs-Business network to promote an entrepreneurship-driven teaching.

EthicAI4Care is innovative in several key aspects.

Element of innovation (I): EthicAI4Care is innovative in several key aspects. EthicAI4Care will pioneer an innovative integrated training approach that combines AI technology, healthcare, and ethics, filling a specific gap in the EU higher education landscape.

This transdisciplinary approach ensures that future professionals in the health domain will be equipped not only with technical skills but also with strong ethical and legal knowledge to ensure the trustworthy use of AI in healthcare.

EthicAI4Care will develop the first comprehensive framework for the practical development of trustworthy AI systems integrating ethical and legal considerations by design, as required by the EU HLEG-AI 2019 and the EU AI ACT, specifically tailored for the healthcare and medical sector.

EthicAI4Care will develop the first risk-assessment tool for detecting risk in healthcare AI tools and test it through a variety of health case studies to ensure its scalability.