Strategic partnership on Artificial Intelligence between CERN, WFP, LIST and the Government of Luxembourg

The strategic partnership on Artificial Intelligence between CERN, WFP, LIST and the Government of Luxembourg is the most recent example of CERN openlab identifying new partnerships and leveraging its implementation model to act as an initial incubator for longer-term collaborations.  

Project goal

The proposed partnership between the Government of Luxembourg, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), represented by its Innovation Accelerator, the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), via its CERN openlab programme, and the Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology (LIST) aims to leverage state-of-the-art artificial intelligence (AI) technologies, as well as world-class talent and resources from CERN, LIST and WFP, to speed up progress towards a world with Zero Hunger.

The goal of this strategic collaboration is to harness CERN’s AI algorithms and weather modelling framework, and LIST’s AI for Earth Observation (EO) and crop modelling expertise, coupled with WFP’s programmes capabilities, to tackle challenges around food insecurity and acute hunger. By leveraging the collective scientific and technological expertise of the partners, WFP can amplify its impact through increased efficiency and effectiveness of emergency response and development activities.

Objectives and overall expected impact

This collaboration between WFP, CERN and LIST offers an unique opportunity to bridge the gap between cutting-edge research and real-world application. By combining WFP’s extensive experience in humanitarian operations with CERN’s expertise in AI and LIST’s capabilities in EO, this project aims to deliver tangible improvements for people facing food insecurity.

The program will achieve this through several key outputs:

1. Develop a clear plan for prioritising and implementing AI solutions that have the greatest potential to enhance WFP’s impact at scale.
2. Create Minimum Viable Products (MVPs) of AI solutions, putting them into the hands of real end users.
3. Capture and share valuable lessons learned about developing and deploying AI in a humanitarian context.
4. By evaluating the combined impact of these AI use cases, we will lay the groundwork of foundation and building blocks for 'digital twin' of WFP operations, and 'Humanitarian AI Hub' for responsible AI development.