Sword Health proposed to take over leadership of Unbabel’s AI consortium
The name proposed by the Centre for Responsible AI to take over the leadership of the artificial intelligence consortium is being analysed by IAPMEI. A decision is expected in October.
The Centre for Responsible AI has already submitted to IAPMEI – Agency for Competitiveness and Innovation a request to change the leadership of the artificial intelligence (AI) consortium funded by the Recovery and Resilience Plan (PRR), proposing Sword Health to take on the role previously performed by Unbabel, according to ECO.
“The process of transitioning leadership of the Centre for Responsible AI consortium, under the Recovery and Resilience Programme, is currently under review by IAPMEI”, says an official source from the entity, contacted by ECO.
The Centre for Responsible AI does not confirm which entity has been submitted for evaluation by IAPMEI, the body that coordinates the PRR’s Mobilising Agendas, but, as far as we have been able to ascertain, the proposed name is Sword Health.
This centre consists of a consortium of companies and academic entities which, under the coordination of Unbabel, has been awarded a total of €51.27 million in non-repayable PRR funding in 2022 to develop “new generation AI products”.
The unicorn founded by Virgílio Bento is one of the 12 members of the consortium — Priberam, Visor. ai, Automaise, INESC-ID, Yoonik, CISUC, Champalimaud Foundation, Sonae, FEUP, IST-ID, and Unbabel — with an estimated investment of €17 million and an expected incentive of €8.4 million.
As reported by ECO at the end of August, based on the Mais Transparência portal, €37.75 million in European funds have already been paid to consortium members, of which €14.13 million went to Unbabel, €6.57 million to Sword Health, and €2.38 million to Priberam, the three largest beneficiaries of this Agenda’s funds.
The change in the leadership of the consortium — which has 21 projects to complete before June 2026 — stems from the recent purchase of scaleup Unbabel by the American company TransPerfect.
It is now up to IAPMEI to validate the proposal made by the Centre for Responsible AI, a process which, as far as we have been able to confirm, should see a decision in October.
At the time of writing, it has not been possible to obtain a comment from Sword Health or IAPMEI.
