CLIQ-ai consortium receives $3.1 million in funding

Montréal, September 17 – The CLIQ-ai consortium for Computational Linguistics in Quebec will benefit from over $3.1 million in funding to strengthen its activities, made possible by a joint NSERC Alliance and Mitacs Acceleration grant of $2.4 million, as well as financial contributions from 11 industrial partners.

Headed by Professor Jian-Yun Nie of the Université de Montréal, and initiated and supported by IVADO, CLIQ-ai (Computational Linguistics in Quebec) brings together experts from the academic and industrial worlds in Quebec, whose collaboration drives innovation in technologies related to Natural Language Processing (NLP). IVADO acts as a catalyst between CLIQ-ai and industrial partners, facilitating collaboration between research teams and companies.

The aim of the Consortium is to significantly increase NLP capacity in Quebec, and to help bring new technologies to fruition with specific industrial partners, by creating datasets and tools tailored to Canadian French. It also serves to catalyze, strengthen and mobilize NLP research clusters in Quebec around an ambitious research project.

This funding will support all Consortium activities for 5 years, including:

• The addition of a research professional to the project;
• The awarding of master’s, doctoral and post-doctoral student scholarships;
• Support for scientific activities offered by CLIQ-ai.

The CLIQ-ai Consortium is supported by several academic partners, including Mila – Institut québécois d’intelligence artificielle, l’Université de Montréal, Polytechnique Montréal, McGill University, Université Laval, HEC Montréal and Université du Québec à Rimouski, as well as 11 industrial partners: Dialogue, Intact Assurance, Beneva, CAE, COVEO, Druide, Lexum, Nu Echo, Keatext, Koïos Intelligence, VALITAL, ainsi que la collaboration de Radio-Canada.