Opening remarks

09:00 to 09:15 AM
Studio 4

The opening session will set the strategic tone of the conference. It will introduce the question at the heart of the 2026 edition: can Brussels become a capital of AI, and what would that mean in practice?

The session will connect Brussels’ regional ambition with the wider European AI landscape. It will address the role of public authorities, universities, private sector and research centres and European institutions in shaping an AI ecosystem that is innovative, trustworthy, inclusive and aligned with democratic values.

Meet the speakers

  • Carl Mörch

    SPEAKER

    FARI CO-DIRECTOR

    Carl Mörch is co-director of FARI – AI for the Common Good Institute (ULB-VUB) and a member of the AI Ethics & Law Board of the Federal initiative AI4Belgium. He is also a member of the Ethics Special Interest Group of CLAIRE and a co-chair of CLAIRE Brussels office.

    Carl aims at fostering high-quality applied projects related to AI, Data and Robotics that could serve the Brussels Region and its inhabitants. With FARI, he wants to support initiatives that can reinforce education around these technologies, and could help bridge the gap with civil society. He was in 2020-2021 a postdoctoral fellow at the Université de Montréal and Mila – Québec artificial Intelligence Institute. He was awarded a Postdoctoral Fellowship by the International Observatory on the Societal Impacts of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Technologies (OBVIA) in 2020. He is also a lecturer and adjunct professor at UQÀM (Montréal, Canada). His personal research work is oriented towards the concrete application of high-level ethical principles in applied domains. In general, he is interested in the responsible development of technologies in society, health care (Psychology and Dental Medicine in particular).

  • Cécile Huet

    SPEAKER

    Head of the Unit "Robotics and Artificial Intelligence Innovation and Excellence" at the European Commission.

    Cécile Huet is Head of the Unit "Excellence in Artificial Intelligence and Robotics", part of the AI Office at the European Commission. This unit supports beneficial robotics and AI development within Europe, with a portfolio of projects up to 800M€.


    Under Horizon Europe, the unit launched the Public-Private Partnership on AI, Data and Robotics. 
    This unit is also at the heart of the AI Innovation Package in January 2024, a 4Bn€ investment, including the close-to-700M€ GenAI4EU initiative, aimed at developing GenAI solutions “made in Europe” for strategic industrial sectors, the public sector, and science. 


    Cécile joined the unit since its creation in 2004. Previously, she worked in industry in signal processing after a post-doc at the University of California, Santa Barbara and a PhD at the University of Nice Sophia Antipolis, France. In 2015, she was selected as one of the "25 women in robotics you need to know about".