How can AI help address complex societal challenges, while staying fair, reliable, and safe? AI pioneer Maarten de Rijke has been awarded a prestigious European Research Council (ERC) Advanced Grant to find out. His project, UNITE: Robust Generative Information Retrieval, marks a major milestone for responsible AI innovation from Amsterdam Science Park.

In today’s digital world, search engines shape how we access information—but often at the cost of broader values such as fairness, transparency, and resilience. UNITE proposes a paradigm shift: building generative information retrieval systems that don’t just find answers, but do so in a way that is accurate, reliable, and robust.

The project focuses on three key areas:

• Accuracy: ensuring retrieved information is precise and context-aware
• Reliability: maintaining equitable performance across sensitive attributes
• Resilience: strengthening defences against data shifts and manipulation

In addition, the research will develop tools to test and explain these systems—boosting their reproducibility and safety.

The ERC Advanced Grant, valued at €2.5 million, is awarded based on the proven scientific excellence of both the researcher and the proposed project. Maarten de Rijke, one of six UvA researchers to receive the grant this year, is a much-appreciated Executive Board member of the Hybrid Intelligence Centre, congratulations on this prestigious achievement.

To read more, visit: Amsterdam Science Park and University of Amsterdam.