The European Commission has launched the pilot phase of a new virtual institute, “RAISE – the Resource for Artificial Intelligence Science in Europe,” to accelerate AI development and its application in scientific research. The announcement was made today at the European AI in Science Summit in Copenhagen by Executive Vice-President Henna Virkkunen and Commissioner Ekaterina Zaharieva.
RAISE is a flagship initiative of the European Strategy for Artificial Intelligence in Science and aims to pool and coordinate core resources from across the EU. This includes computational power, strategic data, research funding, and talent. The goal is to drive scientific breakthroughs in areas ranging from improved cancer treatments to solving environmental issues and predicting the impact of earthquakes.
The pilot phase of RAISE will be funded with €107 million under the Horizon Europe program. Key components of the initiative include securing dedicated access time for researchers to “AI Gigafactories,” supported by a €600 million contribution from Horizon Europe and in collaboration with the EuroHPC JU. The pilot will also allocate €75 million for Networks of Excellence and Doctoral Networks to train and attract AI and scientific talent. As part of this broader strategy, the Commission aims to double Horizon Europe’s annual investments in AI to over €3 billion.
The first step of the pilot, a €3 million Coordination and Support Action, was also presented at the summit. This action will focus on connecting and interlinking Europe’s AI in science community to help guide the development of RAISE.
Following the pilot, the Commission will work with EU Member States and private sector stakeholders to further develop RAISE and ensure its long-term sustainability, with plans to integrate it into the next long-term EU budget for 2028-2034.
