EU kicks off development of Raise, a flagship AI-in-Science institute
Europe just launched AI in Science (Sciance) to build momentum behind the Resource for AI Science in Europe (Raise), a virtual institute set to accelerate how AI is used across research fields. The project held its launch meeting on 13 January and is funded by Horizon Europe. The European Science Foundation (ESF) leads the effort.
Sciance will set a strategic research and innovation agenda for AI in science, map the implementation roadmap for infrastructure upgrades, and assemble Raise's secretariat. The goal is simple: connect research communities, infrastructures and AI expertise so scientists can move faster on real priorities.
"Sciance represents a unique opportunity to coordinate AI-enabled science across Europe-connecting research communities, infrastructures and AI expertise in a way that truly reflects scientific priorities," said Jonas L'Haridon, ESF project coordinator.
Five pilot areas to focus the work
- Fundamental physics and astronomy
- Materials science
- Life science
- Earth sciences
- Social sciences and humanities
OpenAIRE's role: training and visibility for AI practices
ESF will coordinate 13 organisations and research infrastructures, including OpenAIRE. OpenAIRE will lead the Raise Academy-a pilot training track for policymakers and research executives to put the strategic agenda into practice. It will also build an observatory to map AI-enabled scientific practices, infrastructures and emerging trends.
"We are delighted to be part of the Sciance initiative and to work within a consortium that brings together such diverse and highly complementary expertise," said Natalia Manola, OpenAIRE's chief executive. "Advancing AI in Science requires more than powerful models; it requires open, interoperable and trusted research infrastructures that make scientific knowledge reusable, auditable and policy-ready."
Why it matters for IT, data, and research teams
- Expect clearer EU-level priorities for AI methods, datasets, and compute that support core science use cases.
- Infrastructure upgrades should push for interoperability, auditability, and reproducibility-good news for teams standardising workflows.
- Training via Raise Academy can help decision-makers fund what actually works instead of chasing hype.
- The observatory will surface what's working across domains, reducing duplicated effort and helping you pick proven patterns.
What to do next
- Identify where your work maps to the five pilot areas and list AI workloads that would benefit from shared infrastructure.
- Audit data pipelines for FAIR and open science alignment (metadata, provenance, access controls, and licensing).
- Prepare for policy-ready outputs: reproducible workflows, versioned models, and transparent evaluation baselines.
- Track OpenAIRE outputs and Raise Academy opportunities for participation and training.
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Learn more about the programme and partners: Horizon Europe and OpenAIRE.
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