European Commission launches RAISE, a virtual institute to accelerate AI in science
RAISE - Resource for Artificial Intelligence Science in Europe - is now live. Announced at the European AI in Science Summit in Copenhagen, the virtual institute is built to speed up AI use across scientific disciplines and connect Europe's strongest assets in one coordinated network.
The pilot starts with €107 million from Horizon Europe. The focus: show how AI can push research in healthcare, climate science, and disaster prediction, while linking researchers, compute, and data across Member States and private partners. RAISE sits within the Apply AI Strategy and the European Strategy for AI in Science.
Why this matters for researchers
RAISE lowers the friction between ideas and infrastructure. It consolidates compute access, improves data availability and standards, and backs the talent pipeline so teams can run larger, more ambitious studies with stronger reproducibility.
Compute at scale, by design
There's a clear emphasis on computational power. RAISE will secure dedicated access to Europe's emerging AI Gigafactories, supported by €600 million from Horizon Europe. In partnership with the European High Performance Computing Joint Undertaking (EuroHPC JU), researchers and startups will be guaranteed access to advanced systems for large-scale AI experiments and model training.
Learn more about the joint undertaking here: EuroHPC JU.
Data you can build on, talent you can hire
RAISE will help identify and fill critical data gaps by gathering, creating, and integrating datasets essential for AI in science. Shared standards and open exchange across Europe are central to collaboration and reproducibility.
€75 million from the pilot will fund Networks of Excellence and Doctoral Networks to attract, train, and retain top researchers. The goal: make Europe a destination for scientific expertise that can apply AI with rigor.
Expanding the funding pipeline
The European Commission plans to double Horizon Europe's annual AI investment to over €3 billion, prioritizing AI in scientific domains. This will accelerate integration of AI into research ecosystems and drive collaboration between universities, research centers, and industry.
The first component of the RAISE pilot was also introduced at the Summit, connecting the AI-in-science community across Europe and shaping the institute in partnership with researchers and innovators.
Program background: Horizon Europe.
Phased development
RAISE will roll out in stages, adapting to new AI capabilities and scientific needs. The pilot will inform a larger expansion under the EU's next long-term budget (2028-2034), with an eye on sustainable governance and shared resources.
What leadership says
Henna Virkkunen, Executive Vice-President for Tech Sovereignty, Security and Democracy, said, "In Europe, we are strongest when we join forces to pursue a common goal. This spirit of collaboration lies at the heart of the RAISE initiative, where leading scientists from across Europe bring together diverse disciplines and perspectives to conduct excellent research on and with AI."
What to do next
- Map your compute needs and short-list projects that can benefit from large-scale training or inference under EuroHPC/RAISE access.
- Audit your datasets: identify gaps, plan standardization, and prepare for data-sharing workflows aligned with EU practices.
- Position proposals in high-impact domains highlighted by RAISE: healthcare, climate science, disaster prediction.
- Watch for RAISE-related calls under Horizon Europe and prepare to join Networks of Excellence or Doctoral Networks.
- Upskill teams on applied AI methods in science with focused courses: Complete AI Training - courses by job.
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