AI’s role in science
AI’s growing role in science spans various fields. It acts as a catalyst for scientific breakthroughs and a key instrument in the scientific process. This heralds a new era of accelerated results; it pushes scientific frontiers and produces outcomes beyond the reach of current tools. AI in science could be a fundamental tool to reach sustainable prosperity and competitiveness: putting research and innovation at the heart of our economy and boosting productivity with digital tech diffusion. At the same time keeping Europe at the cutting edge of scientific progress. EU-funded researchers are already harnessing AI in ground-breaking ways, from improving cancer treatments to solving environmental issues and improving earthquake’s impact predictions.
European AI in Science Strategy
The Commission has presented a European Strategy for AI in Science in October 2025 to make the most of this opportunity and support scientists to responsibly adopt AI technologies for carrying out their research. This coordinated, strategic approach contributes to Europe’s leadership in scientific excellence and innovation and strengthens its competitiveness in the global context.
At the heart of this strategy is RAISE - the Resource for AI Science in Europe, a virtual institute to pool AI resources for science – from talent to funding, compute to data.
The pilot of RAISE was launched at the AI in Science Summit in Copenhagen in November 2025.
More information on the AI in Science Strategy and RAISE
Europe’s approach to AI Science
Our approach to integrating AI in science aligns and complements the European approach to artificial intelligence, including the AI Continent Action Plan and the Apply AI Strategy. It builds on the opinion of the Scientific Advice Mechanism on how to responsibly integrate AI in the sciences. Working together with the European scientific community, our goal is to harness the vast potential of AI, while addressing the concerns of our citizens.
The aim is to:
- accelerate the adoption of AI by scientists, by creating essential enablers, such as improved access to data, computational power and talent
- monitor and steer the impact of AI on the scientific process, addressing science-specific AI challenges, such as preserving scientific integrity and methodological rigour
More information on the European approach
European AI in Science Strategy
Policy brief: AI in Science: Harnessing the power of AI to accelerate discovery and foster innovation.
Living guidelines on the responsible use of generative AI in research
The Commission and the European Research Area countries and stakeholders have developed a set of guidelines to support the European research community in their responsible use of generative artificial intelligence (AI). These guidelines provide simple and actionable recommendations to the research community on their use of generative AI. They are targeted to 3 main research actors: researchers, research organisations and research funding organisations.
These guidelines will be updated regularly to keep up with the very fast technological development in this area. The research community is encouraged to provide their views and ideas on how to improve them in future versions thanks to the feedback form provided.
Policy insights
The Council Conclusions on AI in science showed the view of Member States on this policy.
The Mutual Learning Exercise (MLE) aimed to facilitate the exchange of information, experiences, and lessons learned, and to identify good practices in national AI policies for science.
The Scientific Advise Mechanism (SAM) has published recommendations how to accelerate the responsible uptake of AI in science.
An ERC foresight report on the use and impact of Artificial Intelligence in the scientific process.
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Funding opportunities
Horizon Europe, the EU's research and innovation funding programme supports technological and societal aspects of AI development and deployment.
ERC grants support investigator-driven frontier research across all fields based on scientific excellence, including top leading AI research.
Funding for promising innovators and SMEs, to turn research into genuine breakthrough innovations.
European Partnerships bring the European Commission and private and/or public partners together to address some of Europe’s most pressing challenges through concerted research and innovation initiatives. The AI, Data and Robotics Partnership is the European Partnership in digital, industry and space in Horizon Europe.
Projects and results
This results pack presents 15 ongoing, or recently completed EU-funded projects that highlight various applications of AI in science.
Stories of particularly successful EU-funded research projects.
Success stories
The EU-funded AI4LIFE project provides access to AI technologies, making models and AI-ready data sets open and accessible to everyone.
- Project locations
- Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom
Scientific publications, tools and databases
Single point of access to open data produced by the EU institutions - all data free to use for commercial and non-commercial purposes.
All scientific publications from Horizon Europe and H2020 are accessible via OpenAIRE..
This platform provides online interactive tools to help stakeholders determine whether they are subject to legal obligations and understand the steps they need to take to comply.
Latest
Today, at the European AI in Science Summit in Copenhagen Executive Vice-President Henna Virkkunen and Commissioner Ekaterina Zaharieva launched the pilot of RAISE – the Resource for Artificial Intelligence Science in Europe.
Around the world, countries are racing to harness the potential of Artificial Intelligence (AI). Today, the European Commission set out two strategies to ensure Europe stays ahead, driving adoption in key industries and putting Europe at the forefront of AI-driven science.
