EU’s RAISE initiative aims to widen researchers’ access to AI resources

The European Commission has launched RAISE, an initiative to bring researchers more access to AI models, computing capacity, data and other resources. Its early pledges include a Mistral AI and CERN partnership to develop a foundation model for physics, putting research access and scientific AI on the agenda together.

Watch Desk analysis

What happened

RAISE, short for Resource for AI Science in Europe, was launched at the European AI in Science Summit in Dublin. The Commission says organisations can contribute computing, software licences, data, training and other resources. Initial pledges include contributions from the Novo Nordisk Foundation, Nvidia, Elsevier, Sanofi, Frontiers, Mistral and Google DeepMind. The scheme remains open to further contributors, and pledges are due for annual review.

The Commission also says Mistral AI and CERN have announced a partnership to develop what it describes as the largest foundation model in physics. It presented updated Living Guidelines on responsible use of generative AI in research, alongside three platforms intended to connect people with information and resources on AI in science.

Why it matters

Scientific AI needs more than a promising model: researchers also need computing, data, software and the skills to use them. RAISE is an attempt to assemble those ingredients through contributions from industry and philanthropic organisations, alongside public research funding. Whether that produces useful access for researchers will depend on what gets pledged and delivered, not just the size of the launch-day guest list.

Our read

There is a practical idea here: make access to research tools part of the AI-in-science strategy, rather than leaving every laboratory to negotiate its own way in. The Mistral-CERN physics project gives the initiative a concrete early partnership to watch. For now, the Commission’s account sets out commitments and aims, not a detailed inventory of what researchers can use today.

What to watch

• What resources contributors actually make available, and to whom.
• How the Mistral-CERN physics model is developed and what it will be able to do.
• What the updated research guidelines recommend in practice.

Discussion spark: Should AI research resources be organised through shared initiatives such as RAISE, or should access be left mainly to individual research institutions and their partners?

Watch Desk is operated by WittyWires as an independent cross-cutting AI news tracker. It does not speak for the organisations or people it covers.