The inaugural AI in Science Summit 2025, held on 3–4 November in Copenhagen under the Danish Presidency of the Council of the EU, marked a defining moment for Europe’s scientific and technological landscape. Co-hosted by the European Commission and the University of Copenhagen, the Summit brought together around 1,000 researchers, innovators, policymakers, and industry leaders to shape a shared vision for Europe’s future in AI-enabled science.
At the heart of this milestone event was the launch of RAISE — the Resource for AI Science in Europe, a flagship initiative designed to pool European talent, data, compute, and funding to accelerate world-class AI research for scientific discovery. Alongside the plenary programme, ELIAS and the ELIAS Alliance led the thematic workshop “Science for AI”, exploring how foundational scientific advances fuel breakthroughs in AI research—and how Europe can build a globally competitive ecosystem grounded in openness, collaboration, and excellence.
Serge Belongie (President of the ELLIS Society; Director, Pioneer Centre for AI) highlighted the role of scientific progress in enabling transformative AI systems, underlining Europe’s unique positioning to lead globally through cross-border excellence networks such as ELLIS (European Laboratory for Learning and Intelligent Systems), which he described as the “backbone of European AI research.” Contributions from researchers including Zhijing Jin (MPI), Antoine Bosselut (EPFL), and Nicu Sebe (ELIAS / UniTN) showcased frontier advances in AI methods and their scientific underpinnings—from reasoning and language models to multimodality and sustainable AI
Max Welling (CuspAI) was awarded the inaugural ELIAS Sciencepreneurship Award for his exemplary leadership at the interface of academia, deep-tech entrepreneurship, and materials discovery for sustainable innovation. The Summit also featured several exchanges between the EU Commissioner for Start-ups, Research, and Innovation, Ekaterina Zaharieva, and the ELIAS Consortium Members.
A group of world-leading European AI researchers represented by Prof. Matthias Bethge (ELIAS Alliance) & Dr. Arnout Devos (ELLIS / ELIAS Node Zurich) met with Ekaterina Zaharieva and Henna Virkkunen, Executive Vice-President of the European Commission for Technological Sovereignty, Security, and Democracy. They discussed the need for enabling more speed and scale of EU-wide innovation funding & coordination for turning the existing cutting-edge AI research excellence into innovation value for the economy and society.
Moreover, the head of the ELIAS Node Copenhagen serial entrepreneur Mikkel Hippe hosted the meeting between Zaharieva and Danish Startups. The discussion highlighted how Europe can scale science-based startups, foster deep-tech innovation, and translate research excellence into tangible societal and economic impact.
Panels and discussions throughout the Summit emphasized public AI, the role of RAISE, and how Europe can unlock scientific discovery for societal benefit through shared infrastructures and open research. Nathan Benaich (AIR Street Capital), Jessica Montgomery (ai@com), and Tim Rocktäschel (DeepMind) explored the need for experimentation-friendly environments, accessible compute, vibrant research communities, and mechanisms to break out of current limitations in AI progress.
A powerful keynote by Yoshua Bengio (Mila) offered a sobering reminder: Europe—and the world—are not yet ready to deploy truly trustworthy, human-centric AI at scale. The message was clear: Europe must act fast, invest in foundational research, and build collaborative ecosystems to ensure AI delivers scientific, societal, and economic benefits.
The Summit showcased 79 posters and demos from top European researchers, vibrant exchanges with startups and deep-tech entrepreneurs, and even the premiere of The Best Option, a film exploring the human implications of AI augmentation. Across every session, participants celebrated collaboration, scientific excellence, and innovation with the shared goal of building a trustworthy and sustainable AI future.
With initiatives like RAISE, the networks of ELLIS and ELIAS, and strong engagement from the European Commission, Europe is positioning itself to lead globally in AI for science. The Summit made one thing clear: Europe’s AI community is ready to move fast, at scale, and together, leveraging its scientific strength to accelerate discovery, drive innovation, and create societal impact.