RAISE: Europe’s Big Bet to Unite Science and Artificial Intelligence
The European Union has presented RAISE (Resource for Artificial Intelligence Science in Europe), a new initiative aimed at strengthening scientific research powered by artificial intelligence and reducing the technological gap with the United States and China. With an initial investment of €107 million from Horizon Europe, the project seeks to create a common infrastructure for sharing data, talent, and computing resources among Member States.
The official launch took place during the European AI in Science Summit in Copenhagen and marks the starting point of a broader strategy through which Brussels aims to turn AI into a driver of scientific excellence and the continent’s digital sovereignty.
A virtual institute for the science of the future
Unlike existing national programs, RAISE will not be a physical center but a virtual network that will connect universities, laboratories, and European supercomputers. Its goal is to provide access to large volumes of data, AI tools, and state-of-the-art computing capabilities to the entire scientific community.
The European Commission maintains that artificial intelligence “is no longer just a tool of technological innovation, but a necessary condition for scientific competitiveness.” In that sense, RAISE will act as a catalyst to accelerate discoveries in fields such as medicine, energy, climate change, and advanced materials, as explained by Innovation Commissioner Iliana Ivanova in an interview with Innovation News Network, the outlet that first revealed details of the program in its coverage of the official launch.
A step within a broader strategy
The creation of RAISE is part of the European strategy for artificial intelligence, which combines support for innovation with a strict regulatory framework. Following the approval of the Artificial Intelligence Act, the EU seeks to balance technological development with the protection of fundamental rights.
In addition, Brussels has launched the InvestAI program, which aims to mobilize up to €200 billion in public and private investment for artificial intelligence and digital sovereignty projects, according to The Verge in its analysis of the new European investment plan for AI.
These initiatives are complemented by the construction of “AI gigafactories”, large data centers and distributed supercomputers throughout Europe, whose purpose is to provide companies and research centers with the necessary infrastructure to train advanced machine learning models, as reported by The Guardian in an article on the EU’s technological strategy.
This effort is part of Europe’s broader strategy to strengthen its technological ecosystem, as previously analyzed in Emprender y Más in the article on the challenges and opportunities of the European telecommunications sector in 2025.
Europe facing the global challenge
The launch of RAISE comes at a key moment for Europe’s technological competitiveness. While the United States consolidates its dominance with OpenAI, Google DeepMind, and Anthropic, and China multiplies its investment in AI applied to industry and science, the EU is trying to position itself as a third bloc capable of balancing innovation and regulation.
However, the scale of European investment remains far below that of its rivals. In 2024 alone, the United States allocated more than $45 billion to AI R&D, according to data from the OECD.AI Policy Observatory, while total European spending barely exceeded €6 billion.
In this context, RAISE represents more of an architecture of cooperation than an immediate response to the investment deficit—a similar approach to what the EU is applying in its global technology policy, reflected in the current state of artificial intelligence in Spain.
Boosting open and shared research
One of the pillars of RAISE will be open science, an approach that promotes the exchange of data and algorithms under accessible and verifiable licenses. The Commission expects that researchers will be able to access pretrained AI models, standardized datasets, and shared simulation environments.
This philosophy aligns with the vision of creating a “European data space”, where universities, public centers, and companies collaborate without administrative or technical barriers. The goal is to avoid current fragmentation and promote interoperability, a historic problem in European research.
In parallel, programs for training and talent networks will be promoted to connect scientists from different countries. Plans include the creation of a European AI doctoral alliance and the funding of postdoctoral fellowships focused on the scientific application of artificial intelligence.
This type of collaboration is already starting to appear in the business environment, as demonstrated by the recent Google Cloud–Salesforce alliance to transform corporate AI agents.
Structural challenges and political realism
Despite institutional enthusiasm, RAISE faces significant challenges. The first is the shortage of specialized talent: Europe trains fewer AI engineers than the U.S. or China, and many emigrate due to a lack of incentives and competitive salaries.
The second major challenge is bureaucracy. Regulatory fragmentation among Member States can slow down the adoption of these tools, especially in sensitive sectors such as health or energy.
In addition, the energy and digital infrastructure needed to support large AI models remains uneven across countries. Supercomputing centers, concentrated in Germany, France, and Spain, are not always fully integrated or available to the entire scientific community.
Another factor is private financing: venture investment in AI in Europe represents less than 10% of the global total, limiting the capacity to scale projects from the laboratory to the market.
A long-term bet on technological sovereignty
Beyond its scientific dimension, RAISE is part of the EU’s effort to strengthen its technological sovereignty. The Commission considers digital autonomy already an element of economic and geopolitical security. In that logic, AI is seen not only as a productivity engine but as a strategic instrument.
The initiative also seeks to consolidate Europe’s position in global standards for ethical, explainable, and trustworthy AI. If it manages to establish frameworks that combine scientific rigor and ethical principles, Europe could become an alternative reference to the U.S. model and China’s state-centered approach.
The role of business and public-private collaboration
Although RAISE is mainly oriented toward the scientific field, the Commission has emphasized the importance of collaboration with the private sector. European technology companies and AI start-ups will be able to join research consortia and access common infrastructures.
Companies are also expected to contribute data and real-world use cases that allow the training of models with practical applications in sectors such as industry, energy, or biomedicine.
In this regard, RAISE can become a continental laboratory where science, business, and regulation converge—a hybrid space to transform academic research into tangible innovation.
A long-distance race
RAISE is, above all, a long-term commitment. Its success will depend on the continuity of funding, coordination among countries, and the ability to attract top-tier talent and companies.
Europe does not seem willing to compete with Silicon Valley or Shenzhen in terms of speed, but rather in credibility, cooperation, and sustainability. If it manages to consolidate these advantages, artificial intelligence could become the key to a new era of scientific leadership.
As Commissioner Ivanova recalled at the summit in Copenhagen, “It is not enough to have brilliant ideas: they must be turned into shared knowledge and measurable results.” That is precisely the purpose of RAISE: to demonstrate that European science can be as innovative as it is ethical, and as competitive as it is collaborative.
