Two EC strategies to speed up AI uptake in European industry and science

The BDVA community welcomes the two recently unveiled European Commission strategies designed to accelerate the adoption of Artificial Intelligence (AI) across Europe’s industries and research sectors. The Apply AI Strategy sets out how to speed up the use of AI in Europe’s key industries and the public sector. The AI in Science Strategy focuses on putting Europe at the forefront of AI-driven research and scientific excellence.

The announcement comes in the context of a world competition to harness the transformative potential of AI, as it is transforming how businesses operate, reshaping public services, and revolutionising science. Through these strategies, the Commission is advancing its AI Continent Action Plan, which seeks to consolidate EU’s technological leadership while ensuring that innovation remains transparent and aligned with European values, making our continent a global leader in trustworthy AI.

Europe’s progress in digital infrastructure has been significant in recent years, as six years ago, Europe had only two supercomputers among the global top ten, while today that number has doubled, reaching 4, and work is underway to set up at least 4 to 5 gigafactories. Building on its strong technological base, skilled workforce and tradition in collaborative research, the EU is now seeking to deepen AI integration across key sectors and scientific disciplines.

Apply AI Strategy: driving adoption across industry and public services

The Apply AI Strategy focuses on expanding the use of AI in strategic industries and public sectors such as healthcare, energy, manufacturing, mobility, construction, agri-food, defence and communications. It also places a strong emphasis on supporting small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), helping them incorporate AI into their daily operations and production processes.

Among its key actions, the strategy will establish AI-powered screening centres in the healthcare sector and promote the development of cutting-edge AI models tailored to areas including manufacturing, pharmaceuticals and environmental management. Around €1 billion is being mobilised to support these initiatives, with future efforts expected to extend to sectors such as finance, tourism and e-commerce.

The strategy promotes an AI first policy, so more companies consider AI as a part of the solution to tackle challenges.This will unlock societal benefits, as it will encourage organisations to consider AI solutions as a central part of their innovation and problem-solving processes. By doing so, the Commission hopes to improve efficiency and accessibility in public services.

To tackle broader challenges, the strategy also focuses on linking infrastructure, data and testing facilities to speed up time-to-market for AI innovations. It aims to prepare Europe’s workforce to be “AI ready” across sectors and includes the creation of a Frontier AI initiative to foster collaboration among leading AI researchers and developers.  The renewal and deployment of the network of European Digital Innovation Hubs, transformed into Experience Centres for AI, will give companies privileged access to the EU AI innovation ecosystem.

To coordinate these efforts, the Commission is launching the Apply AI Alliance, a new forum bringing together representatives from industry, academia, public institutions and civil society. An AI Observatory will monitor AI trends and assess their impact across different sectors. In parallel, the newly established AI Act Service Desk will help ensure smooth implementation of the EU’s pioneering AI Act.

AI in Science Strategy: strengthening Europe’s research

Alongside Apply AI, the AI in Science Strategy aims to put Europe at the forefront of AI-driven research and scientific excellence. At its heart is the Resource for AI Science in Europe (RAISE) – a virtual institute designed to coordinate AI resources and facilitate their use in scientific discovery across the continent.

The Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC) will play a central role in both strategies, providing technical expertise, conducting sectoral studies and delivering a new report examining the impact of AI on scientific methods and research practices.

Together, these two strategies represent a significant step towards Europe’s ambition of becoming a world leader in trustworthy AI, a model of innovation that balances technological progress with ethical responsibility. The Commission’s initiatives are set to redefine how AI supports Europe’s economy, science and society and it is expected that by the end of October, to present a Data Union Strategy.

BDVA Task Forces: supporting European AI industry and research

BDVA, through its many Task Forces, such as Task Force GenAI, Task Force Policy and Societal or etami, are prepared to support in making Europe a global leader in AI. etami, the BDVA Task Force for Trustworthy AI creates processes and tools to enable ethical, trustworthy and legal AI. etami translates European and global principles for ethical AI into actionable and measurable guidelines, tools and methods.

TF Gen AI / Foundation Models is currently identifing and analysing real-world applications of GenAI across industries, understanding how to assess its impact, scalability and business potential, developing strategies to facilitate industrial stakeholders on leveraging GenAI, providing a framework for guidance and training to empower businesses, SMEs, and public institutions to adopt GenAI responsibly and efficiently as well as handling the AI literacy requirements in the AI Act, as it aims at facilitating the adoption of GenAI by companies.

Task Force Policy, Societal and Regulation contributes to BDVA by addressing not only technological developments, but also identifying a number of topics that are policy-related, legal, or societal and linked to such technological developments.