Our colleague, Viktória Lilla Pató, took part in the “AI in Science Summit 2025” held in Copenhagen on 3–4 November, organised by the Danish EU Presidency and the European Commission. The two-day conference focused on how Europe can harness the power of artificial intelligence for scientific research and, in doing so, open a new chapter in the continent’s innovation and competitiveness policies. MFOI’s participation primarily served to ensure that Hungarian stakeholders receive timely, first-hand information on the direct EU funding opportunities related to artificial intelligence that will open in 2026, and to support the preparation of the Hungarian project portfolio for these calls.
Throughout the programme, Viktória engaged with academic, industrial and policy stakeholders, including a dedicated workshop on the forthcoming 2026 funding calls aimed at the integration and technological development of AI. A key message was that the Commission plans to adopt the EU4Health 2026 annual work programme – which will also include calls based on health data and AI solutions – as early as December, marking a major step forward after the considerable delays in adopting the 2025 work programme. This opens new opportunities for projects in health data infrastructure, digital health services, and AI-driven diagnostics, prevention and care management – areas where Hungarian health industry and health tech actors, with MFOI’s professional support, can play a meaningful role in international cooperation.
In the financing-focused workshop, representatives of the European Commission also presented the AI-related calls planned for 2026 under the Horizon Europe Cluster 4 “Digital, Industry and Space”. According to current plans, the calls will open in spring 2026, with the first deadlines expected in autumn 2026. Priority topics will include the development of trustworthy and energy-efficient AI, the use of collaborative AI in advanced manufacturing and robotics, as well as AI-enhanced data spaces and the interoperability of sovereign cloud solutions. Around EUR 120 million is foreseen for these thematic areas, primarily in the form of international, multi-country consortia. For MFOI, these announcements provide a strategic roadmap to launch partner search, project design and related capacity-building in good time for Hungarian universities, research institutes and companies.
The 2026–2027 calls of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) programme also featured prominently, as they simultaneously promote researcher mobility, international cooperation and business involvement. Under the MSCA Doctoral Networks, networks of at least three European organisations can be created, targeting early-stage researchers who are eligible for doctoral training but have not yet obtained their PhD. These projects typically involve 10–15 researchers over a period of up to 48 months (60 months for joint doctorates), and the participation of non-academic partners – such as industry or civil society organisations – is a distinct asset. MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships offer 24–36 months of supported research time for researchers with a doctoral degree and up to eight years of postdoctoral experience, with a strong focus on scientific excellence. MSCA Staff Exchanges provide a flexible framework for institutions to exchange staff around a joint scientific project – including research managers, provided their role is clearly embedded in the project – while MSCA Co-fund allows institutions to elevate their own doctoral or postdoctoral schemes to MSCA standards with partial EU co-financing. A common feature of these schemes is that they are open to scientific and innovation-oriented applications of artificial intelligence, and the funded research positions are advertised via the EURAXESS portal. In this ecosystem, MFOI, in cooperation with the National Research, Development and Innovation Office (NKFIH), plays a key role in making these opportunities understandable and accessible for Hungarian institutions and companies.
Beyond concrete funding information, the Copenhagen conference also provided a broader strategic framework for Europe’s AI policy. Its most important announcement was the launch of the RAISE – Resource for AI Science in Europe – initiative, which will function as a virtual European institute interlinking the core resources needed for research-driven AI: data, computational capacity, top-level researchers and dedicated research funding instruments. The programme will grant European researchers access to so-called AI Gigafactories, developed with substantial EU support, and will also set aside dedicated funding for excellence networks and doctoral training programmes. RAISE supports basic research in AI, AI applications in science and strategic investments, primarily through the instruments of Horizon Europe and the Digital Europe Programme (DEP). For 2026–2027, the Commission plans to allocate around EUR 100 million specifically to the development of next-generation AI systems. The overarching message of the plenary sessions was clear: AI is not a distant promise of the future, but the reality of contemporary research, and Europe must now design the institutional and funding solutions that ensure AI is developed and applied in a human-centric, transparent and safe manner.
A more detailed, personal reflection in Hungarian on the conference has also been published on the Ludovika University blog. The article, titled “The More We Understand, the Less We Fear – Europe’s New Direction in the Scientific AI Revolution”, explores how the RAISE initiative fits into the European strategy built around the “fifth freedom” – the free flow of knowledge and research; what scientific, ethical and regulatory dilemmas arise from the fact that many generative AI systems tend to polish or even distort reality in the name of user satisfaction; and why it is crucial for Europe to invest in “honest”, reproducible and safe frontier AI systems that can become truly reliable partners for science.
