In Europe, nations are feeling pressure to keep the continent competitive in AI while staying inside strict privacy rules and reinforcing European data sovereignty. In November 2025, the European Commission launched RAISE, the Resource for AI Science in Europe \u2014 a virtual institute to coordinate AI resources, including scientific datasets, across member states. These resources will come largely from Horizon Europe, the EU\u2019s \u20ac93.5 billion research and innovation framework.<\/p>\n
According to the Commission, databases such as Europe\u2019s Genomic Data Infrastructure and Cancer Image Europe will now be harnessed to serve planned public\u2013private \u2018AI gigafactories\u2019 that will enable advanced AI modeling. Horizon Europe will channel \u20ac600 million to secure compute time for researchers.<\/p>\n
But data sovereignty has a sharp edge. Fu says the mood in Brussels is defensive. She thinks that European Commission officials are embarrassed about having allowed Chinese AI developers to plunder European biomedical databases, even while China blocks foreign access to Chinese datasets. They are now belatedly closing international access to biomedical databases, after years of championing cross-border sharing, says Fu. \u201cThey now care more about local data control instead of the globalization of science,\u201d she worries.<\/p>\n
The Commission declined interview requests with its health data officials but says that it supports the \u201cmapping and mobilizing of health and medical data across the EU to advance AI in healthcare\u201d. In February, a spokesperson for the Commission said that despite some allowance for third-country access, \u201cthere are currently no partnerships involving the sharing of such data with China or the United States for AI development\u201d.<\/p>\n
A Data Union strategy launched by the Commission last year aims to strengthen Europe\u2019s data sovereignty and includes an \u2018anti-leakage toolbox\u2019 and guidelines to assess \u201cfair treatment of EU data abroad\u201d. But so far, the Commission has released no details about these measures and says that publications describing them will only be issued later this year.<\/p>\n
\u201cEurope is building an AI data ecosystem that is predominantly publicly governed, interoperable and regulated, even though \u2018public\u2019 does not mean open access,\u201d says Antonio Lavvechia, professor of medicinal chemistry at the University of Napoli in Italy.<\/p>\n
\u201cData are available for AI development, but only through controlled, application-based mechanisms,\u201d Lavvechia explains. With respect to the interchange of healthcare and biomedical data between European and Chinese researchers, Lavecchia describes a \u201chybrid picture in which data sovereignty and protection laws restrict direct access, while scientific partnerships and shared frameworks create channels for meaningful exchange\u201d.<\/p>\n
Europe\u2019s new emphasis on sovereignty is filtering into research funding. During a Horizon Europe call-for-funding webinar in late January, project managers explained that \u201cEurope is at an economical and geopolitical conjuncture where we have to pay attention to what we do and who we collaborate with.\u201d Under some calls for funding, applicants are told they may be asked to show they can \u201cprove that none of the applicants involved in the project is controlled by China\u201d.<\/p>\n
For scientists like Fu running cohort studies and biobanks, the implication is that decisions around data access are no longer primarily scientific. They are geopolitical, and opaque.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have to report if we are collaborating with China or other countries on AI,\u201d Fu says about her university\u2019s rules under European Commission regulations. \u201cBut nobody tells us, what are the consequences? Why we should collaborate, or not collaborate? Nobody\u2019s able to give an answer.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In Europe, nations are feeling pressure to keep the continent competitive in AI while staying inside strict privacy…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":628457,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[64,63,5562,5563,1325,137,500,2166,5564,5565,5566],"class_list":{"0":"post-628456","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-healthcare","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-biomedicine","11":"tag-cancer-research","12":"tag-general","13":"tag-health","14":"tag-healthcare","15":"tag-infectious-diseases","16":"tag-metabolic-diseases","17":"tag-molecular-medicine","18":"tag-neurosciences"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/628456","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=628456"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/628456\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/628457"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=628456"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=628456"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=628456"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}