November 2025
Reinventing Discovery with AI: Opening Resources and Forging Collaboration
As the Ministerial Conference AI in Science Summit 2025 unfolded, Copenhagen buzzed with innovative minds and bold ideas about the transformative power of artificial intelligence (AI) in scientific discovery. But what does it take to turn vision into reality? As a strategic partner of the Summit, the Lisbon Council convened the High-Level Breakfast on ‘Artificial Intelligence for Scientific Discovery: Delivering the Collaborative AI Powerhouse that Europe Needs,’ offering an intimate forum for leading scientists, policymakers and experts to chart the path forward and imagine what collaboration, data interoperability and smart funding can achieve.
Focusing on the enablers of AlphaFold-level breakthroughs, Jonathan Wareham, senior fellow at the Lisbon Council and professor of information systems at Esade Business School, presented Making European Science Flourish in the AI Age: Why Scientific Data Are Crucial to Artificial Intelligence Research and Innovation and How Europe Can Unlock Their Value, a new working paper on the latest trends in AI across life sciences, chemistry, energy and food.
The discussion was enriched by visionary interventions by Matthias Bethge, professor for computational neuroscience and machine learning and director, Tübingen AI Center, University of Tübingen; Ewan Birney, interim executive director, European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL); Martin Brynskov, scientific director, AI and digital, University of Copenhagen; Sašo Džeroski, head of department, knowledge technologies, Jožef Stefan Institute; Alexander Hammer, co-founder and managing director, Dunia Innovations; Agata Laydon, portfolio lead for life sciences, Google DeepMind Impact Accelerator; Silke Obst, head of unit, digital, industry and space, European Health and Digital Executive Agency; Jan Palmowski, secretary general, The Guild of European Research-Intensive Universities; Liviu Știrbăț, head of unit, AI in science and critical technologies, directorate-general for research and innovation, European Commission; Jean‑Philippe Vert, chief executive officer, Bioptimus; and Max Welling, chief technology officer and co-founder, CuspAI and professor and research chair for machine learning, University of Amsterdam.
The session was part of Science Salon, the Lisbon Council’s flagship initiative to promote the responsible uptake of AI in science, health, energy and beyond.