RAISE Observatory launches to help Europe explore AI in Science

Where is AI being used in science, how is its use evolving, and which organisations are involved? The RAISE Observatory, piloted by the SCIANCE project and powered by the OpenAIRE Graph, brings research evidence and ecosystem information together to help researchers, institutions and policymakers explore these questions.
As part of the RAISE digital ecosystem, the Observatory offers a discovery and analytics service for understanding AI-enabled research across Europe, with international evidence providing a wider context.

Supporting RAISE through SCIANCE

RAISE—Resource for AI Science in Europe—is the European Commission’s initiative to establish a virtual research institute connecting computational resources, data, talent and research funding. Introduced through the European Strategy for AI in Science, it aims to strengthen European research both on AI and through its scientific applications.

SCIANCE supports RAISE’s development through a community-driven approach, bringing together scientific organisations, AI research centres and research infrastructures. It helps identify research and innovation priorities and pilots the structure of the RAISE Secretariat for AI in science. The Observatory contributes to this work by making the research landscape more visible and easier to explore.
Within this ecosystem, the RAISE Hub provides a gateway to information and resources, the RAISE Forum supports community exchange, and the RAISE Observatory supplies evidence for discovery and strategic analysis.

Powered by the OpenAIRE Graph

The Observatory builds on the OpenAIRE Graph, an open scholarly knowledge graph connecting publications, datasets, software and other research outputs with projects, organisations and funding information. These connections provide context for understanding research activity beyond individual publications.
OpenAIRE’s contribution provides the Observatory’s underlying research information foundation, complemented by an inference system credited to OPIX. Together, these support the identification and classification of AI-related research and its presentation through accessible analytical views.

What can users explore?

The Observatory brings together several complementary capabilities:

• Explore AI across scientific domains. Navigate classifications covering astronomy and fundamental physics, materials science, earth sciences, life sciences and social sciences, with AI technologies organised into families and classes.
• Understand AI tools across the research process. Explore applications supporting activities such as literature searching, data preparation, laboratory workflows, drafting, peer review and reproducibility.
• Compare patterns of uptake. Examine views organised by research field, country and time, and explore the organisations associated with the recorded activity.
  Discover the wider ecosystem. Search a directory of projects, organisations, data sources and communities, using filters and grid or map views to find relevant initiatives.
• Understand the evidence. Consult the methodology, classifications, definitions and caveats to interpret what the indicators represent.

These capabilities help users connect an overview of AI in science with practical questions about potential collaborators, research support and institutional priorities.

Imagine what this means for your work

Imagine you are a researcher preparing a project that applies AI to environmental research. You want to understand relevant approaches, explore activity in your field and identify organisations to investigate as potential partners. The Observatory offers a starting point for mapping that landscape and finding relevant initiatives.

Now imagine you work in a university research office. Your institution is planning support for AI-enabled research. Exploring patterns across fields and research workflows could help you frame discussions about training, partnerships and support services.

For funders and policymakers, the same evidence can inform questions about the distribution of activity, emerging areas and where further investigation or consultation is needed.

Connecting Open Science with informed decisions

By building on open research information and making its methodology visible, the Observatory supports transparent exploration of AI in science. Its indicators provide evidence to investigate alongside disciplinary expertise and community perspectives.
The launch also creates a route from discovery to discussion: users can explore the Observatory, consult the RAISE Hub and bring questions and experiences to the RAISE Forum.