At today's Franco-German Summit on Digital Sovereignty in Berlin, Owkin, together with leading academic partners Gustave Roussy (France) and Charité Comprehensive Cancer Center (Germany), announced a landmark initiative to build the first pan-European agentic infrastructure to make biological data AI-ready, as a key step towards biological super intelligence.
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Thomas Clozel (CEO of Owkin) joins Emmanuel Macron, Friedrich Merz and others at the Franco-German Digital Sovereignty Summit
The project aims to develop and deploy modern AI methods to support biological research and drug development. An initial focus will be on supporting the harmonization and structuring of biomedical data across Europe to enhance scientific collaboration. It will combine agentic AI systems and cutting-edge biomedical data structuring, to power a new reasoning model capable of automating and augmenting every stage of biological research and drug development.
The development of specific AI methods and analytical procedures will be dynamic and will depend on the quality of available data as well as current advances in AI research. The partners are currently working on defining the technical and legal framework to meet the highest standards in data protection and data security.
The initiative underscores the partners' commitment to strengthening the European research landscape through innovative approaches while consistently considering data protection requirements.
Positioned as a flagship pilot for European digital sovereignty in health, the initiative aims to deliver open, reusable, and immediately impactful outputs for researchers, clinicians, and innovators across the EU. It seeks to demonstrate that Europe can lead globally in the emerging field of AI-native biology, a domain where the race is still open, even as large US players dominate the field of general-purpose LLMs.
"Europe can be number one in biological AI. While the race for general-purpose LLMs has largely been won by American companies, the field of biology-native reasoning systems remains wide open, and it plays directly to Europe's strengths: its healthcare systems, its academic excellence, and its unmatched biomedical data," said Thomas Clozel, MD, Co-Founder and CEO of Owkin
"This initiative demonstrates how Europe can turn its scientific excellence into tangible advances for patients. By combining data across borders with next-generation AI, we can accelerate the translation of discoveries into clinical impact, responsibly and securely," said Fabrice André, MD, PhD, Director of Research, Gustave Roussy
"True digital sovereignty in health depends on trust. This initiative sets new standards for data governance and collaboration, ensuring that innovation happens within European institutions, under European values, for the benefit of European patients," said Ulrich Keilholz, MD, Senior Professor, Charité Comprehensive Cancer Center
By aligning major research institutions, next-generation AI capabilities, and a shared vision for sovereignty, this project paves the way toward biological artificial superintelligence, a strategic domain with the potential to transform healthcare, accelerate discoveries, and ensure that Europe remains in control of the technologies shaping its future.
About Owkin:
Owkin is an AI company on a mission to solve the complexity of biology. It is building the first Biology Super Intelligence (BASI) by combining powerful biological large language models, multimodal patient data, and agentic software. At the heart of this system is Owkin K, an AI copilot and its new LLM finetuned on biology called Owkin Zero, used by researchers, clinicians, and drug developers to better understand biology, validate scientific hypotheses, and deliver better diagnostics and therapies faster.
About Gustave Roussy:
Ranked first in France, first in Europe and sixth in the world, Gustave Roussy is a centre of global expertise entirely dedicated to patients living with cancer. The Institute is a founding pillar of the Paris Saclay Cancer Cluster. Source of therapeutic innovations and diagnostic breakthroughs, the Institute welcomes more than 50,000 patients each year, including 3,500 children and adolescents, and develops an integrated approach combining research, care and teaching. An expert in rare cancers and complex tumours, Gustave Roussy treats all cancers at all stages of life. It offers its patients personalised care that combines innovation and humanity, taking into account both care and the physical, psychological and social quality of life. With 4,100 employees at two sites, Villejuif and Chevilly-Larue, Gustave Roussy brings together the expertise essential for high-level cancer research; 32% of treated patients are included in clinical studies. To find out more about Gustave Roussy and follow the Institute's news: www.gustaveroussy.fr/en, X, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram and Bluesky.
About Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin:
With more than 100 departments and institutes across four campuses and 3,293 beds, Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin is one of Europe's largest university medical centers. At Charité, the areas of research, teaching, and medical and patient care are closely interconnected. Averaging about 20,600 employees Charité-wide and some 24,300 across the entire group of companies, Berlin's university medicine organization remained one of the capital city's largest employers in 2024. Charité is a leader in diagnosis and treatment of particularly severe, complex, and rare diseases and health conditions. A medical school and university medical center in one, Charité enjoys an outstanding reputation worldwide, combining first-class patient care with excellence in research and innovation, state-of-the-art teaching, and high-quality training and education. Everything Charité does revolves around people and their health. Charité pursues translational research in which scientific findings are applied to prevention, diagnostics, and treatment and clinical observations inform new approaches in research in turn. At Charité, the goal is to actively help shape the medicine of the future to benefit patients. www.charite.de/en/
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Contacts:
Press contacts:
Owkin
malika.labou-ext@owkin.com
+33 6 64 15 45 62
Gustave Roussy
Claire Parisel Leona Pinto
presse@gustaveroussy.fr
+33 1 42 11 50 59
+33 1 42 11 63 59
Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin
Dr. Anne Rediger
Referentin Pressearbeit
+49 30 450 570 400
presse@charite.de