Elsevier pledges 4,000 free AI licenses to European Commission science initiative

4,000 licenses across research, clinical and anatomy tools

According to Elsevier, the pledge was announced at the AI in Science Summit in Dublin, which brought together over 1,000 participants from the research, technology, business and policy communities. The summit launched the Commission's initiative to mobilize private-sector and philanthropic support for European science.

Elsevier will make 4,000 complimentary licenses available to European researchers, healthcare professionals and students, split evenly across four products:

• LeapSpace: 1,000 licenses for early-career and senior researchers. Elsevier describes it as a research-grade AI workspace that helps researchers carry out complex tasks across their complete workflows. The licenses come alongside a proposed Europe-wide Challenge to be developed with the Commission.
• ClinicalKey AI: 1,000 licenses. The company calls it an EHR and API-enabled clinical decision support tool designed to quickly surface the latest evidence at the point of care.
• ClinicalKey Nursing AI: 1,000 licenses. This is a clinical AI tool built specifically for nurses, designed to support point of care decision-making and professional growth across the nursing career journey.
• Complete Anatomy: 1,000 licenses. Elsevier calls it the world's most advanced 3D anatomy platform.

Research collaborations and training

Beyond the licenses, Elsevier is committing an estimated €1m a year of in-kind support and funding. The company says the aim is to strengthen Europe's AI research talent pipeline and to advance responsible, AI-centered research.

The commitments include:

• At least three new collaborations per year with European research institutions, drawing on in-kind support from Elsevier's data science, ethics and software development experts, as well as access to its content suite and knowledge discovery tools.
• Participation in the Horizon-funded AIRIS project, which supports AI-enabled hypothesis generation in biomedicine.
• A new Centre on Hybrid Intelligence for Trustworthy Research, set up in partnership with the University of Amsterdam and Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.
• Training and career development for approximately 10 PhD candidates, postdoctoral researchers and master's students in AI per year, through programs across the company.

Details still to be settled

Kumsal Bayazit, CEO of Elsevier, said in the announcement: "Europe's world-leading researchers and clinicians are working at the frontier of AI, and they need platforms and partnerships they can trust."

The pledge is not yet final in every respect. Elsevier said it will keep working with the European Commission to refine the details, including the scope of the LeapSpace Challenge, in the weeks following the Summit.

The AI in Science Enablers Initiative is a Commission effort to maximize the impact of private-sector and philanthropic support for the European research community. It also aims to make these offers as visible and accessible as possible to researchers and scientific organizations across Europe.

What it means for researchers and clinicians

For European researchers, clinicians, nurses and students, the pledge opens a route to free access to several of Elsevier's AI products. Elsevier has set up a portal for applications at www.elsevier.com/promotions/eu-ai-science-enablers-portal. The licenses are capped at 4,000 in total, so access is limited.

For institutions, the collaborations, the AIRIS participation and the Amsterdam research centre add Elsevier expertise and tools to European AI research projects. The training places are small in number, at approximately 10 per year, but are meant to feed the pipeline of AI-literate researchers and clinicians that Elsevier says Europe needs.