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In the beginning of October 2025, the European Commission adopted two strategies to ensure that the EU member states are actively deploying AI models in key socio-economic sectors and in the AI-driven science disciplines. Thus, the “apply AI strategy” sets out the measures to speed up the use of AI in the states’ growth patterns and the public sector; whereas the “AI in science strategy” focuses on accelerating the AI models’ usage in the AI-driven research and scientific excellence.
European digital innovation process
In April 2025, the Commission launched the AI Continent Action Plan, setting a path for Europe to become a global leader in AI: recent “Apply AI” and the “AI in Science” strategies are the next vital steps in delivering this ambition.
Already in October 2025, the Commission announced additional funding for 83 European Digital Innovation Hubs (EDIHs) that will support the European “AI First” strategic policy and, generally, the launch of the Apply AI Strategy, and consolidating the EDIH network in the EU states and associated countries.
This funding will also allow a reinforced AI deployment: more than hundred EDIHs (which include 83 EDIHs selected for the Digital Europe Program, the DIGITAL funding), will also receive the “step-seal” as the recognition of high-quality proposals operating to support skills in strategic technologies.
DIGITAL also provides strategic funding to support projects in key digital growth areas such as: supercomputing, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, advanced digital skills, and ensuring a wide use of digital technologies in socio-economic development. Thus, it supports industry, SMEs and public administration in their digital transformation with a reinforced network of European Digital Innovation Hubs, EDIH.
Recognising the importance of continuous learning for businesses, particularly the SMEs, mid-caps and startups, the 2025 AI Continent Action Plan relies on the EDIHs network to increase their skills and training services with practical AI courses for various technical/non-technical backgrounds and specific industries.
More on DIGITAL in: https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/activities/digital-programme.
On EDIH in: https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/policies/edihs;
With an overall budget of over €8.1 billion, the DIGITAL aims at shaping European digital transformation in socio-economic development, in line with EU’s goals defined in the Communication-2030 Digital Compass; i.e. the Digital Europe Program is a part of the long-term EU budget, the Multiannual Financial Framework for 2021-2027.
More on Digital Compass Communication (March-2021) in: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=celex:52021DC0118
Presently, the EDIHs system has been refocused into Experience Centres for AI; therefore, the EDIHs will support the European “AI first” policy, which means that companies should be encouraged to apply AI as part of the solution, while evaluating its potential benefits and risks.
The EDIHs will also promote the adoption and integration of European AI solutions to foster the growth of the EU domestic AI systems and models.
The announcement on the extension of the EDIH network follows a call launched in April with a total budget of €342 million, funded jointly by the Commission DIGITAL program 2025-2027, the EU states, regions and other actors.
EDIHs already support thousands of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and public administrations in their digitalisation journeys and are essential for bringing AI uptake in Europe to the next level. In this new phase, they will also serve as the first-line of AI helpdesks guiding SMEs and public organisations in testing and deploying AI solutions, offering advice on AI Act compliance, and connecting them with specialised expertise and resources available in the European AI innovation ecosystem.
The Commission will launch a second call in November 2025 to further consolidate the EDIHs network across Europe; the “STEP Seal” projects will also be further promoted to public and private investors for additional and/or alternative funding.
Source: https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/news/commission-announces-renewed-funding-83-european-digital-innovation-hubs-will-support-eus-ai-first
European “apply AI strategy” and AI alliance
Commission launches the Apply AI Alliance to shape European AI policies: i.e. the new single EU-wide governance structure will serve as a coordination forum for stakeholders and policy makers on AI policy.
he Apply AI Strategy is the EU’s overarching Artificial Intelligence (AI) sectoral strategy and marks another step towards making the EU an AI Continent.
The Apply AI Alliance will ensure continuous dialogue with key sectors for the European economy and society, including public sector, on promising AI use cases and obstacles to their uptake. Building on the European AI Alliance, the “apply alliance” consists in a digital platform where organisations can express their interest in participating to sectoral consultative workshops and annual gatherings on the use and uptake of AI solutions.
The Apply AI Alliance is serving as a central contact point between the European Commission and the community, allowing members to stay updated on the latest AI news, share content and network with peers. The Alliance is open to all stakeholders, from companies, to individual citizens, academia, civil society, governments and social partners.
Together with this Alliance, the Commission will also launch a European AI Observatory that will support the organisation of the sectoral consultative workshops, provide robust indicators to assess the impact of AI across sectors and assess the changes these technologies may bring to the labour market.
https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/news/commission-launches-apply-ai-alliance-shape-european-ai-policies; more on alliance in: https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/policies/apply-ai-alliance
The Apply AI Strategy is designed to enhance the competitiveness of strategic sectors and strengthen the EU’s technological sovereignty. It aims to boost AI adoption and innovation among the EU states and SMEs. The Strategy encourages an AI first policy where AI is considered as a potential solution whenever organisations make strategic or policy decisions, taking into careful consideration the benefits and the risks of the technology. The Apply AI also promotes a ‘buy European’ approach, particularly for the public sector, focusing on open-source AI solutions.
The concrete actions are aimed at harnessing AI’s transformative potentials and contains three sections:
= sectoral measures to boost AI adoption across 10 key industry sectors and the public sector; the industrial sectors include healthcare and pharmaceuticals, mobility, transport and automotive, robotics, manufacturing, engineering and construction, climate and environment, energy, agri-food; defence, security and space, electronic communications, and cultural, creative and media sectors.
= measures and actions to increase EU’s technological sovereignty by tackling cross-cutting challenges to AI development and adoption. It reinforces the role of the European Digital Innovation Hubs which were transformed into Experience Centres for AI to become access points to the EU AI innovation ecosystem. This includes AI Factories and AI Gigafactories, AI Testing and Experimentation Facilities and AI regulatory sandboxes. Several measures to enable an AI-ready workforce are also planned.
= measures in creation new types of national governance system: the “Apply AI Alliance” is the main coordination forum that brings together AI providers, industry leaders, academia and the public sector to ensure policy actions are grounded in real-world needs. Closely connected to the Alliance, the AI Observatory will track AI trends and assess impact of AI in specific sectors.
More on “Apply AI Strategy” in: https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/policies/apply-ai
AI in science
The Apply AI Strategy is accompanied by the AI in Science strategy, which supports and incentivises the development and use of AI by the European scientific community. To deliver on this, the Commission will launch a pilot for the Resource for AI Science in Europe (RAISE). RAISE will pool strategic resources – funding, compute, data and talent – and will operate along two main pillars:
= Science for AI, supporting basic research to advance core AI capabilities, in particular safe and secure frontier AI, and
= AI in Science, promoting the use of AI for progress in different scientific disciplines
The Apply AI will also be complemented by the Data Union Strategy, i.e. the initiative strives to ensure the availability of high-quality, large-scale datasets essential for training AI models.
The strategic actions in the “AI in science” strategy include:
a) measures to attract global scientific talent and highly-skilled professionals to ‘Choose Europe’. The “excellence and talent” approach includes support of €58 million under the RAISE pilot for Networks of Excellence and Doctoral Networks to train, retain and attract the best AI and scientific talent.
b) Supporting measures in computing: €600 million from Horizon Europe to enhance and expand access to computational power for science; the investment will secure dedicated access to AI Gigafactories for EU researchers and startups.
c) Research funding aims for doubling Horizon Europe’s annual investments in AI to over €3 billion, including doubling funding for AI in science.
d) Data issues include support for scientists to identify strategic data gaps and gather, curate and integrate the datasets needed for AI in science.
Source and citations from: https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_25_2299