AI4Life: Advancing AI Adoption in Life Sciences
AI4Life has been working alongside Life Science Research Infrastructures (LS RIs) to address the growing need for AI-driven bioimage analysis. Through a combination of outreach, community engagement, hackathons, and strategic collaborations, the project has significantly expanded access to AI tools for researchers worldwide.
Key achievements
Outreach and Dissemination
AI4Life partners and collaborators have engaged in extensive dissemination activities (175 by mid-February 2025) to promote the project’s services and opportunities, reaching diverse audiences across multiple countries and scientific communities. These activities have taken various forms, including conferences, training events, and scientific meetings, ensuring broad engagement with researchers, industry professionals, and the wider life sciences community.
The activity types were mostly scientific conferences, followed closely by education/training events (Figure 1).
Conferences provided AI4Life with a platform to showcase the project through presentations and posters. At the same time, training initiatives played an essential role in building community around the BioImage Archive (BIA) and the BioImage Model Zoo (BMZ). Additionally, the project established collaborations with EU-funded projects and other scientific initiatives to strengthen AI4Life’s impact and sustainability.
The geographical distribution of the dissemination activities (Figure 2) highlights a strong international presence even beyond the European scope, together with numerous online events, which enabled global reach and accessibility.
Figure 1. Outreach and dissemination activities from the beginning of the project in September 2022 until February 2025 by type of activity.
Figure 2. Outreach and dissemination activities from the beginning of the project in September 2022 until February 2025 by location.
Community Engagement
AI4Life has organised and contributed to multiple workshops and training events to introduce AI methods to the life science community. These events often included presentations and hands-on sessions by AI4Life experts.
As part of its outreach efforts, AI4Life has collaborated closely with Life Science Research Infrastructures (LS RIs) through Work Package 7, engaging with partners at Euro-BioImaging, EU-OPENSCREEN, the European Marine Biological Resource Centre (EMBRC), EMPHASIS, and Instruct-ERIC. Through monthly meetings, AI4Life has raised awareness among the partner LS RIs about the opportunities it offers to their scientific communities while gaining insight into their specific needs. This ongoing dialogue has enabled AI4Life to contribute meaningfully to LS RI-led initiatives, ensuring its presence at relevant events. A key example is the EU-OPENSCREEN Autumn Training School, where AI4Life members showcased the offered services to demonstrate their impact on bioimage analysis.
Hackathons
Hackathons have been essential to AI4Life, bringing together project members and key stakeholders to develop new features and enhance existing services (Figure 3).
These events also fostered collaboration by inviting industry partners, community partners and participants from other initiatives to contribute their knowledge. Community partners typically include organisations, companies, research groups, or software teams that can consume and/or produce resources of the BioImage Model Zoo. By involving them in shared development activities, AI4Life ensures interoperability across resources.
We strategically aligned these events with General Assemblies to maximise impact and efficiency, leveraging attendees’ expertise while minimising travel requirements.
Figure 3. Some of the Hackathons organised by AI4Life.
Strategic Collaborations and Recognition
AI4Life has strategically partnered with other EU-funded projects to increase the project’s sustainability and impact. The European Commission (EC) Directorate-General (DG) for Research and Innovation has acknowledged the project’s achievements and selected AI4Life to be showcased at the European Research and Innovation Days 2024 and as a success story on the DG Research and Innovation website.
As AI4Life moves into 2025, the project remains committed to expanding its outreach, further developing AI tools, and continuing international collaborations. By maintaining strong engagement with the life sciences community, AI4Life will ensure that its contributions to bioimage analysis remain at the forefront of scientific innovation.
For more information on AI4Life’s activities, read the deliverable D7.2 available in Zenodo and for upcoming events, visit the events section: https://ai4life.eurobioimaging.eu/events.