Connecting ELIXIR's AI Ecosystem Workshop Report 2026

Publication Date 14th June 2026

Description / Abstract This document serves as the workshop report for the Connecting ELIXIR's AI Ecosystem: A Cohesive Service Offering session. The event took place on the 9th of June from 16:00 to 17:30 CEST during the ELIXIR AHM 2026 in Lyon, France. The primary objective of the workshop was to address the rapid evolution of artificial intelligence impacting ELIXIR life science data infrastructure. The session successfully gathered over 60 attendees to collect critical feedback designed to help break down resource silos and align the infrastructure with the rapid pace of AI penetration.

The workshop was carefully structured around four distinct strategic focus areas:

• Service gaps and risks in the age of AI, highlighting concerns regarding infrastructure sustainability, security, and the silo problem.

• Unified web presence ideas, emphasising the need for dual discoverability to cater to both human researchers and autonomous agents.

• Partnerships, stressing the necessity of engaging with industry, international standard-setting bodies, and European High-Performance Computing initiatives.

• The agentic shift, detailing the need for technical guardrails, updated usage metrics, and provenance for ingested assets.

The report collates insights from rapid brainstorming exercises and smaller breakout group discussions. It concludes with a set of actionable points recommended for the AI Ecosystem Focus Group to carry forward. These points include establishing a clear definition of ELIXIR's AI services, creating a lightweight best practices digital hub, promoting technical guidelines for machine-readable documentation, and establishing a biocuration AI task force.

Meeting / Conference

• ELIXIR AHM 2026, Lyon, France

Full list of contributors

• On page 3