AIRIS Consortium Meets in Athens to Discuss Progress and Next Steps

On 13–14 October 2026, the AIRIS consortium gathered at Harokopio University of Athens, Greece, for a two-day consortium meeting. Bringing together project partners from across Europe and beyond, the meeting provided an opportunity to review progress during the project's first few months, exchange ideas and plan the next steps towards advancing biomedical research through mechanism-informed multimodal generative AI.

The meeting kicked off with welcoming remarks from project coordinator Prof. Christos Diou and Prof. George Dedoussis, Rector of Harokopio University of Athens, followed by an address from Dr. Lampros Nousis, Project Officer at the European Health and Digital Executive Agency (HaDEA).

The first day focused on the project's scientific foundations and clinical applications. Partners discussed the state of the art in multimodal generative AI, presented initial baseline demonstrations and explored data management approaches. Particular attention was given to the five clinical use cases addressed by AIRIS: pulmonary fibrosis, steatotic liver disease, chronic kidney disease, cardiovascular disease and inflammatory bowel disease. Discussions also explored potential connections across these diseases, and evaluation methodologies.

On the second day, partners presented progress and plans across different work packages, covering AI model development, evaluation strategies and computing infrastructure. Further sessions addressed the ethical, legal and societal implications of AI in biomedical research, alongside, project management and data protection requirements.

The meeting concluded with a joint discussion of open issues, action points and priorities for the coming months, helping to align the consortium's efforts as the project moves forward.

A big thank you to Harokopio University of Athens and ATHENA Research Center for hosting the meeting, and to all project partners for their valuable contributions and engaging discussions!