Trust in data – ESS, MAX IV and SciLifeLab unite in Lund
On October 3, leaders from Sweden’s major research infrastructures: MAX IV, ESS, and SciLifeLab gathered in Lund, for the annual ESS/MAX IV/SciLifeLab Summit. Discussions at the Summit highlighted the need for trust, governance, and collaboration when it comes to the usage of artificial intelligence (AI) for data processing in science. A central theme was on how to manage, share, and make sense of the tens of petabytes of data generated annually by research experiments.
Jan Ellenberg, Director of SciLifeLab, Helmut Schober, Director General of ESS, Olof Charlie Karis, Director of MAX IV and Maria Borelius, who moderated the Summit 2025.
SciLifeLab’s Director, Jan Ellenberg, emphasized that life science research is at the heart of this transformation. “Individual research labs can now generate petabytes of data at the infrastructure provided by SciLifeLab,” he said. “The molecular building blocks of life are universal, and SciLifeLab has always supported researchers to analyze them, from basic biology to medicine. To be able to predict how diseases develop, we must preserve and integrate data for decades to enable future breakthroughs.”
SciLifeLab’s research infrastructure operates in a data-centric organization and is deepening its strategic collaborations with high-performance computing infrastructures such as NAISS to ensure that data can be effectively processed to extract knowledge, increasingly using AI tools.
Katarina Bjelke, Director General of the Swedish Research Council, also emphasized that AI in research goes beyond technology. She highlighted the importance of governance, ethics, and sustainability, noting that trust is essential and that AI development must align with shared values. Rather than replacing human creativity and curiosity, AI should be seen as a way to expand what is possible.
Wojtek Potrzebowski, Data Science Coordinator at SciLifeLab Lund and Chris Erdmann, Head of Open Science, SciLifeLab were in the organizing committee of this year’s summit.
“Being part in planning the Summit was a great experience, it is also interesting to see that the theme itself has already evolved since the first discussion demonstrating what a rapidly developing field AI and data management is”, says Wojtek Potrzebowski.
SciLifeLab Open Science team, headed by Chris Erdmann focuses on these issues on an everyday basis.
“Our data policy at SciLifeLab follows open science and FAIR best practices, and we’re strengthening it with clearer guidelines and a monitoring system through OpenAIRE to track how data, software, and other outputs are shared. Beyond data management planning, stewardship services, and our repository, we’re launching an integrated data services initiative to unlock more value. We’re also preparing guidance and facilities to make SciLifeLab produce data AI-ready”, said Chris Erdmann, Head of Open Science, SciLifeLab.
For SciLifeLab, Summits like this demonstrate the strength of Sweden’s coordinated approach to data-intensive science. By working hand-in-hand with large-scale facilities like ESS and MAX IV, the life science community gathered by SciLifeLab is laying the groundwork for discoveries that will shape our society.
