Metrosert, Estonia’s national applied research centre and national metrology institute, is partnering with French-American AI company Owkin to advance the use of artificial intelligence in life sciences and health research.
The collaboration will assess how K Pro, Owkin’s AI-powered research platform, could help approved researchers work with Estonian health data within secure national infrastructure. The aim is to enable reproducible analyses and generate scientific findings more quickly while preserving Estonia’s control over its data.
The first phase will focus on selected Estonian health-data cohorts. Owkin and Metrosert will also explore promising research areas, including oncology, where linked clinical and molecular data, medical images and treatment outcomes could support future biomedical research.
Mart Toots, Head of the Health Data Unit at Metrosert’s Applied Research Centre, said the collaboration could also bring new research and development projects to Estonia.
“We can test advanced AI models on anonymised health data and explore how they could help us conduct research faster and more effectively. For us, this is a valuable opportunity to work with a leading international company. We hope the collaboration will also lead to new development projects and investment in Estonia,” Toots said.
Estonia has built one of the world’s most advanced digital public infrastructures and holds population-scale health and biomedical data assets. The collaboration will explore how these foundations could support AI-enabled research capabilities that can be used across different studies. This could strengthen Estonian research and make the country more attractive for international health research and investment.
“Estonia has spent years building the trust, digital infrastructure and health-data capabilities needed for responsible innovation. The next step is to put these assets to more effective use for science and future health innovation. This collaboration allows us to explore how sovereign AI could strengthen Estonia’s position as a leader in the secure use of health data,” said Minister of Economic Affairs and Industry Liina Vahtras.
“Estonia has built one of the world’s most advanced digital foundations. This partnership is about showing what could come next: using sovereign AI to turn national biomedical data into scientific discoveries, stronger research capability and, ultimately, better outcomes for patients,” said Thomas Clozel, CEO and co-founder of Owkin.
About Owkin
Owkin is a French-American AI company working to develop biological artificial superintelligence to help solve problems that human researchers alone have not been able to address. The company develops K Pro, an AI-powered research platform for pharmaceutical research and strategic decision-making. K Pro brings together a range of AI capabilities and tools to help decode complex biology, accelerate research and significantly increase research productivity. It draws on Owkin’s network of multimodal patient data, advanced AI for biology and a decade of experience working with pharmaceutical companies.
About Metrosert
Metrosert AS is Estonia’s national applied research centre and national metrology institute. The state-owned company employs approximately 140 specialists and supports sustainable economic growth through applied research, measurement and quality systems, and collaboration between industry and research institutions. Its Applied Research Centre focuses on five fields: drone technologies, autonomous vehicles, hydrogen technologies, biorefining and health data.