Secondment: Aaro Tupasela, Aspasia Orfanou, Eira Syvalahde, Mara Gkioka, Marta Fasan, Monica Cano Abadia, Terhi Esko
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Institution of origin |
University of Helsinki (Aaro Tupasela, Eira Syvälahde, Terhi Esko) | Institute of Applied Biosciences (INAB), Centre for Research & Technology, Hellas (CERTH) (Aspasia Orfanou, Mara Gkioka) | Faculty of Law, University of Trento – BioLaw Laboratory (Marta Fasan) | BBMRI-ERIC (Monica Cano Abadia) |
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Host institution |
Nostrum Biodiscovery |
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Initial objective |
Participate in the AHEAD Training Month, strengthening interdisciplinary knowledge of AI and contributing legal, sociological, ethical, and biomedical expertise to the AHEAD Observatory. |
Results achieved
Aaro Tupasela, Aspasia Orfanou, Eira Syvälahde, Mara Gkioka, Marta Fasan, Monica Cano Abadia and Terhi Esko took part as seconded researchers in the AHEAD Training Month, an intensive one-month programme (27 June – 26 July 2025) at Nostrum Biodiscovery and co-organized with the Barcelona Supercomputing Center, that brought together researchers, institutions, and industry partners to explore AI from foundational principles to real-world applications. The programme combined disciplinary knowledge-sharing sessions on AI, dedicated sessions on AI in health and biomedicine, interdisciplinary discussions on cross-cutting issues, and conversations with stakeholders.
Coming from different disciplinary backgrounds — sociology, science & technology studies, public health, biosciences, law, and biobanking ethics — the seven researchers both contributed their own expertise through dedicated lectures and benefited from the multidisciplinary nature of the programme, broadening their understanding of AI across technical, legal, ethical, societal, economic, and environmental dimensions.
The training month produced several concrete outputs aligned with the AHEAD project’s objectives: the structure and implementation plan for the AHEAD Observatory was defined, six core domains for the multidisciplinary evaluation of AI systems were identified, work began on the ELSI (ethical, legal, social, and implications) indicator framework, and the assessment of representative healthcare AI use cases — such as medical image recognition systems and large language models for diagnostic support — was initiated. Terhi also co-authored a joint article on AI contamination arising from the collaborative work of the AHEAD community during the training month, and later extended her collaboration with BSC through a three-week Severo Ochoa Women Fellowship stay in Barcelona.
Beyond the formal training activities, the secondment strengthened collaborations within the AHEAD consortium, fostered lasting connections among the seven researchers across disciplines including AI policy, bioinformatics, psychology, and the social sciences, and laid a solid foundation for the next stages of the project.
