Successful evaluation of Helmholtz AI

The evaluation of Helmholtz AI took place at Helmholtz Munich in October 2022. The evaluation panel consisted of national and international AI experts from different institutions and industry. In-depth discussion with the heads of all six Helmholtz AI units, many Helmholtz AI research group members and all six Helmholtz AI consultant team leads helped the reviewers to obtain a possibly complete picture of Helmholtz AI, its research focus and support function, and how it is embedded into the Helmholtz Association and international landscape.

The final evaluation report shows that Helmholtz AI achieved high-quality results in consulting, research and projects in a short period and contributed added value for the Helmholtz Association through fostering substantial cross-center collaborations, knowledge sharing, and technology transfer. In particular, the Helmholtz AI consultant teams were positively highlighted: Their combination of strong domain expertise and state-of-the-art AI method and methodology knowledge was considered a very attractive and useful combination by the reviewers. Taken together, the evaluation panel supports and “highly recommends” the continuation of the platform, and scored the Helmholtz AI with the grade A.

Fabian Theis, the Scientific Director of Helmholtz AI, and his team already have the next goals in mind: They want to focus towards forging a Helmholtz AI community, expanding the AI consulting activities and scaling and interconnecting the efforts in training young scientists.