A Move Blending Industrial Policy, Science, and Technological Sovereignty

Spain has taken a decisive step: the Galician Supercomputing Center (CESGA) will host European One-Health (1Health AI), a European AI factory focused on health and life sciences. The total investment reaches €82 million — €41 million from the European High-Performance Computing Joint Undertaking (EuroHPC JU), €24 million from Spain’s Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan (PRTR) via the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities, and €17 million from the Regional Government of Galicia.
This isn’t just another hardware purchase — it’s institutional architecture designed to bring AI from the lab to hospital beds and company balance sheets.

What an AI Factory Is — and Why This One Matters

AI factories are environments where solutions are designed, tested, and deployed using access to supercomputing, large datasets, and specialized talent. Their mission is to accelerate adoption, reduce friction, and build a collaborative network among companies, universities, and public centers.

In Galicia, the focus is on One Health — human, animal, and environmental health — enabling breakthroughs in translational biomedicine, blue biotechnology, agriculture and forestry, circular economy, and bioenergy.
Its promise goes beyond computing power: it’s a free, full-service infrastructure for companies and research centers, democratizing access to AI capabilities currently available only to those who can afford major cloud services.

Anatomy of the Project: From Silicon to Skilled Jobs

CESGA will incorporate a supercomputer dedicated to AI and an advanced supercomputing platform optimized for experimental research. Surrounding it, a consortium including CSIC, the Regional Government of Galicia, the three public Galician universities, the CIGUS research network, DATAlife hub, and the Gradiant tech center.

This hybrid governance model is essential: clinical and biotech AI demand data quality, ethical oversight, validation, and public accountability.
The expected results: attract talent, boost startups, enhance competitiveness, and create qualified employment in a sector where Europe’s strategic autonomy is at stake.

What Could Change — and How to Measure It

If implemented effectively, three short-term impacts are expected:

  • Clinical use cases (screening, assisted diagnosis, personalized medicine) with faster hospital validation cycles.

  • Traction for biotech and SMEs, offering computing power and technical mentoring to reduce time-to-molecule or time-to-prototype.

  • Talent attraction and retention, creating high-level career paths in Galicia that rival big tech.

Key metrics: number of industrial projects incubated, achieved TRLs in health, ethical evaluation times, prototype-to-service transfer speed, and jobs created.

Challenges on the Horizon

  • Data and ethics: Health data require consent, privacy, auditability, and strong governance to ensure “free access” never compromises trust.

  • Real transfer: Moving from paper to operating room demands collaboration among clinicians, regulators, and managers.

  • Sustainability: High-performance computing must align with energy efficiency and multi-year funding strategies.

  • Talent retention: Keeping experts who might otherwise join Big Tech requires ambitious projects and high-impact careers.

A Strategic Opportunity for Europe

Minister Diana Morant hailed the initiative as part of Spain’s ambition to “occupy the digital frontier.” The opportunity is real: Europe can lead in applied AI within regulated domains, where its ethical framework is a competitive edge.

If Galicia succeeds in turning CESGA into a factory of results, the European map could soon feature new hubs for health AI — within the EU and for the EU.
The difference between promise and leadership will be measured not in speeches, but in better-treated patients, scaled biotech firms, and skilled jobs that stay in Europe.