Université Paris-Saclay and Owkin: A Unique Alliance to Propel University Medical Research to the Top of the European Rankings Through AI

Université Paris-Saclay and Owkin announce the signing of a memorandum of understanding to explore the potential of K Pro Free - Owkin’s AI co-pilot for biology - for use by Paris-Saclay.

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K Pro Free will now be available to the entire Université Paris-Saclay community, and in particular teachers, researchers and doctoral students working in the biomedical sciences.

The partnership includes workshops, training sessions and events designed to promote the discovery and adoption of K Pro Free, as well as the co-organization of communication and dissemination initiatives around the use of AI in health. In this way, the partnership will promote user training, but also enrich and continuously improve the co-pilot's models through feedback and use cases from the l’Université Paris-Saclay community. This partnership is part of Université Paris-Saclay’s strategy to integrate AI at the heart of education, research, and therapeutic innovation.

This non-binding protocol, with a duration of two years, marks the first step of a structural partnership, aimed at building a sustainable model of AI-augmented research.

"Having access to Owkin's K Pro Free is a great opportunity for the student and scientific community of l’Université Paris-Saclay, which will be able to freely use the functionalities of a tool specially designed for biomedical research, offering unique features and scientific rigor that far exceed the capabilities of general-purpose large language models." Marc Humbert, Dean of Faculté de Médecine de Paris-Saclay

"Being a research-intensive university requires offering our community, both students and academics, excellent knowledge and innovative means. With the provision of K Pro Free in our research laboratories, we are taking an innovative approach, allowing our talent to be more productive. Moreover, the link between AI and health is a rapidly growing research activity area. This partnership is of mutual interest and is intended to pave the way for other public-private collaborations in the interest of our communities." Camille Galap, President of Université Paris-Saclay

"Being the first in Europe to launch a public-private collaboration of this scope with a university of excellence like Paris-Saclay is a great source of pride for us. K Pro Free was designed to reduce the duration of key scientific tasks by a factor of 20 and allow everyone, students, researchers, clinical staff or startups to dialogue directly with biomedical data. Collaborating with Université Paris-Saclay represents a strong commitment to bringing science, education and innovation closer together." Thomas Clozel, MD, co-founder and CEO of Owkin

By combining the academic excellence of Université Paris-Saclay and Owkin's technological expertise, this collaboration paves the way for a new generation of biomedical research that is more fluid, more connected and more inclusive. It will help position French scientific research at the forefront of innovation, by fully integrating AI into research and training practices. The university's scientific, student, and entrepreneurship-related communities will benefit from privileged access to artificial intelligence designed to accelerate scientific discovery and support innovation in healthcare.

About Université Paris-Saclay

Université Paris-Saclay was born from the shared ambition of French universities, grandes écoles and national research organizations. As a leading university in Europe and the world, it covers the fields of science and engineering, life sciences and health, and humanities and social sciences. The university’s science policy closely intertwines research and innovation, incorporating both basic and applied science to tackle major societal challenges. Université Paris-Saclay offers a varied range of undergraduate to doctorate level degrees, including programmes with its grandes écoles, all of which are focused on achieving student success and employability. The university prepares students for an ever-changing world where the ability to think critically, remain agile and renew one’s skills are crucial. Université Paris-Saclay also offers a comprehensive range of lifelong learning courses. Located to the south of Paris, the university extends across a vast and rich local area. Its location strengthens both its international visibility and its close ties with its socio-economic partners (major companies, SMEs, start-ups, local authorities, charities).

www.universite-paris-saclay.fr

About Owkin:

Owkin is an AI company on a mission to solve the complexity of biology. It is building the first Biology Super Intelligence (BASI) by combining powerful biological large language models, multimodal patient data, and agentic software. At the heart of this system is Owkin K, an AI co-pilot and its new LLM finetuned on biology called Owkin Zero, used by researchers, clinicians, and drug developers to better understand biology, validate scientific hypotheses, and deliver better diagnostics and therapies faster.

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