AI in Research: Understanding trust, federation, and the user experience
October 5 @ 9:00 am – 5:00 pm
TBCEvent co-located to RDA Plenary 27 in London, UK.
AI agents are already entering research workflows at various levels – from search assistants to co-scientist systems – but their deployment is outpacing our understanding of the user experience, governance, and data readiness. This 1-day workshop on 5 Oct in London, England, brings together life sciences researchers, federated digital infrastructures, and Research Data Alliance (RDA) communities to discuss real-world deployment of AI.
- What does success (and failure) look like;
- What is AI-ready data; and
- What practical guardrails are needed for trustworthy and accountable agentic systems?
We invite participants to share, explore, and help define – gaps in metadata, provenance, and infrastructure; discuss concerns around “AI for everything”; and identify upskilling needed for researchers, data stewards, and agents alike. The workshop topics connect directly to sessions at the RDA27 Plenary, and the goal is to draft a brief white paper that highlights workshop discussions, as a launch point for further discussion.
Agenda:
| 09:00 | Welcome and setting the stage |
| 09:45 | Session I – Data and AI: Defining AI-Ready Data – presentations and demos |
| 10:30 | Coffee break |
| 11:00 | Session I – Data and AI cont.: Defining AI-Ready Data – breakout discussions |
| 12:00 | Lunch and networking |
| 13:00 | Session II – Infrastructure for AI: Governance & Guardrails – breakout / scenario planning |
| 14:30 | Coffee break |
| 15:00 | Session III – People and AI: Skills, training, access – breakout discussions |
| 16:30 | Recap and next steps |
| 17:00 | Workshop close |