European Virtual Human Twins Initiative: Advancing AI-driven, Patient-Centred Healthcare in Europe

On 21 October 2025, the European Commission hosted a high-level event in Brussels to discuss the strategic vision for the European Virtual Human Twins (VHT) Initiative -  accelerating innovation and making personalised medicine a reality in Europe.  

Launched in December 2023, the initiative aims to strengthen healthcare by combining curated data, high-performance computing, and ethical, transparent governance to foster innovation and trust. The initiative is in line with the European Commission’s priorities, such as the AI Continent Action Plan, the Apply AI and Life Sciences Strategies. 

In her opening remarks, Henna Virkunnen, European Commission Executive Vice-President for Tech Sovereignty, Security and Democracy, stressed that with an investment of €100 million, the European Commission is developing an advanced collaborative platform. Its goal is to “help develop faster, safer and more efficient treatments, delivering life-saving therapies sooner, and positioning Europe at the forefront of next-generation healthcare’’.  

Policy vision and ethical foundations  

Sandra Gallina, Director-General of DG SANTE, underlined the role of the European Health Data Space (EHDS), in relation to VHTs. EDHS is central to ensuring data quality, secure, ethical data access, and a framework that empowers citizens to control their data whilst enabling researchers and innovators to transform this data into improved public health outcomes. Lucilla Sioli, Director of the AI Office at DG CONNECT, emphasised that the Virtual Human Twins (VHTs) Initiative represents “a game-changer for Europe’s healthcare systems, not only with the potential to share and validate results, connect different organs and systems, but also to accelerate pharmaceutical development and clinical trials, while respecting privacy and Intellectual Property rights.”  

Science, industry, and the potential of personalised medicine  

The event showcased how academic and industrial leaders are already harnessing digital twin technology to address major healthcare challenges, including clinical trials, early diagnosis, personalised treatments and preventive care and healthcare costs.  

Professor Mikael Bensor from Karolinska Institutet highlighted how digital twins can help prevent multimorbidity, which accounts for around 2% of the EU’s GDP in healthcare costs, by enabling earlier diagnosis and treatment of disease trajectories. Professor Frank E. Rademakers of KU Leuven added that VHTs will enhance clinical decision support, allowing clinicians “to see patients as a whole, not only organ-based”, and help “shift the focus from cure to prevention.”  

From the pharmaceutical perspective, Matt Truppo, Global Head of Research Platforms at Sanofi, highlighted how virtual patients and in silico modelling can reduce the time and cost of drug development. Fabian Schmich from Roche and Jean Colombel from Dassault Systèmes underscored the potential of VHT models to transform clinical trials and regulatory science, especially for rare and paediatric diseases, where control groups are unfeasible or very difficult. By leveraging AI, machine learning, and generative models built from historical and real-world hospital data, researchers can simulate patient trajectories, accelerate biomarker discovery, and support clinical decision-making.  

A collaborative European ecosystem  

Concluding EDITH’s work, the VHT roadmap was presented together with the Policy Brief which covers the main strategic elements, providing clear recommendations for policymakers and industry leaders. 

Saila Rinne, Head of Unit for AI in Health and Life Sciences at DG CONNECT, summarised the collective ambition: “The VHT ecosystem is inclusive by design, built on collaboration, trust, interoperability, and patient engagement. The next step is the deployment of the advanced platform, the establishment of the technical standards, and the shared roadmap to make VHTs a reality for all Europeans.”  

EBRAINS' Virtual Brain Twin (VBT) project plays a key role in this ecosystem, aiming to generate virtual brain twins for psychiatric research by combining expertise in neuronal microcircuit simulation, AI, and clinical modelling.