CAFEIN®, CERN’s federated learning artificial intelligence (AI) platform, has been recognised as runner-up in the Digital Frontiers category at the Digital@UNGA Awards 2026. The award celebrates pioneering initiatives that responsibly use emerging technologies to address global challenges and contribute to a more inclusive digital future.

Originally developed at CERN to respond efficiently to the complex data challenges of particle physics and accelerator science, CAFEIN® has found applications in medicine, health services and other domains where sovereignty, privacy and sustainability are required for AI development and deployment. The platform enables multiple entities to collaboratively build trustworthy AI-based analysis and prediction models based on heterogeneous clinical and patient data without compromising data privacy.

Today, this technology is finding applications far beyond its original intended purposes. These range from neurology (TRUSTroke, UMBRELLA) and agentic AI assistants for safer clinical decision making (AIM-SAFE) to a CO₂ Tracker & Optimiser designed to help reduce AI’s environmental footprint.

CAFEIN® also illustrates CERN’s broader ambitions for AI, showing how the technologies and expertise developed at CERN can benefit other fields. For decades, CERN’s approach to knowledge transfer has created pathways for these technologies to find applications beyond the Laboratory. Looking to the future, CERN’s AI Strategy 2026–2030 builds on this tradition, highlighting collaboration and strategic partnerships as important avenues for transferring CERN’s AI innovations more widely.