Our health and wellbeing are shaped by many factors at once: our bodies and medical conditions, the homes we live in, the air we breathe, and the wider environment around us. Yet today, these elements are often studied in isolation. Healthcare systems, housing systems, and environmental systems rarely interact or “talk” to one another. AIGENT—a new project due to launch in autumn 2026—will aim to change this isolated and siloed approach. 

What AIGENT does

AIGENT will help European innovators and implementors make better decisions by safely testing real-life situations in a virtual world before taking actions in the real world.

This upcoming project will introduce a new way of understanding about how these dimensions connect and influence each other, thus helping individuals, professionals, and policymakers make better, more informed decisions.

At the heart of AIGENT will be the concept of a digital twin infrastructure. A digital twin is a virtual representation of a real-world situation. It can model a patient, a home, or even an entire urban environment. It therefore enables decisions to be tested safely before they are applied in reality.

What will make AIGENT unique is that it connects digital twins—it links a person with their home and their environment—so their interactions can be explored as a whole.

This approach will enable “what-if” simulations. For example, it will become possible to explore how altering a heating system during a heatwave might affect health, or how a change in medication or lifestyle could impact a patient’s condition.

Importantly, AIGENT will be designed to be accessible: users such as doctors, city planners, or even citizens will be able to ask questions in plain language. Then, the system will automatically translate the questions into simulations. At the same time, strong safeguards will ensure that sensitive personal data remains protected, while only secure, aggregated results are shared. The system will also rely on European infrastructures, including high-performance computing and regulated data environments.

How the AIGENT System Will Work in Detail

AIGENT can be understood as a coordinator that will connect data, models, and computing power without unnecessarily exposing sensitive information.

The AIGENT process will begin with a simple question. A person (a doctor, a policymaker, or a citizen) might ask: “What would improve this patient’s condition?”, “How does indoor air quality affect elderly people?”, or “What happens if we renovate homes in this neighbourhood?” The person posing the query needs no technical expertise to ask the question.

The system will then interpret the question. It will identify which types of data are needed—whether they are related to health, housing, or the environment, it will select the appropriate scientific models, and will determine the kind of simulation required. AIGENT will act like an intelligent assistant that will prepare the whole analysis automatically.

A key principle of AIGENT is that data will remain where it is located. Health data will stay securely inside hospitals, while environmental and housing data will remain with trusted local providers. Instead of moving data around, the system will send computations to where the data resides. This approach—of “bringing the algorithm to the data”—will ensure that sensitive information is never shared unnecessarily.

Each data provider will then perform its part of the analysis locally, by using what are known as local digital twins. A hospital may run a medical model, a city may simulate environmental conditions, and a housing provider may analyse building performance.

These local analyses will produce partial, processed results rather than raw data. These results will then be combined securely to create an overall picture. Only aggregated or anonymised outputs—such as trends, indicators, or predictions—will be shared. At no point will sensitive personal data be exposed.

Using powerful European computing resources, AIGENT will then run multiple scenarios, comparing such outcomes as maintaining the status quo, improving insulation, or applying a specific treatment/solution. This approach will allow decisions to be tested virtually before being implemented in real life.

Finally, the results will be presented in a clear and understandable way. Users will receive both answers and explanations—helping them to understand why a particular outcome is to be expected.

Real-World Testing – Effectiveness and Trust

To demonstrate its effectiveness, AIGENT’s work will be tested through six pilot projects in countries including Belgium, Finland, and Greece. These pilots will cover:

• healthcare scenarios, such as managing chronic diseases,
• housing and environmental improvements,
• combined approaches that address both health and living conditions.

Challenges related to trust, legislation/regulations, and ethics will all be central to this piloting of AIGENT and embedded in AIGENT’s work.

What are AIGENT’s Expected Benefits for Citizens and Society?

Lots of benefits are to be expected from AIGENT for both citizens and society.

For citizens:
AIGENT will open the door to more personalised healthcare, where treatments can take into account real-life conditions such as housing and environment. It will contribute to healthier living spaces, support safer decision-making by allowing risks to be tested in advance, and provide clearer insights into how different factors affect individual wellbeing. Throughout, it will ensure strong privacy protection.

For society:
AIGENT’s benefits will be equally significant – for governments, healthcare systems, and overall for societal leadership.

Governments will be able to design smarter public policies by testing their impact before implementation (whether in areas such as housing renewal, energy use, or responses to heatwaves). Healthcare systems will become more efficient through better prevention and more targeted interventions, thereby reducing costs and avoiding ineffective actions. AIGENT will also strengthen societal resilience to major challenges such as pandemics, climate change, and rapidly growing ageing populations, while it will foster innovation and reinforce Europe’s leadership in trustworthy artificial intelligence and digital technologies.

What’s in AIGENT for EHTEL members?

Over the next four years, EHTEL innovators and implementors will be looking to ask, and answer, such practical questions as:

• What are the necessary data which need to be available and accessible to AIGENT?
• What are the constraints for using a digital twin at, at least, two levels:
  • population level
  • individual level
• What are the conditions needed to make these uses sustainable? 
• …

For more information

Look out for more information on AIGENT over the next few months. The project is anticipating its launch in autumn 2026.