EU-Philippines lab to let firms test AI before investing

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Philstar.com

October 23, 2026 | 10:27am

MANILA, Philippines — Filipino companies will be able to test artificial-intelligence tools before spending money to deploy them under a new EU-Philippines lab designed to lower the cost and risk of AI adoption.

European Union and the Philippines announced the EU-Philippines AI Industry Lab on Thursday, October 22 at the 2026 AI Forum organized by the European Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines.

The Department of Science and Technology will establish it as an allied laboratory under the National AI Center for Research and Innovation program.

At the center of the initiative is a "test before invest" model that will allow compnies, particularly smaller businesses and startups, to evaluate AI solutions before committing capital to their deployment.

The lab will serve Philippine and European companies, micro, small and medium enterprises, and startups as part of the National AI Strategy for the Philippines.

Participants will receive access to AI infrastructure, cloud services and data sets, including Earth-observation data from the EU's Copernicus program and information from DOST programs.

The initiative will also develop practical AI applications in energy, health, environmental protection and disaster resilience.

Expertise, market access

Businesses and innovators will be connected with technical specialists, innovation advisers and European technology expertise through European Digital Innovation Hubs and AI Factories.

The lab will seek to build partnerships among Philippine and European companies, universities, and other public and private organizations.

The EU and the Philippines said the initiative would also help promising AI products attract investment and enter new markets. It does this by promoting technology standards and drawing on European practices in interoperability, cybersecurity, data protection, intellectual property and human-centered AI governance.

Research cooperation will form another part of the program, with both sides seeking to turn academic work into commercial and industrial applications.

The lab follows a three-day joint mission of the EU and DOST that gathered European experts and private-sector participants from the Philippines and Europe to discuss AI research and innovation.

The initiative forms part of EU-Philippines digital cooperation under the bloc's Global Gateway Strategy, which the EU said now amounts to €40 million.