exquAIro foundation

A non-profit institution that fuels medical research

Funding innovative research

ExquAIro is a not-for-profit institute with the ambition to advance the medical and pharmaceutical field through AI education and research. Our education empowers participants to apply AI themselves within their businesses and organizations. At the same time, all profits that result from our training programs are directly reinvested in research. Hereby, the exquAIro foundation is able to fund innovative research streams at the interface of AI and biomedicine.

The combination of education and research generates a unique synergy, where the education material is fueled by new research and unique datasets. Moreover, researchers will have an active role in the education, by providing impact cases or taking on the role as trainer. This way, participants directly benefit from the research funded by the exquAIro foundation.

Donations

Do you want to support exquAIro? Donations and receipts for the exquAIro fund can be transferred to the account number of the Support Foundation UMCG. Account number: NL21 ABNA 0423 1266 95 Please mention the following fund number of exquAIro with your donation: 4908.

Board of exquAIro

The board is composed as follows:

Prof. Dr. G. H. Koppelman, Chair, UMCG
Dr. M. S. Bügel, Secretary
Dr. M. J. Smit, Treasurer
I. Petoukhov, MSc, Member
Prof. Dr. S. Klein Nagelvoort-Schuit, Member, UMCG

Remuneration policy

The members of the board of exquAIro do not receive any form of compensation. Expenses incurred by them, provided they are not excessive, will be reimbursed upon request.

Policy plan

The exquAIro policy plan can be downloaded here (available in English and Dutch).

Balance sheet

The exquAIro balance sheet can be downloaded here (in Dutch).

Report of Activities

Mission

exquAIro provides intensive training for healthcare professionals and researchers from University Medical Centers (UMCs) in the Netherlands, including physician-scientists, biomedical researchers, and pharmacologists. The foundation aims to advance biomedical AI knowledge and its application to achieve medical breakthroughs.

Report of Key Activities from December 2022 – November 2025

During the start-up period since the foundation was established in December 2022 the training activities have been performed under the legal and financial responsibility of the UMC Groningen. To enable financial support for scientific research activities a fund has been established under the ‘Stichting Steunfonds UMCG’.

4 activities have been developed in recent years in collaboration with the UMC Groningen.

i. Training talented UMC professionals so that they can apply big data analysis and AI to their (research) data themselves

ii. Offering a training course in AI/big data analysis to pharmaceutical companies at a market rate, where, after deduction of costs, the profits are intended for scientific research in the UMC Groningen or in a collaboration with the UMC Groningen

iii. Guiding the development of research plans by the participants in the UMC classes to achieve breakthroughs with AI

iv. Raising funds from charities intended for scientific research in the UMC Groningen from the alumni of the training classes.

ad i:

6-Week Biomedical AI Bootcamps: exquAIro offers intensive full-time training periods (two 3-week sessions) known as the 2-star exquAIro Bootcamp. The first exquAIro Biomedical AI Bootcamp has been evaluated very positively. The average rating by the participants for the quality of the Bootcamp was 8.6. At the level of the individual events, the average was 8.1. Based on the feedback from the participants, parts of the program have been improved, resulting in scores of 8.9 and 8.7 respectively for the second bootcamp that was completed in January 2025. A third Bootcamp has been started in November 2025 and will be finalized in the beginning of 2026.

Post-Bootcamp Follow-up: In addition, participants who have completed the first Bootcamps are offered the opportunity to further develop themselves in the field of AI. Follow-up programmes have been developed for this purpose.

The 3-star Integrator program trains professionals to a higher level in which they improve research and care by integrating (operationalizing) algorithms into tools that can be applied medically. Sufficient participants have been recruited in 2025 to start the Integrator program in 2026.

During the 4-star Innovator program, which follows, the pinnacle is reached in terms of algorithmic and technical knowledge, in addition to tools to tackle transformational challenges and thus realize your own department-wide AI vision. This makes it actually the top level of education in this field. The Bootcamps are the most time-consuming part of the training (2 x 3 weeks full-time). The follow-up modules ‘Integrator’ and ‘Innovator’ are much less intensive and spread over a longer period of time (5 x 4 days of training spread over 18 months per module). Participants are offered follow-up programs to further develop their skills and translate knowledge into real-world medical applications.

ad ii:

Basic training has been delivered in the USA, Sweden, UK, and Poland to leadership of a large pharmaceutical company in the period 2023-2024.

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Funding of AI-driven Research Plans: Based on what they have learned, participants of the Bootcamps have developed plans for the application of AI in their own research. Part of the exquAIro approach is that we can also allocate resources from the exquAIro fund (under the ‘Stichting Steunfonds UMCG’) to the best plans. Research funding was awarded to projects proposed by the following researchers:

2024

-prof.dr. Martin de Borst, department of Nephrology UMCG            € 89,000.-

-dr. Menno Douwes, department of Pediatrics, UMCG                      € 43,000.-

2025

-prof.dr. Eugene Berezikov, ERIBA, UMCG                                              € 75,000.-

 

ad iv:

Fundraising: donations are received by the fund exquAIro under the Stichting Steunfonds UMCG.

Total amount received in the period 2022-2024                        € 330,000.-

Total amount allocated to research projects per Nov. 2025    € 207,000.-

Outlook and Impact

  • Initially focused on UMC Groningen, exquAIro aims to broaden participation to all Dutch UMCs and affiliated partners.
  • The foundation continues to expand its educational programs, collaborations, and funding support to maximize the societal impact of AI in healthcare.