Last monday, 8th June, we had the pleasure of holding the Annual Institutional Meeting of the ALENTAR-J-CM project (Large Language Models Application for large-scale healthcare prevention of mental health problems and suicide risk among young people). During this meeting, the project’s research teams and collaborating institutions gathered at the Complutense University of Madrid’s School of Medicine to review the progress achieved during the first phases of the project and to plan the next scientific actions.
The event opened with Ms. Gemma Espinosa Expósito, Head of the Research Programmes Area at the Subdirección General de la Consejería de Educación, Ciencia y Universidades de la Comunidad de Madrid, and Ms. Estela Natividad Paz Artal, Vice-Dean for Research and Doctoral Studies at the UCM School of Medicine, who attended as institutional representatives. Following their interventions, Dr. Alejandro de la Torre Luque, Principal Investigator and Coordinator of ALENTAR-J-CM, presented the consortium structure and the role of the participating institutions. He also highlighted the key milestones achieved during the first two phases of the project, focused on model training using existing datasets and field studies.
Throughout the meeting, several presentations showcased the research infrastructure supporting ALENTAR-J-CM and the work carried out by researchers involved in the field studies. In addition, the UCM and KNODIS research teams presented preliminary findings from the project’s first studies and scientific publications. Discussions focused on the characterization of linguistic and paralinguistic speech biomarkers, as well as on the methodological advances required for the subsequent development of Artificial Intelligence (AI) models. These presentations provided initial evidence of the potential of language-based approaches to contribute to the identification of indicators associated with mental health difficulties and suicide risk.
The final part of the meeting focused on planning the upcoming phases of the project. New research actions were defined, including expanding collaboration with additional psychology clinics and discussing the dissemination event scheduled for later this year. This event will target a broader lay audience and will showcase project advances while bringing together researchers, mental health professionals, AI experts, and social media influencers to discuss the opportunities and challenges associated with the use of these technologies in the prevention of mental health problems and suicide risk.
Finally, funding opportunities were explored to strengthen the research line underpinning ALENTAR-J-CM. In particular, the consortium discussed the preparation of a proposal for the ERC Synergy Grant, one of Europe’s most prestigious and competitive funding schemes supporting excellent collaborative research. This grant would enable the consortium to further expand the project’s scientific scope and establish a stronger international research network in the fields of mental health, AI, and suicide prevention. The meeting concluded with a renewed commitment from all consortium partners, including academic institutions and Third Sector organizations, to continue advancing the project’s objectives and successfully implement the upcoming phases of ALENTAR-J-CM.
The event also included an informal networking session during the coffee break, which fostered the exchange of ideas, discussion of future collaborations, and the strengthening of relationships among the participating teams.
On behalf of the UCM team, ALENTAR-J-CM’s coordination team, we would like to thank everyone whose attendance and participation made this meeting possible. We look forward to seeing you at the next edition.
