Elsevier launches LeapSpace: An AI-Assisted workspace to accelerate research and discovery

New Delhi: Elsevier, a global leader in advanced information and decision support for science and healthcare, has introduced LeapSpace™, a next-generation AI-assisted workspace designed to transform how academic and corporate scientists work.

Built for speed, collaboration, and discovery, LeapSpace enables researchers to uncover deeper insights, accelerate innovation, and collaborate seamlessly within a secure and trustworthy environment.

Although 84% of researchers report using AI tools, only 22% say they trust the existing options. Developed in collaboration with thousands of researchers, LeapSpace builds on the success of ScienceDirect AI and Scopus AI, combining the broadest collection of peer-reviewed scientific content with responsible AI practices. A defining feature is its innovative Trust Cards, which add context and transparency to every result, support critical thinking, and help users assess the strength of evidence.

“LeapSpace enables researchers to move from curiosity to discovery without leaving trusted ground,” said Judy Verses, President, Academic and Government, Elsevier. “By combining an unparalleled body of peer-reviewed research with responsible AI, we’re supporting the research community to build on the strongest foundations of trusted knowledge to advance human progress.”

Providing a secure and trusted foundation for scientific progress, LeapSpace relies solely on the world’s most reliable scientific content, unlike general-purpose AI tools that depend on unverified web data. It already includes the largest collection of research abstracts, millions of peer-reviewed articles and books from Elsevier and other leading scientific publishers and societies, and will continue expanding. The company’s vision is to enable researchers to advance progress by building on dependable, rigorously validated knowledge enhanced by responsible AI.

The growing content set includes the world’s largest collection of research abstracts, data, and analytics from Scopus — Elsevier’s publisher-neutral database containing over 100 million records from more than 7,000 global publishers — along with more than 15 million peer-reviewed full-text articles and books from Elsevier and other scientific publishers and societies. LeapSpace’s transparency will be overseen by an independent Advisory Board ensuring that its algorithms remain explainable and publisher-neutral.

Designed specifically for researchers, LeapSpace helps streamline multiple tasks in one secure environment to improve outcomes with speed and confidence. Its capabilities include a seamless AI assistant that supports idea generation, project planning, literature exploration, collaborator discovery, and funding identification. Drawing on abstracts and full-text content, it delivers structured, referenced insights while giving users access to certified datasets of millions of peer-reviewed articles, books, and the world’s largest repository of research abstracts. Every AI-generated insight is paired with a Trust Card that highlights sources, explains citations, identifies contradictions, and helps users evaluate evidence strength. LeapSpace also offers advanced research tools that identify emerging patterns and knowledge gaps; allows users to upload their own material for enriched analysis; integrates discovery of 45,000 active and recurring grants worth over $100 billion from Elsevier’s Funding Institutional database; and provides efficiency tools such as Reading Assistant, Compare, and Author Search. It is built with enterprise-grade security, aligning with Elsevier’s Privacy Principles to ensure responsible AI use and data protection.

LeapSpace integrates agentic AI, generative AI, reasoning engines, and retrieval-augmented generation to support a wide range of research workflows, from literature analysis to hypothesis generation and data exploration. Every feature reflects Elsevier’s Responsible AI Principles, emphasizing transparency, explainability, and human oversight. Researchers have complete visibility into how each result is produced.

The platform was developed closely with the research community, with thousands of researchers from more than 300 institutions across 64 countries participating in its development and testing. Early users report significant time savings, better research design, deeper analysis, and the ability to uncover insights that might otherwise be missed. Many now use LeapSpace as the starting point for key research tasks.

Cara O’Neill, MD, FAAP, Chief Science Officer at the Cure Sanfilippo Foundation, said that rare disease research often depends on connections across multiple disciplines due to limited direct evidence. She noted that synthesizing large volumes of disparate information is a challenge, and her early experience with LeapSpace shows promise in addressing these issues while maintaining confidence in the accuracy and rigor of the outputs.

LeapSpace is now available for institutions to preview. Existing and new ScienceDirect AI customers will be automatically upgraded to LeapSpace when it becomes commercially available in Q1 2026.