Call for proposals - Organisation of ELLIS Summer/Winter Schools (2025) or ELLIS Doctoral Symposium (2026)

As a grassroots initiative, the ELLIS network thrives on the distributed efforts of its members and units. As part of this strategy, the ELLIS Society is now issuing a call for the organization of summer/winter schools for 2025, to be held over one week.

Examples of past ELLIS summer schools include the ELLIS Winter School on Foundation Models (Amsterdam 2024), the ELLIS Summer School on Machine Learning for Healthcare and Biology (Manchester 2024), the ELLIS Summer School on Information Retrieval (Amsterdam 2024) and the ELLIS Summer School on Collaborative and Generative AI (Helsinki 2024).ELLIS Sites willing to organize an ELLIS Summer or Winter School in 2025 should submit a brief proposal to phd@ellis.eu by November 1, 2024. Proposals will be reviewed by the PhD & Postdoc Committee.

We are also accepting applications for hosting the ELLIS Doctoral Symposium (EDS) in 2026. The 2025 edition will take place at the Warsaw unit; previous editions were hosted in Tübingen (2021), Alicante (2022), Helsinki (2023) and Paris (2024). The ELLIS Doctoral Symposium is organized by and for PhD students, in cooperation with the ELLIS PhD & Postdoc program. The EDS is the cornerstone event in the ELLIS PhD & Postdoc program and gives ELLIS PhDs and postdocs (and other young researchers) the chance to meet, collaborate and interact with each other in person through content-driven poster sessions and presentations, and facilitate interactive moments for networking with each other, but also with more senior researchers who give keynote talks.

DescriptionThe ELLIS PhD and Postdoc program will host at least one week-long school or symposium per program-year at alternating ELLIS units focused on research and training in machine learning-driven fields. ELLIS schools will be organized by the hosting ELLIS site; the ELLIS Doctoral Symposium is organized in collaboration with the central PhD and Postdoc Program coordinators. ELLIS schools are the largest and most significant events for ELLIS students and other young researchers during the year. As such, they offer a perfect opportunity for units to spotlight their own research and achievements, and promote it among ELLIS' network.ELLIS Machine Learning Summer or Winter SchoolsELLIS schools will be focused on deep diving into research topics, showcasing the work at that unit, and providing essential training and networking activities to the program participants.

ELLIS Doctoral Symposium (EDS)The ELLIS Doctoral Symposium is organized by and for PhD students, and is the cornerstone event of the ELLIS PhD & Postdoc program. The EDS gives ELLIS PhDs and postdocs (and other young researchers) the chance to meet, collaborate and interact with each other in person through content-driven poster sessions and presentations, and facilitate interactive moments for networking with each other, but also with more senior researchers who give keynote talks.

Organization & FundingWhile units will be given maximum flexibility in organizational matters, general guidelines and support will be offered by the central program coordination and PhD Committee. The ELLIS Society currently does not have a dedicated budget for the organization of PhD events so units contribute their own resources.

Guidelines for proposalsThe proposal should not exceed 2 pages, and should contain the items below. Proposals will be selected based on criteria of excellence, available infrastructure, organizational and financial support as well as prior experience in organizing scientific events.

• Contact details and short bio of the main organizer
• List of members of the organizing committee
• Local partners (institutions, industry)
• Proposed dates
• Motivation for organizing the school/symposium at your unit
• Prior experience in organizing scientific events
• An outline of the program (incl. proposed format and specific research topics unit faculty aim to cover)
• Maximum number of participants
• Venue and logistics (facilities, lecture halls capacity, housing, etc.)
• Budget overview (estimated costs, expected and/or confirmed funding from the hosting institution and sponsors, estimated student fee if any)
• Dissemination and outreach activities
• A brief note on how the unit envisions its contribution to the ELLIS criteria of (1) excellence and (2) diversity, which also apply to our educational activities.