ELLIS Engagement at AIS25 Highlights Role in Europe’s AI Research Landscape

A central milestone of AIS25 was the formal launch of RAISE — the Resource for AI Science in Europe, a new European Commission initiative aiming to provide shared computational resources, data, and collaborative frameworks to accelerate AI-driven scientific discovery across Europe. In this context, the European Laboratory for Learning and Intelligent Systems (ELLIS) was strongly represented, underscoring its role as a cornerstone of European excellence in machine learning and AI research.

Workshops Illustrate the Potential of AI for Advancing Science

Numerous ELLIS Members served as scientific co-organisers of the Summit’s parallel workshops, covering topics such as Life Science, Material Science, Planet & Climate, Society & Community, Science for AI, and Policy for AI in Science. These workshops provided a structured forum to examine how AI methods are transforming fundamental and applied research areas — from biomedical discovery and materials science to environmental modelling and societal challenges.

The “Science for AI” workshop, curated by Matthias Bethge (University of Tübingen, ELLIS Fellow and ELLIS Co-founder) and Arnout Devos (ETH Zurich, ELLIS Scientific Coordinator) as part of the ELIAS Alliance, explored how scientific advances underpin progress in AI methodology. The session highlighted Europe’s potential to build a globally competitive AI research ecosystem grounded in openness, collaboration, and scientific rigor. Contributions from researchers including Zhijing Jin (MPI-IS, ELLIS Advisor), Antoine Bosselut (EPFL, ELLIS Fellow), and Nicu Sebe (ELLIS Fellow / UniTN) showcased current advances in reasoning, language models, multimodality, and sustainable AI.

ELLIS & ELIAS Alliance and the Emerging European AI Ecosystem

The Summit also highlighted the synergetic relationship between ELLIS and the ELIAS Alliance, a consortium built on the scientific foundation established by ELLIS. While ELLIS provides the core research excellence network in machine learning, ELIAS connects this expertise to broader scientific and innovation ecosystems. This complementary structure positions both organizations as key contributors to future pan-European initiatives such as RAISE.

In this context, ELLIS’s presence at AIS25 was strategically important: with RAISE now officially launched, AIS25 provided an opportunity for ELLIS to demonstrate its scientific strengths and reinforce its relevance as a potential partner in shaping the program’s future activities.

Recognition and Policy Engagement

At AIS25, Max Welling (CuspAI, ELLIS Fellow) received the inaugural ELIAS Sciencepreneurship Award, recognizing his leadership at the intersection of academic AI research, entrepreneurship, and materials discovery for sustainability.

The Summit also facilitated exchanges between EU policymakers and leading researchers. Representatives of the ELIAS Alliance, including Matthias Bethge and Arnout Devos, as well as ELLIS Fellows Søren Hauberg (Technical University of Denmark), Antoine Bosselut, Anna Kreshuk (EMBL, ELLIS Scholar) and Nicu Sebe met with Henna Virkkunen (Executive Vice-President for Tech Sovereignty, Security and Democracy at the European Commission) and Ekaterina Zaharieva (Commissioner for Startups, Research and Innovation at the European Commision), discussing the need for greater speed, scale, and coordination in EU-wide innovation funding.

Additional Workshops Led by ELLIS Members

In addition to the “Science for AI” track, ELLIS Members also played leading roles in other thematic workshops. The Planet & Climate workshop, curated by Markus Reichstein (Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry, ELLIS Fellow, Director of the ELLIS Unit Jena) and Sašo Džeroski (Jožef Stefan Institute, ELLIS Member), examined how AI can advance environmental and climate research. The Life Science workshop, led by Anna Kreshuk and Oliver Stegle (EMBL, ELLIS Fellow & Board Member), explored how Europe can leverage its strong life science research base to enable large-scale, AI-driven discovery, in alignment with the ambitions of the newly launched RAISE initiative.

A Shared Vision for Europe’s AI-Enabled Scientific Future

Throughout AIS25, panels and discussions focused on the role of public AI, shared infrastructure, and community-driven research in accelerating scientific progress. Speakers such as Nathan Benaich (Air Street Capital), Jessica Montgomery (University of Cambridge, Head of ELIAS Alliance Node Cambridge), and Tim Rocktäschel (University College London, ELLIS Fellow) emphasized the importance of accessible compute, experimentation-friendly environments, and strong research networks.

A keynote by Yoshua Bengio (University of Montréal, LawZero) reinforced the urgency of building trustworthy, human-centric AI systems and the importance of strengthening Europe’s foundational research ecosystem.

High Visibility of ELLIS at the Summit

ELLIS was also represented with an exhibitor booth, providing a point of engagement for researchers, policymakers, and innovators. High visitor turnout reflected strong interest in ELLIS activities, research programs, and opportunities for collaboration within the ELLIS and ELIAS networks.

Written with contributions by Aygun Garayeva (ELIAS PR Manager)