ELLIS Unit Alicante: Committed to Responsible AI with Positive Social Impact

ELLIS Alicante is a private, non-profit foundation created in June 2020, committed to creating a world-class scientific team focused on responsible AI for Social Good. As the only ELLIS Unit created from scratch and dedicated to this topic, ELLIS Alicante stands as a European leader and pioneer in responsible AI research. The foundation focuses on studying the intricate relationship between humans and intelligent systems, developing novel computational models of human behavior, and addressing the limitations and ethical implications of AI. Its name, the Institute for Human(ity)-Centric AI (IHCAI), embodies its vision: a firm belief in AI’s transformative potential to contribute to progress, understood as an improvement of the quality of life for all people, the rest of living beings while safeguarding the planet.

Mission & Vision 

ELLIS Alicante’s mission is to drive the development of human-centric AI that upholds democratic values, fundamental rights, and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Central to its vision is the creation of transparent, fair, and privacy- respecting AI systems, with a strong commitment to mitigating biases. ELLIS Alicante focuses on fostering ethical and responsible AI research, emphasizing human well-being as a core priority. 

By exploring the intricate interactions between humans and AI systems, the Unit addresses critical challenges such as algorithmic bias, privacy risks, and the societal implications of AI technologies. Their goal is to design AI solutions that positively impact society, ensuring that technological advancements foster meaningful progress for all.

Establishing a newly created ELLIS unit in Alicante is truly a dream come true. It represents a unique opportunity to place my hometown, Alicante, at the forefront of AI research while also contributing to a cause that is deeply meaningful to me and has tremendous social importance: developing human-centric AI for social good. We are grateful to the Valencian Government for their continued support, which made the creation of ELLIS Alicante possible, and to our partners, supporters and donors for contributing to our mission and vision. We are also proud of the growth and impact of ELLIS in Europe, and we are filled with hope and excitement as we look ahead to continue fostering world-class AI research, attracting top talent, and strengthening collaborations across academia and industry to ensure that AI benefits society. There is no greater motivation that sharing the common purpose of shaping the future of AI in Europe and beyond. - Nuria Oliver, Director of ELLIS Alicante and Co-Founder of ELLIS

Key Numbers

• Research Team: The unit brings together an interdisciplinary team of 10 researchers from diverse fields, including machine learning, social sciences, and humanities, under the leadership of Dr. Nuria Oliver. ELLIS Alicante also counts 16 Associate Researchers, including 5 ELLIS Fellows/Scholars, who are prominent scientists from a wide range of institutions world-wide. Furthermore, ELLIS Alicante hosts Visiting Scientists who contribute their expertise during their time at the lab. Since its creation, ELLIS Alicante has hosted 12 visiting scientists.

• The ELLIS Network: ELLIS Alicante is a very active contributor to the ELLIS Network in several ways: the Director of ELLIS Alicante is a Co-Founder and Vice-President of ELLIS and Co-Director of the ELLIS Program on Human-Centric Machine Learning. ELLIS Alicante has hosted or will host 9 ELLIS PhD students as primary or secondary location, and 1 ELLIS Postdoc. ELLIS Alicante also supports ELLIS via its board and the partnerships working group.

• PhD and Postdoc Program: Active participation in the ELLIS PhD and Postdoc program, hosting and co-supervising 9 doctoral students and 1 postdoctoral scientist to date.

• Collaborations: Actively fosters partnerships with over 20 institutions, international organizations, and companies.

• Outreach: ELLIS Alicante devotes significant efforts to scientific outreach, regularly participating in the media, helping in the organization of conferences for the public and organizing sessions with teenagers to inspire the new generations to pursue scientific careers. 

Key Achievements & Milestones 

• Social Innovation Prize 2022: Awarded by the Spanish Association of Foundations for impactful AI research during the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Top 100 AI Projects: Recognized by IRCAI under UNESCO for contributions to sustainable development through AI.
• Doctoral Symposium 2022: Organized the second ELLIS Doctoral Symposium, bringing together 150 PhD students and leading AI researchers to discuss AI for Social Good.
• Awards: Several scientists at ELLIS Alicante have received prestigious awards, including the King James I Award (2021), the Abie Technology Leadership Award (2021), the Werner Von Siemens Award (2023) and the ICMI Ten Year Technical Impact award (2024).
• 2024 Achievements:
  • In 2024, regarding people and collaborations, ELLIS Alicante hosted 8 ELLIS PhD students, 5 visiting scientists and 1 ELLIS postdoctoral researcher. It also counts with 16 associate scientists. A total of 16 collaboration agreements were signed with public and private institutions, and the foundation was supported by 6 donor organizations.
  • In terms of science and innovation, ELLIS Alicante produced 20 scientific publications, developed 1 tutorial and 1 dataset, and received 6 awards and recognitions. One of the publications is in the top 5% of the world regarding its impact according to Altmetric. ELLIS Alicante also led or participated in key initiatives including the European project ELIAS, the Spanish national project within the PERTE for the New Economy of Language, and the creation of a Center of Excellence with Intel (RESUMAIS).
  • In the area of outreach and media impact, the team delivered 68 invited talks, organized 7 HCML Reading Group sessions, and coordinated 4 conferences and workshops. Three authored opinion pieces were published in prominent media outlets such as El País and Euractiv and appeared in over 90 media publications. Some of the most recognized topics include AI for Social Good, algorithmic censorship of art on social media, and bias in beauty filters. ELLIS Alicante is the number 1 search result in Google for key terms, including “IA para el Bien Social”, “bias in beauty filters”, “algorithmic censorship of art”.

Research Areas 

ELLIS Alicante’s research is designed to promote scientific progress at the intersection between AI and people, structured in three large areas:

1. AI that understands us, by modelling human behavior using AI techniques both for individuals and larger groups, with a special interest in Social Good applications.
2. AI that interacts with us, via the development of intelligent, interactive systems, and the study of human-AI interaction.
3. AI that we trust, tackling the ethical challenges brought by AI - such as algorithmic discrimination, violation of privacy, opacity, lack of veracity or subliminal manipulation of human behavior - and studying the societal impact of AI.

Ongoing Research Projects

• Project “BIASED” | Computational Modeling of Human Irrational or Biased Behavior: Exploring how AI systems can both mitigate and exacerbate human cognitive biases. PhD thesis of ELLIS PhD student Aditya Gulati
• Project “FL” | Federated Learning: Developing decentralized AI models that preserve data privacy. PhD thesis of ELLIS PhD student Gergely D. Németh
• Project “AIDEAS” | AI for Education Based on Dialogue and Active Socratic Learning: Maike: a Socratic Chatbot designed to engage users in meaningful conversations. PhD thesis of ELLIS PhD student Lucile Favero
• Project “SOCIALAI” | Social Implications of AI in Social Platforms. PhD thesis of ELLIS PhD student Piera Riccio
• Project “FAIRNESS” | Fair Machine Learning Models: Algorithmic fairness, Graph Neural Networks, and the intersection between technical design and AI regulation. PhD thesis of ELLIS PhD student Adrián Arnaiz-Rodríguez.
• Project “XAI” | Algorithmic Transparency and Explainability. Human-centric explainable AI. PhD thesis of ELLIS PhD student Julien Colin
• Project “VLMBE” | Biases in Data for Training Language Models: AI tools supporting the Spanish language as well as the co-official languages. Research by ELLIS postdoctoral researcher Erik Derner
• Project “HCLM” | People-Centered Language Models: Human and ethical aspects arising from the widespread use of large language models. Research by ELLIS postdoctoral researcher Erik Derner
• Project “U-FAIR” | Uncertainty and Fairness. Research by ELLIS PhD student Kajetan Schweighofer
• Fair Machine Learning Predictions in Society. Research by ELLIS PhD student Benedikt Höltgen

These projects have generated a significant number of scientific publications.

Collaborations & Ecosystem 

European collaborations: As part of the ELLIS network, ELLIS Alicante also plays a leadership role: Dr. Nuria Oliver is co-founder of ELLIS and has served as its Vice President of the Board since its creation. She is also co-director the Human-Centric Machine Learning research program. In 2024, ELLIS Alicante co-organized a workshop in Helsinki and continued its key role in the ELLIS PhD and Postdoc program, hosting several international students and researchers.

Global outreach: ELLIS Alicante is a founding member of NAIXUS, an international scientific network launched under the auspices of UNESCO to promote the use of Artificial Intelligence for Sustainable Development. In 2024, it continued to contribute to NAIXUS by connecting research efforts across countries and fostering collaboration on AI solutions for global development challenges.

Alliances: ELLIS Alicante collaborates closely with leading universities both in Spain, Europe and outside of Europe, as well as with key industry partners including Intel, the Banco Sabadell Foundation, Nippon Gases, CaixaBank, and the Gestamp Foundation, among others.

Regional impact: As part of the Valencian innovation ecosystem, ELLIS Alicante links responsible AI research with technology companies and regional public institutions. The continued support of the Valencia Government is a critical element for the success of ELLIS Alicante.

Supporting Young Talent 

ELLIS Alicante is committed to nurturing young talent by offering:

• PhD Opportunities: Hosting doctoral candidates through the ELLIS PhD program

• Training Initiatives: Organizing workshops, seminars, and symposiums to enhance research skills.

• Internships: Available to students from diverse academic backgrounds, provided they demonstrate a strong commitment to the team's mission and a willingness to learn.

• Educational events: To inspire the next generation to pursue STEM careers, demystify AI, and highlight its potential for social good.

Outreach & Engagement 

• The HCML Reading Group aims to gather researchers and students interested in both getting a wide vision of the topic and also deeply diving into it. Reading papers about different topics inside HCML, and also discussing new problem set-ups, different approaches, and sources of bias will lead us to a broad understanding of how algorithmic and human decisions influence each other.

• Research Talks: The ELLIS Distinguished Speaker Series hosted by ELLIS Alicante brings leading AI researchers from around the world to share their work with our team. Similarly, the Student Presentation Series provides a platform for PhD students to present their research to the ELLIS Alicante team.

• Educational Event on AI for High Schools: Each year, ELLIS Alicante organizes an outreach event attended by hundreds of high school students and teachers from the region. The initiative seeks to inspire the next generation to pursue careers in STEM, demystify AI concepts, and showcase its potential to drive positive social impact.

• 3rd European Forum on AI: ELLIS Alicante co-organizes this widely attended conference with over 1,000 attendees, bringing together experts, public institutions, companies, academia and NGOs in Alicante to engage with the general public about AI.

• In 2024, scientists from ELLIS Alicante delivered 68 invited talks in national and international conferences.

• Workshop and Tutorial Organization in 2024-2025:

  • ELLIS / ELIAS HCML Workshop 2024

    This event was the annual workshop of the ELLIS Human-centric Machine Learning Program. It was hosted in Helsinki on the 27th of June 2024 and online, as part of the ELISE Wrap-Up Conference & ELLIS Community Event. The workshop was also part of the ELIAS H2020 project and was co-organized by ELISE.

  • ELLIS / ULB-MLG Workshop 2025

    On the 28th of February 2025, ELLIS Alicante organized a workshop with visiting scientists from the Machine Learning Group (MLG) of the Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB). All talks will take place on that day.

  • Mobile and Social Computing Lab @ FBK Workshop

    On the 9th of April 2025, ELLIS Alicante organized a workshop with visiting researchers from the Mobile and Social Computing Lab (MobS) of the Fondazione Bruno Kessler (FBK) in Trento. All talks will be held on the same day.

  • Workshop 'Colors of AI', held at the ICCC’24 conference and co-organized by ELLIS PhD student Piera Riccio

  • ICML 2024 Tutorial on Graph Learning: Principles, Challenges, and Open Directions by ELLIS PhD student Adrián Arnaiz-Rodríguez

For further insights into ELLIS Alicante make sure to watch the video below.