European Laboratory for Learning and Intelligent Systems
{{short description|European non-profit promoting AI research in Europe}}
{{Cleanup bare URLs|date=August 2022}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2020}}
{{Infobox organization
| logo = Logo_of_ELLIS.png
| formation = {{start date and age|df=yes|2018|12|06}}
| website = [https://ellis.eu/en ellis.eu]
}}
ELLIS - the European Laboratory for Learning and Intelligent Systems - is a pan-European AI network of excellence which focuses on fundamental science, technical innovation and societal impact. Founded in 2018, ELLIS builds upon machine learning as the driver for modern AI and aims to secure Europe’s sovereignty in this competitive field by creating a multi-centric AI research laboratory. ELLIS wants to ensure that the highest level of AI research is performed in the open societies of Europe and consists of 43 sites, 16 research programs and a pan-European PhD & Postdoc Program.
History
The organization was inspired by the Learning in Machines and Brains program of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research. ELLIS was first proposed in an open letter to European governments in April 2018, which stated that Europe was not keeping up with the US and China. It urged that European governments act to provide opportunities and funding for world-class AI research in Europe.{{Cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/science/2018/apr/23/scientists-plan-huge-european-ai-hub-to-compete-with-us|title=Scientists plan huge European AI hub to compete with US|last=Sample|first=Ian|date=2018-04-23|work=The Guardian|access-date=2019-12-12|language=en-GB|issn=0261-3077}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/samshead/2018/04/24/european-scientists-call-for-ai-institute-as-us-and-china-pull-away/|title=European Scientists Call For AI Institute As US and China Pull Away|last=Shead|first=Sam|website=Forbes|language=en|access-date=2019-12-11}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.science.org/content/article/15-billion-artificial-intelligence-research-europe-pins-hopes-ethics|title=With €1.5 billion for artificial intelligence research, Europe pins hopes on ethics|date=2018-04-25|website=Science {{!}} AAAS|language=en|access-date=2019-12-12}}
It was founded on 6 December 2018 at the Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems (NeurIPS).{{Cite journal|url=https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-07730-1|title=Europe's AI researchers launch professional body over fears of falling behind|date=2018-12-10|journal=Nature|language=en|doi=10.1038/d41586-018-07730-1|last=Else|first=Holly|s2cid=158889816}}
Board
The members of the board are: {{Cite web |last= |first= |title=Board |url=http://ellis.eu/board |access-date=2023-08-07 |website=European Lab for Learning & Intelligent Systems |language=en}}
- Serge Belongie (University of Copenhagen & Cornell University)
- Nicolò Cesa-Bianchi (Università degli Studi di Milano)
- [https://perso.telecom-paristech.fr/fdalche/ Florence d'Alché-Buc] (Télécom Paris)
- Nada Lavrač (Jožef Stefan Institute)
- Neil D. Lawrence (University of Cambridge)
- Nuria Oliver (ELLIS Alicante Unit Foundation | Institute of Humanity-centric AI)
- Bernhard Schölkopf (Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems) Chairman
- [https://www.di.ens.fr/~josef/ Josef Sivic] (Czech Technical University, École Normale Supérieure & INRIA)
- Sepp Hochreiter (Johannes Kepler University Linz) Board guest
ELLIS sites
ELLIS is creating a network of research sites distributed across Europe and Israel. Currently, there are 43 sites in 17 countries. The long-term goal is to establish a set of world-class ELLIS institutes, each acting as the core of a local AI ecosystem.
| class="wikitable"
|+ELLIS units !Name !Location !Director(s) !Ref(s). |
| [https://ellis.eu/units/alicante ELLIS unit Alicante]
|{{Cite news|url=https://elpais.com/ccaa/2019/12/11/valencia/1576044621_828869.html|title=Alicante será la sede española del centro europeo de investigación en inteligencia artificial|date=2019-12-11|work=El País|access-date=2019-12-11|language=es|issn=1134-6582}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.expansion.com/valencia/2019/12/10/5deff1d7e5fdeaaa668b4591.html|title=Alicante albergará uno de los 17 centros del laboratorio europeo de Inteligencia {{sic|Arti|fical|nolink=y}}|date=2019-12-10|website=Expansión|language=es|access-date=2019-12-11}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.diarioinformacion.com/alicante/2019/12/10/alicante-inteligencia-artificial-ellis/2214769.html|title=Alicante, primera ciudad española de la red europea de Inteligencia Artificial|website=www.diarioinformacion.com|date=10 December 2019|language=es|access-date=2019-12-11}} |
| [https://ellis.eu/units/amsterdam ELLIS unit Amsterdam]
|[https://www.ceessnoek.info/ Cees Snoek] |{{Cite web|url=https://fd.nl/ondernemen/1327547/netwerk-van-wetenschappers-investeert-200-mln-in-menselijke-ai|title=Netwerk van wetenschappers investeert €200 mln in 'menselijke' AI|website=FD.nl|access-date=2019-12-11}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.uva.nl/en/content/news/press-releases/2019/12/amsterdam-selected-as-hub-to-retain-ai-talent.html|title=Amsterdam selected as excellence center to retain AI talent|date=2019-10-12|website=University of Amsterdam|language=en|access-date=2019-12-11}}{{Cite web|url=http://www.agconnect.nl/artikel/amsterdam-en-delft-krijgen-ellis-units-voor-behoud-ai-talent|title=Amsterdam en Delft krijgen ELLIS Units voor behoud AI-talent|website=AG Connect|date=11 December 2019 |language=nl|access-date=2019-12-11}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.uva.nl/en/content/news/press-releases/2019/12/amsterdam-selected-as-hub-to-retain-ai-talent.html|title=Amsterdam selected as excellence center to retain AI talent|date=2019-10-12|website=www.uva.nl|language=en|access-date=2019-12-11}} |
| [https://ellis.eu/units/barcelona ELLIS unit Barcelona]
|Carme Torras, [http://www.cvc.uab.es/blog/2022/10/14/dimosthenis-karatzas-amazon-research-award/ Dimosthenis Karatzas] | |
| [https://ellis.eu/units/berlin ELLIS unit Berlin]
|{{Cite web|url=https://www.bifold.berlin/news-events/news/view/news-detail/prof-mueller-presents-berlins-ai-research-network-at-ellis-berlin-inauguration|title=Berlin AI research presented at ELLIS inauguration|publisher=TU Berlin|access-date=2022-11-10}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.pressestelle.tu-berlin.de/menue/tub_medien/publikationen/medieninformationen/2020/april_2020/medieninformation_nr_642020/|title=KI-Forschung: TU Berlin stärkt ihr Netzwerk|publisher=TU Berlin|language=de|access-date=2020-08-06}} |
| [https://ellis.eu/units/cambridge ELLIS unit Cambridge]
|[https://mlg.eng.cam.ac.uk/carl/ Carl Edward Rasmussen], [https://jmhl.org/ José Miguel Hernández-Lobato] | |
| [https://ellis.eu/units/copenhagen ELLIS unit Copenhagen]
|[https://olewinther.github.io/ Ole Winther] |
| [https://ellis.eu/units/darmstadt ELLIS unit Darmstadt] |
| [https://ellis.eu/units/delft ELLIS unit Delft]
|[https://www.fransoliehoek.net/wp/ Frans Oliehoek] |{{Cite web|url=https://www.tudelft.nl/en/2019/tu-delft/tu-delft-selected-as-ellis-unit-for-ai-and-machine-learning/|title=TU Delft selected as ELLIS unit for AI and machine learning|website=TU Delft|language=en|date=2019-12-12|access-date=2020-08-11}} |
| [https://ellis.eu/units/edinburgh ELLIS unit Edinburgh]
| [http://ivan-titov.org/ Ivan Titov] |
| [https://ellis.eu/units/freiburg ELLIS unit Freiburg]
|[https://ml.informatik.uni-freiburg.de/profile/hutter/ Frank Hutter] |
| [https://ellis.eu/units/genoa ELLIS unit Genoa]
|[http://web.mit.edu/lrosasco/www/ Lorenzo Rosasco], [https://www.iit.it/people/massimiliano-pontil Massimiliano Pontil] |
| [https://ellis.eu/units/graz ELLIS unit Graz]
|[https://igi-web.tugraz.at/people/maass/ Wolfgang Maass] | |
| [https://ellis.eu/units/haifa-technion ELLIS unit Haifa (Technion)]
|[https://shie.net.technion.ac.il/ Shie Mannor] |
| [https://ellis.eu/units/heidelberg ELLIS unit Heidelberg]
|[https://www.embl.org/groups/stegle/ Oliver Stegle] |
| [https://ellis.eu/units/helsinki ELLIS unit Helsinki]
|[https://people.aalto.fi/samuel.kaski Samuel Kaski] |
| [https://ellis.eu/units/jena ELLIS unit Jena]
|[https://www.bgc-jena.mpg.de/en/bgi Markus Reichstein], [https://inf-cv.uni-jena.de/home/group/denzler/ Joachim Denzler] | |
| [https://ellis.eu/units/lausanne-epfl ELLIS unit Lausanne (EPFL)]
|[https://www.epfl.ch/labs/lts4/people/people-current/frossard/ Pascal Frossard] | |
| [https://ellis.eu/units/leuven ELLIS unit Leuven]
|[https://homes.esat.kuleuven.be/~mblaschk/ Matthew Blaschko] |
| [https://ellis.eu/units/linz ELLIS unit Linz]
|{{Cite web|url=https://www.jku.at/en/news-events/news/detail/news/the-jku-and-ist-austria-thrilled-to-join-the-ellis-network/|title=The JKU and IST Austria Thrilled to Join the ELLIS Network|website=JKU - Johannes Kepler Universität Linz|language=en|access-date=2019-12-11}}{{Cite web|url=https://orf.at/stories/3147111/|title=Europäisches KI-Netzwerk etabliert zwei Standorte in Österreich|date=2019-12-10|website=news.ORF.at|language=de|access-date=2019-12-11}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.krone.at/2060323|title=JKU Linz ist bei Netzwerk für "Kunsthirne" dabei|date=2019-12-11|website=www.krone.a|language=de|access-date=2019-12-11}} |
| [https://ellis.eu/units/lisbon ELLIS unit Lisbon] |
| [https://ellis.eu/units/london-ucl ELLIS unit London (UCL)]
|[http://www.gatsby.ucl.ac.uk/~gretton/ Arthur Gretton] |
| [https://ellis.eu/units/lviv ELLIS associate unit Lviv]
|[https://apps.ucu.edu.ua/en/teachers/rostyslav-hryniv/ Rostyslav Hryniv] |
| [https://ellis.eu/units/madrid ELLIS unit Madrid]
|[http://cig.fi.upm.es/pedro-larranaga/ Pedro Larrañaga] | |
| [https://ellis.eu/units/manchester ELLIS unit Manchester]
|[https://research.manchester.ac.uk/en/persons/magnus.rattray Magnus Rattray] | |
| [https://ellis.eu/units/milan ELLIS unit Milan]
| |
| [https://ellis.eu/units/modena-unimore ELLIS unit Modena (Unimore)]
| |
| [https://ellis.eu/units/munich ELLIS unit Munich]
|Daniel Cremers, [https://www.helmholtz-munich.de/icb/pi/fabian-theis Fabian Theis] | |
| [https://ellis.eu/units/nijmegen ELLIS unit Nijmegen]
|[https://www.ru.nl/personen/gerven-m-van Marcel van Gerven] |
| [https://ellis.eu/units/oxford ELLIS unit Oxford] |
| [https://ellis.eu/units/paris ELLIS unit Paris] |
| [https://ellis.eu/units/prague ELLIS unit Prague]
|[https://www.di.ens.fr/~josef/ Josef Sivic] | |
| [https://ellis.eu/units/potsdam ELLIS unit Potsdam]
|[https://herbrich.me/ Ralf Herbrich], [https://www.math.uni-potsdam.de/~sreich/ Sebastian Reich], [https://www.linkedin.com/in/kladewig/?originalSubdomain=de Katharina Ladewig] | |
| [https://ellis.eu/units/saarbrucken ELLIS unit Saarbrücken]
| |
| [https://ellis.eu/units/sofia ELLIS unit Sofia]
|Luc Van Gool | |
| [https://ellis.eu/units/stuttgart ELLIS unit Stuttgart]
|[https://perceptualui.org/people/bulling/ Andreas Bulling] |
| [https://ellis.eu/units/tel-aviv ELLIS unit Tel Aviv]
|[https://cs3801.wixsite.com/amirgloberson Amir Globerson] | |
| [https://ellis.eu/units/trento ELLIS unit Trento]
|[http://disi.unitn.it/~sebe/ Nicu Sebe], Bruno Lepri | |
| [https://ellis.eu/units/tubingen ELLIS unit Tübingen]
|Bernhard Schölkopf, [https://bethgelab.org/ Matthias Bethge] | |
| [https://institute-tue.ellis.eu/ ELLIS Institute Tübingen]
|[https://institute-tue.ellis.eu/research-groups/empirical-inference Bernhard Schölkopf] | |
| [https://ellis.eu/units/turin ELLIS unit Turin]
|[http://www.tatianatommasi.com/ Tatiana Tommasi] | |
| [https://ellis.eu/units/ist-austria ELLIS unit Vienna (IST Austria)]
|[https://cvml.ista.ac.at/ Christoph Lampert] |
| [https://ellis.eu/units/warsaw ELLIS unit Warsaw]
|[https://ideas-ncbr.pl/en/osoby/tomasz-trzcinski/ Tomasz Trzciński] |
| [https://ellis.eu/units/eth-zurich ELLIS unit Zürich (ETH)]
|[https://las.inf.ethz.ch/krausea Andreas Krause] | |
Research programs
In addition to ELLIS units, a European network of top researchers working at locations throughout Europe is being established, organized into 14 ELLIS Programs. These Programs, directed by outstanding European researchers and including leading researchers as Program Fellows, focus on high-impact problem areas that have the potential to move the needle in modern AI.
The ELLIS Programs are inspired by the CIFAR Program model, and closely collaborate with the CIFAR LMB (Learning in Machines and Brains) Program. Each Program has a budget for 2-3 workshops/year to enable meetings of 10-15 Fellows plus guests for intensive scientific exchange. Workshops can be co-located with academic meetings (usually) held in Europe, or organised as stand-alone events, usually at (and with the support of) ELLIS unit sites.
| class="wikitable"
|+ELLIS research programs !Name !Director(s) |
| [https://ellis.eu/programs/ellis-health ELLIS Health]
|[https://bmi.inf.ethz.ch/people/person/gunnar-raetsch Gunnar Rätsch], [https://www.embl.org/groups/stegle/ Oliver Stegle], Mihaela van der Schaar |
| [https://ellis.eu/programs/ellis-robot-learning-closing-the-reality-gap ELLIS Robot Learning: Closing the Reality Gap!]
|[https://h2t.iar.kit.edu/21_2372.php Tamim Asfour], Aude Billard, Jan Peters |
| [https://ellis.eu/programs/geometric-deep-learning Geometric Deep Learning]
|Michael Bronstein, [http://ta.co.nl/ Taco Cohen], Max Welling |
| [https://ellis.eu/programs/human-centric-machine-learning Human-centric Machine Learning]
|Plamen P. Angelov, Nuria Oliver, [https://mlg.eng.cam.ac.uk/adrian/ Adrian Weller] |
| [https://ellis.eu/programs/interactive-learning-and-interventional-representations Interactive Learning and Interventional Representations]
|Nicolò Cesa-Bianchi, [https://las.inf.ethz.ch/krausea Andreas Krause], Bernhard Schölkopf |
| [https://ellis.eu/programs/machine-learning-and-computer-vision Machine Learning and Computer Vision]
|Bernt Schiele, Cordelia Schmid, [https://www.cs.huji.ac.il/~yweiss/ Yair Weiss] |
| [https://ellis.eu/programs/machine-learning-for-earth-and-climate-sciences Machine Learning for Earth and Climate Sciences]
|[https://isp.uv.es/ Gustau Camps-Valls], [https://www.bgc-jena.mpg.de/en/bgi Markus Reichstein] |
| [https://ellis.eu/programs/multimodal-learning-systems Multimodal Learning Systems]
|[https://www.ceessnoek.info/ Cees Snoek], [http://disi.unitn.it/~sebe/ Nicu Sebe] |
| [https://ellis.eu/programs/natural-intelligence Natural Intelligence]
|[https://bethgelab.org/ Matthias Bethge], [https://y-lanb.org/ Y-Lan Boureau], Peter Dayan |
| [https://ellis.eu/programs/natural-language-processing Natural Language Processing]
|[https://andre-martins.github.io/ André Martins], Iryna Gurevych, [http://ivan-titov.org/ Ivan Titov] |
| [https://ellis.eu/programs/quantum-and-physics-based-machine-learning Quantum and Physics Based Machine Learning]
|[http://www.snn.ru.nl/~bertk/ Hilbert Johan Kappen], [https://faculty.unibocconi.eu/riccardozecchina/ Riccardo Zecchina] |
| [https://ellis.eu/programs/robust-machine-learning Robust Machine Learning]
|Chris Holmes, [https://people.aalto.fi/samuel.kaski Samuel Kaski], Yee Whye Teh |
| [https://ellis.eu/programs/semantic-symbolic-and-interpretable-machine-learning Semantic, Symbolic and Interpretable Machine Learning]
|[https://www.dbs.ifi.lmu.de/~tresp/ Volker Tresp], Kristian Kersting, [https://www.unifi.it/p-doc2-2016-200006-F-3f2a3d2f332b2c-0.html Paolo Frasconi] |
| [https://ellis.eu/programs/theory-algorithms-and-computations-of-modern-learning-systems Theory, Algorithms and Computations of Modern Learning Systems]
|[https://www.di.ens.fr/~fbach/ Francis Bach], [https://uni-tuebingen.de/fakultaeten/mathematisch-naturwissenschaftliche-fakultaet/fachbereiche/informatik/lehrstuehle/methoden-des-maschinellen-lernens/personen/philipp-hennig/ Philipp Hennig], [http://web.mit.edu/lrosasco/www/ Lorenzo Rosasco] |
PhD & Postdoc Program
The [https://ellis.eu/phd-postdoc ELLIS PhD & Postdoc Program] supports excellent young researchers by connecting them to leading researchers across Europe and offering a variety of networking and training activities, including summer schools and workshops. ELLIS PhDs and postdocs conduct cutting-edge curiosity-driven research in machine learning or a related research area with the goal of publishing in top-tier conferences in the field.
There are two tracks within the ELLIS PhD & Postdoc Program: the academic track and the industry track. These tracks have separate requirements for admission and criteria for activity during the appointment, but otherwise offer the same benefits, network and resources to the applicant.
Academic track
PhD students and postdocs in the academic track strive for international collaboration as they partner with two European academic institutions in their research. These candidates are supervised by two advisors from different European countries: one of the advisors must be an ELLIS fellow/scholar or unit faculty; the other advisor should be an ELLIS fellow, scholar, unit faculty or member. PhDs and postdocs in the program visit the exchange institution for min. 6 months (the partitioning of this time is flexible). Normally, the exchange is partially sponsored by the exchange institution; students can also apply for the ELISE mobility grant to support their exchange.
Industry track
The industry track is open to PhD and postdoc candidates that will be part of a collaboration between an academic institution and an industry partner, and will spend time conducting research at the industry partner during their PhD or postdoc. The candidate will spend a minimum of 50% of their time at the academic institution, and at least 6 months (cumulative) with the industry partner.
For this track, both advisors may be located in the same country. One advisor will represent the academic institution and the other the industry partner. One advisor must be an ELLIS fellow/scholar or unit faculty. The second advisor can be an ELLIS fellow, scholar, member, unit faculty OR it is also possible for the second advisor to join if they have co-authored a paper with the applying student as a result of their collaboration, in a top-tier venue in machine learning or related sub-fields (details here).
Calls and admissions: There is a yearly central call for applications in fall, which will be announced on the ELLIS website. Admission to the program is competitive. For reference, about 5-10% of eligible applicants are accepted via the central call. The next chance to apply via the central recruiting is in fall 2024. Nomination to the program (for students who already started their PhD with ELLIS faculty) is possible year-round.