The initiative is intended to assemble top European talent in the field of machine learning to enable the continent to be competitive in modern AI and to benefit from the positive economic and social impacts that will flow from that. The ELLIS Units will gather together more than 200 million euros in financing over the next five years. In addition to Amsterdam, there will be centres of excellence in seventeen other European cities and in Israel.

Max Welling, professor of Machine learning at the UvA and leader of the ELLIS Unit in Amsterdam: ‘This ELLIS Unit will further strengthen the leading position of the University of Amsterdam in machine learning and artificial intelligence in Europe. The ELLIS network will facilitate the exchange of top researchers and students in the field of AI. I am very excited that the UvA has decided to wholeheartedly support this important movement to make Europe competitive in AI.’ As part of this initiative, the centre of excellence in Amsterdam will appoint three new senior researchers and six new PhD students.

About ELLIS
The European Laboratory for Learning and Intelligent Systems is a pan-European effort that was established in 2018 to promote European excellence of research in the field of machine learning and related areas. It aims to provide outstanding opportunities for European researchers to conduct their research in Europe and to nurture the next generation of young European researchers in this strategically important area.