Instead, it stands for the European Laboratory for Learning and Intelligent Systems (ELLIS), a pan-European network that brings together leading research institutions, computing infrastructure, and industry partners to strengthen Europe’s position in artificial intelligence (AI). The initiative supports cutting-edge AI research and the development of European AI technologies, including open-source foundation models and shared datasets that can serve as the basis for future innovations.
North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW), one of Europe’s strongest industrial regions, provides an ideal environment for this collaboration. ELLIS Unit NRW builds on a strong and rapidly growing AI ecosystem in the region, including the Lamarr Institute for Machine Learning (ML) and AI, one of Germany’s national AI competence centers, the AI Center at RWTH Aachen University, and the Jülich AI Factory (JAIF). To further strengthen collaboration, the three CESOC partners – the University of Bonn, the University of Cologne, and Forschungszentrum Jülich -have joined forces with RWTH Aachen University, Bielefeld University, Ruhr University Bochum, TU Dortmund, and Paderborn University to establish the ELLIS Unit NRW.
The initiative connects leading researchers and infrastructure across the region, including JUPITER, Europe’s fastest supercomputer, located at Forschungszentrum Jülich. The ELLIS Unit NRW is coordinated by CESOC members Jürgen Gall (University of Bonn), who also coordinates the RAINA project on foundation models for extreme weather prediction, and Aleksandar Bojchevski (University of Cologne). Together, they are helping to position NRW as one of Europe’s leading hubs for trustworthy and impactful AI research.
For more information, visit the websites of the University of Bonn and Forschungszentrum Jülich.
