The Falling Walls Event in Berlin (Germany) has been the ideal place to present the ELIAS Nodes to the public. The ELIAS Alliance for European Leadership in Innovation with AI and Science event held on November 8th, introduced its new nodes in Amsterdam, Barcelona, Cambridge, Copenhaguen, Munich, Postdam, Tübingen, and Zurich.
The nodes establish a network of startups and incubators and collaborate to support entrepreneurship and the open-source development of foundation models for European value creation.
Funded by the EU through the European Lighthouse of AI for Sustainability, the ELIAS Alliance has close links to the European Laboratory for Learning and Intelligent Systems (ELLIS). ELLIS brings together the strongest AI research labs in Europe and serves as a one-stop shop for PhD and postdoc candidates to find their best matching supervisors.
Each ELIAS node works as an entrepeneurial hub, leveraging the unique strengths and ecosystems of its location, and creating new possibilities for students to earn their degrees with innovation-centric research projects. One of the main goals of the ELIAS Alliance is to integrate value-creation literacy and future skills into academic curricula, serving as a liaison between academia and business across Europe.
The event had some key moments such as the presentations on two new initiatives supported by the ELIAS Alliance: the “Open Sci” foundation model project and the “AI Launchpad” accelerator. Ann-Lauriene Schumacher from ETH AI Center explained: “With the AI Launchpad, we are building a pan-European accelerator program as a one-stop shop to support innovative startups and fostering the European exchange in terms of knowledge, resources and financing.”
At the event, representatives from each ELIAS Node provided insights into their ongoing projects, highlighting the wide diversity of innovations that leverage the unique strengths of their respective regions.
The ELIAS Node in Barcelona has the support of the Computer Vision Center (CVC), Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF), Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC), ESADE Business School, Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC) and the Parc de Recerca UAB.
Dimosthenis Karatzas, Scientific Director of Xarxa RDI-IA, Associate Director of the Computer Vision Center in Barcelona and Co-head of the ELIAS Node, shared his thoughts on Europe’s potential: “While Europe is at the forefront of AI talent and knowledge, much of the real-world impact is currently happening outside our borders. ELIAS offers a platform that combines AI expertise with entrepreneurial skills, enabling us to scale up AI-driven innovation in Barcelona and collaborate seamlessly with other top innovation hubs across Europe.”
The Alliance also shared the initiative to launch an European MSc Graduation Project Program and an annual Sciencepreneur Meeting, both plans are drafted to promote knowledge exchange and develop leadership in AI value creation across Europe.
Following the progress of these initiatives, the ELIAS Aliance will cultivate a dynamic European ecosystem that brings together talent, entrepreneurship, and AI advancement, fostering sustainable and high-impact innovation.
