Back Barcelona hosts one of the four new unites of ELLIS, the European network of excellence in AI, involving Catalan universities including UPF

Barcelona hosts one of the four new unites of ELLIS, the European network of excellence in AI, involving Catalan universities including UPF

Catalonia joins the European network of excellence in research on artificial intelligence, through the participation of several Catalan universities, including UPF. The ELLIS Unit Barcelona will be the third largest in the network and will consist of 21 researchers from five universities, six from UPF, and four public research centres of the Catalan knowledge system. It will promote interdisciplinary and cross-cutting research, foster links with industry, and train the next generation of outstanding talent in this field.

16.03.2023

Imatge inicial

Catalonia will host one of the four new units of the European Laboratory for Learning and Intelligent Systems (ELLIS), the pan-European network of excellence in artificial intelligence that connects the top researchers in the field of AI in Europe. The new ELLIS Unit Barcelona will become the third largest of the almost forty that make up the network, and endorses the high quality and impact of the research carried out in Catalonia in the field of AI.

The candidacy of the Catalan unit of ELLIS has been driven by the Catalan Government in coordination with the stakeholders of the country’s knowledge system, within the framework of the Artificial Intelligence strategy of Catalonia (Catalonia.AI), led by the Catalan Ministry of Business and Labour.

Thus the minister for Business and Labour, Roger Torrent, has welcomed Catalonia’s integration into the European AI network, pointing out that “this once again places Catalonia as a hub of reference in Europe for research and technological excellence”. He added, “initiatives like this help us to generate and attract new and retain the existing research talent in Catalonia, essential for the country’s business fabric”.

Meanwhile, the minister for Research and Universities, Joaquim Nadal, considers the opening of an ELLIS unit in Catalonia a milestone “establishing Catalonia as a key node in the field of artificial intelligence research in Europe, a field of study with an immediate impact on citizens’ well-being and the productivity of the productive fabric”. Nadal welcomed “the coordination between the stakeholders of the Catalan knowledge system and the Government, which has culminated in the confirmation of this fantastic news, again demonstrating that by working together as a system far more is achieved than through the individual contributions made by each one”.

Nine research institutions involved

With a research team composed of 21 researchers, the ELLIS Unit Barcelona will connect the scientific communities of five universities and four research centres of the Catalan knowledge system: the University of Barcelona (UB), the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB), the Polytechnic University of Catalonia (UPC), Pompeu Fabra University (UPF), the Open University of Catalonia (UOC), the Computer Vision Center (CVC), the Institute of Robotics and Industrial Informatics (IRI/CSIC-UPC), the Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC–CNS), and the Artificial Intelligence Research Institute (IIIA-CSIC).

From Catalonia, the new Unit will promote interdisciplinary and cross-cutting research in IA, foster strong links with industry, and train the next generation of talent in this field. Its work will focus on fundamental research in machine learning and related fields such as vision, robotics and natural language processing.

The Catalan unit will be led by the PhD in Informatics and head of the Perception and Manipulation research group at the Institute of Robotics and Industrial Informatics (CSIC-UPC), Carme Torras. A mathematician specializing in robotics and artificial intelligence, Dr. Torras is a 2020 National Research Award winner in recognition of her research on AI and robotics in healthcare. Co-directing the ELLIS Unit Barcelona will be the associate director of the CVC and professor at the UAB, Dimosthenis Karatzas. In Carme Torras’ opinion, “the ELLIS network is a privileged ecosystem to develop AI in an ethically beneficial way for humanity. The new ELLIS Unit Barcelona is looking forward to joining forces and contributing to this goal”.

Carlos Castillo (DTIC-UPF): “Having an ELLIS Unit in Barcelona is excellent news for our researchers and for the people who implement solutions based on artificial intelligence in local industry”

Among the 21 members of the ELLIS Unit Barcelona, six belong to UPF. They are Carlos Castillo, Emilia Gómez, Gergely Neu, Coloma Ballester, Gábor Lugosi and Horacio Saggion. Carlos Castillo, also a fellow of the ELLIS pan-European network, assures that: ”from the outset, ELLIS has focused much of its work on understanding and mitigating the risks of the application of artificial intelligence in sensitive areas. Having an ELLIS Unit in Barcelona is excellent news for our researchers and for the people who implement solutions based on artificial intelligence in local industry”.

Five of the six UPF members of the ELLIS Unit Barcelona are from the UPF Department of Information and Communication Technologies (DTIC). Last November, the DTIC, which applies AI transversally in several of its research fields, renewed its accreditation as a ‘María de Maeztu’ unit of excellence, one of the highest institutional recognitions for scientific research in Spain, with its strategic programme “(Artificial and natural) Intelligence for ICT and beyond”.  One of the UPF members of this ELLIS Unit, Gábor Lugosi, is a member of the UPF Department of Economics and Business. 

European AI research network

ELLIS is a fundamental research excellence network in artificial intelligence in Europe to advance the state of the art, generate technological innovation and create a positive social and economic impact. Founded in 2018, as the result of a movement of the European scientific community, it aims to make Europe a pioneering region and strengthen technological excellence and sovereignty in as strategic a discipline as is AI.

In addition to Barcelona, the other three new units that have joined ELLIS are Graz (Austria), Potsdam (Germany), and Trento (Italy). With these new additions, ELLIS currently has 39 units in 14 countries, connecting the best researchers in the field in order to drive excellent research and the highest level of competitiveness on an international scale and shape the future of AI in Europe, towards secure, beneficial, human-centred AI.

Catalonia, a pole of innovation, leadership and talent in AI

Catalonia has excellent capabilities that make it an ideal country to stand out in the field of artificial intelligence. It has an internationally prestigious scientific and academic community in AI, with more than 25 research groups in 16 institutions, as well as first-rate scientific infrastructures. It also enjoys a powerful ICT sector, with 180 companies specializing in artificial intelligence invoicing 1.35 billion euros and employing 8,500 workers.

With the aim of making Catalonia a hub of innovation, leadership and attracting talent and companies in the field of AI, in 2020 the Catalan Government promoted the Catalonia.AI Strategy. The creation of the ELLIS Unit Barcelona has been one of the lines of work of the Artificial Intelligence Research Alliance in Catalonia (AIRA), which, together with the Centre of Innovation for Data Tech and Artificial Intelligence (CIDAI), the Observatory of Ethics in Artificial Intelligence (OEIAC) and the AI Community of the Digital Catalonia Alliance, is one of the four pillars of the Catalonia.AI strategy, specifically dedicated to promoting research in artificial intelligence and the attraction and retention of talent in this field.

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