Establishing an ELLIS-Unit NRW (collaborative AI research excellence initiative)
Prof. Dr. Aleksandar Bojchevski, Prof. Dr. Christian Sohler
Informatik
Motivation
The European Laboratory for Learning and Intelligent Systems (ELLIS) is in short a network of excellence. Establishing an ELLIS Unit NRW will unite leading AI researchers across North Rhine-Westphalia to advance fundamental research in AI/ML and drive innovation, including applications to Earth System Sciences. We will leverage NRW’s rich academic landscape, unique industrial ecosystem, and world-class HPC to become a globally recognized hub.
Many scientists from the KPA can benefit from such a unit which can act as an incubator for continentalscale transdisciplinary research projects. The unit will bring international visibility since ELLIS is competitive and act as a talent magnet, bringing top researchers to NRW. Our long-term vision is to establish a permanent, state-supported ELLIS Institute in NRW to serve as an AI Lighthouse for the region.
Status
The application for an ELLIS Unit NRW was approved on 1 April 2026. There are
- a corresponding press release from the University of Cologne
- a post on the ELLIS website and on ELLIS’s LinkedIn page
- and on the ELLIS Unit NRW’s own website
The founding institutions of the ELLIS Unit NRW are RWTH Aachen University, Bielefeld University, the University of Bonn, the University of Cologne, TU Dortmund University, Ruhr University Bochum, Forschungszentrum Jülich and Paderborn University.
It is coordinated by Juergen Gall (University of Bonn) together with a board of co-directors from the participating institutions, including Bastian Leibe (RWTH Aachen University), Barbara Hammer (Bielefeld University), Aleksandar Bojchevski (University of Cologne), Katharina Eggensperger (TU Dortmund University), Jenia Jitsev (Forschungszentrum Jülich) and Axel-Cyrille Ngonga Ngomo (Paderborn University), as well as Asja Fischer (Ruhr University Bochum).