Finland is strongly investing in AI and establishing an ELLIS Institute to accelerate research and attract talent

ELLIS Institute Finland will act as the hub of an ecosystem of top talents, businesses and investments in Finland, fueling RDI and collaborations, and leveraging Europe’s fastest supercomputer LUMI. At its core, the Institute will foster fundamental machine learning research built on European competence and values.

“The European AI community has been arguing that our governments ought to face the international competition in AI and the implied challenges for our societies. Building on a broad effort of public and private funding, Finland’s announcement to found an ELLIS institute is forward-looking and sends a strong signal that this message is being taken seriously,” says Bernhard Schölkopf, Scientific Director of ELLIS Institute Tübingen and the President of ELLIS. 

ELLIS Institute Finland will be the second institute of ELLIS, the pan-European AI network of excellence. The first ELLIS Institute was established in 2023 in Tübingen, Germany. ELLIS Institute Finland will be coordinated by Aalto University, and all universities in Finland will be equal partners.

The ELLIS Institute in Finland builds on the long track record of pioneering machine learning research at the Finnish Center for Artificial Intelligence. FCAI currently hosts ELLIS Unit Helsinki, the local node of the European Laboratory for Learning and Intelligent Systems that will be expanded into the Institute. Aalto University professor Samuel Kaski is the director of FCAI and ELLIS Unit Helsinki.

“Finland has been a forerunner in AI, and the ELLIS Institute will take us to the next level of quality and global attractiveness to experts, which is necessary for scaling up the benefits of AI with companies and society more broadly,” says professor Kaski. “Real benefits also require real private investment, and Peter Sarlin is setting a visionary example here for our current and future partners."