The European Laboratory for Learning and Intelligent Systems (ELLIS) unit in Amsterdam is a local branch of the ELLIS Society, a diverse European network that promotes research excellence and advances breakthroughs in AI. With a focus on machine learning and machine intelligence within AI, the unit’s primary focus is promoting excellence at home and connecting local community members to relevant research and funding opportunities. This lays the foundation for the unit to facilitate high-quality international exchange, collaboration, and mutual development.

The unit offers a wide range of funding programmes benefiting The ELLIS unit in Amsterdam is leveraging the city's strengths by actively collaborating with Amsterdam's AI initiatives and different communities within the local AI ecosystem. Among others, the unit’s honours programme provides a unique opportunity for master’s students to develop a thesis project with international collaboration as its core component, while the ELLIS workshop programme extends financial assistance to workshops organised in Amsterdam initiated by ELLIS faculty.

Beyond acting as the local touchpoint for the ELLIS Society, the unit brings together top talent from local stakeholders. The Amsterdam community has significantly grown since it was initiated in 2019, with precisely 100 members working on different themes within the AI landscape.

The ELLIS unit Amsterdam builds on the city’s strengths by actively engaging with Amsterdam’s AI ecosystem and connecting local actors to empower innovation in fundamental basic research. The unit proactively supports local AI initiatives, and organises events in Amsterdam.