Public and private sector investment are coming together to take artificial intelligence (AI) research in Finland to the next level. The Finnish Ministry of Education and Culture has committed 10 million euros per year (during 2025-2028), as well as 6 million euros for the launch phase, for a national ELLIS Institute, an AI and machine learning research hub in the European Laboratory for Learning and Intelligent Systems. In addition, the foundation of Peter Sarlin, the CEO and co-founder of Silo AI, will donate 10 million euros towards professorships in ELLIS Institute Finland.
This is a significant boost for AI research and development in Finland and a signal that Finland is investing in AI as a tool for growth as well as attracting an international expert workforce. Recruitment for ELLIS Institute Finland principal investigator positions is expected to start in early 2025.
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."
The Finnish Center for Artificial Intelligence FCAI is a research hub initiated by Aalto University, the University of Helsinki, and the Technical Research Centre of Finland VTT. The goal of FCAI is to develop new types of artificial intelligence that can work with humans in complex environments, and help modernize Finnish industry. FCAI is one of the national flagships of the Academy of Finland.
