Nuria Oliver brings ELLIS Europe’s vision of scientific excellence to a high-level European science-policy forum in Brussels
Dr. Oliver participates in an event presided by the European Research Council and the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina.
The event brought together European experts, policymakers, academy presidents and leading scientists to discuss the future of research and innovation in Europe.
Dr. Nuria Oliver, Director of ELLIS Alicante and Vice-President of ELLIS (the European Laboratory for Learning and Intelligent Systems) participated in the high-level science policy forum titled: “Towards the European Fifth Freedom and Global Competition: Voices from Science”. The session included a brief presentation by Enrico Letta, former Prime Minister of Italy and author of the well-known Letta Report --where he proposes deeper economic and financial integration in the EU to improve its competitiveness with respect to the United States and China-- followed by an interesting discussion in which Dr. Oliver presented the vision of ELLIS as a pan-European network to strengthen Europe’s competitiveness in Artificial Intelligence by retaining and attracting outstanding research talent and by developing a multi-centred, globally competitive AI research ecosystem built on scientific excellence.
The event took place on June 29th at the European Research Council Headquarters in Brussels, Belgique, it was organised by the European Research Council and the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, in collaboration with other science academies from several European countries. The event brought together high-level representatives from European science and policy, including Maria Leptin, President of the European Research Council, Bettina Rockenbach, President of the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, and Ekaterina Zaharieva, European Commissioner for Start-ups, Research and Innovation.
In their welcome speeches, Maria Leptin highlighted the importance of excellence, openness, autonomy and trust in researchers, and Bettina Rockenbach emphasised the need for scientists and policymakers to work closely together to strengthen Europe’s research and innovation capacity.
Alongside Dr. Oliver, only Spanish representative among the invited speakers, the programme included scientific voices such as Maryna Viazovska, winner of the prestigious 2022 Fields Medallist (equivalent of the Nobel Prize in mathematics) and Professor at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, in Switzerland, and Dr. Dietmar Harhoff, Managing Director of the Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition Munich, in Germany, and Member of the Strategy Group for Technology and Innovation of the German Federal Chancellor.
The discussions focused on key questions for the future of European research and innovation, including the next EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation (FP10), European competitiveness and strategic autonomy, and international cooperation in science and technology.
Dr. Oliver’s participation at this high-level forum helped bring the vision of ELLIS as a European network of scientific excellence in Artificial Intelligence to the centre of the debate on Europe’s research capacity, technological sovereignty and global competitiveness. At the same time, her role as Director of ELLIS Alicante highlights the contribution of this Spanish unit to the broader European ambition, positioning ELLIS Alicante as a reference in responsible, human-centric AI research for Social Good.
For more information about research at ELLIS Alicante, please visit ELLIS Alicante