Launching in 2025, ELLIS Institute Finland is the second institute of ELLIS, the pan-European AI network of excellence. In collaboration with universities across Finland, the Institute is now recruiting Principal Investigators (PIs) to lead research teams in AI, machine learning (ML) and related fields. This is a unique opportunity for researchers at all career stages to do work with global impact, in a research environment that is one of the best in the world today for AI and ML.

Finland has cutting-edge computing resources, including the LUMI supercomputer, strong governmental and industrial support for AI and technology, and possibilities to work with companies and across the academia-industry interface. The AI ecosystem is already thriving, thanks to the close-knit cooperation of universities, a long track record of pioneering machine learning research, most recently at the Finnish Center for Artificial Intelligence, and strong ties to the European Laboratory for Learning and Intelligent Systems (ELLIS) network. The selected PIs will become Fellows or Scholars of the ELLIS Society, a distinction of high-caliber scientists advancing the fields of AI and ML.

"The launch of the Institute couldn't come at a better time, with Europe and Finnish partners increasingly realizing the importance of aiming high in research and development," says Samuel Kaski, director of ELLIS Institute Finland and professor at Aalto University. "Finland is becoming the place to be for trailblazing AI research, with the ELLIS research excellence ethos built in from the start."

ELLIS Institute Finland will foster fundamental machine learning research grounded in European competence and values, while acting as the hub of an ecosystem of top talents, businesses and investments in Europe, fueling RDI and collaborations, and leveraging local supercomputing and AI Factory resources.

PIs in the ELLIS Institute will enjoy great academic freedom and will have access to considerable funding for personnel, equipment, and running costs. The positions are faculty roles on the tenure track at participating Finnish universities.

"We are looking forward to welcoming new colleagues who want to build on the existing strengths of the community, for instance in probabilistic modelling and collaborative AI that combines user modelling and ML, AI for science, or establishing a new strength. In any case, we are expected to take AI research to the next level, which is a nice challenge for a researcher to have," says professor Kaski.

The main campus of the University of Lapland in winter. Photo: Ville Rinne.

One of the open positions is for an assistant/associate/full professor of law and AI to be based in the Faculty of Law at the University of Lapland, a partner university of ELLIS Institute Finland.

"Conceiving that the legal and ethical consequences of AI are of imminent importance to society, the Faculty of Law at the University of Lapland aims to strengthen the field both in research and in education by appointing an eminent person as a professor of law and AI to continue capacity building concerning the legal and ethical aspects of AI and to keep up the high quality of our research," says professor Minna Kimpimäki, dean of the Faculty of Law.

"While AI offers enormous potential for progress, it also poses significant challenges for the realization of fundamental rights, sustainability and societal values. Our research should focus on finding related legal solutions and an ethically acceptable balance between the risks and opportunities of using AI within the rule of law in modern society," says professor Rosa Ballardini, vice-dean of research of the Faculty of Law.

ELLIS Institute PI recruitment is open until March 9, 2025.

Details and applications at:

ellisinstitute.fi/PI-recruit