The ELIAS Alliance for European Leadership in Innovation with AI and Science has been established to strengthen academic and entrepreneurial education in the development of Frontier AI systems for European value creation. It combines Open Source model building with a novel innovation PhD track and a Europe-wide network of incubators, mentors, industry partners and startups. The AI Launchpad contributes to connecting AI researchers and startups with mentors and industry partners across Europe. In addition, the ELIAS Alliance recognizes outstanding frontier AI initiatives through an annual award presented at the ELIAS Frontier AI Summit (Copenhagen 2025, Stuttgart 2026). The ELIAS Alliance was launched in Nov 2024 with a first set of ELIAS Nodes (Amsterdam, Barcelona, Cambridge, Copenhagen, Munich, Potsdam, Tübingen, Zürich) and now calls for a 2nd round of proposals:
Deadline to submit your proposals is
July 5th, 2026
Get in touch with the ELIAS Alliance Coordinator, Lisa Schöllhammer to receive access to the application form.
Application process
The application for an ELIAS Node is focused on providing approved content for the ELIAS Node webpage covering the following points.
1. Participating organizations, leadership, & Space
- Text and pictures describing all organizations (e.g. higher-ed institutes, industry partners, funding bodies) supporting your ELIAS node and indicate how they support your node.
- Provide a support letter from each organization signed by a C-level representative.
- Commitment letter by each spokesperson(s) of the ELIAS node (one of them needs to be an ELLIS fellow). If you want to nominate multiple leads, specify who is committed to regularly participate at ELIAS Alliance meetings.
- Name the lead administrative coordinator responsible for communication between nodes across the ELIAS Alliance, and provide a support letter by the supervisor they are reporting to.
- ELIAS Node Space: Text and pictures describing the physical address of the node and the amount of square meters available for coworking/lecturing space. Include pictures showing the space that demonstrate the physical visibility of the node.
2. Vision & Academic education
- Provide a concise summary of your vision for the node and the collaborative efforts with the other alliance partners.
- ELIAS Alliance Innovation PhD: support letter from university
- List of courses offered by the supporting institutions nurturing value creation and societal impact (specify if course credits count towards basic curricula)
3. Team composition
- ELIAS Node Members: List all members you want to include in the node (+ potential roles).
- ELLIS Fellows: Provide text, picture, and quote for 3-10 (including the head of the node) ELLIS fellows summarizing their track record in innovation and entrepreneurship who can inspire and mentor students in academia to pursue an entrepreneurial career. The quote should say why and how they will engage with the ELIAS Node activities (including mentoring for the ELIAS/ELLIS innovation PhD, AI Launchpad).
- Non-academic Advisors: Provide text, picture, and quote for 1-5 non-academic advisors summarizing their track record in innovation and entrepreneurship who can inspire and mentor students in academia to pursue an entrepreneurial career. The quote should say why and how they will engage with the ELIAS Node activities (including mentoring for the ELIAS/ELLIS innovation PhD, AI Launchpad).
4. Entrepreneurial and Open Source AI Innovation activities
- Most relevant FROntier AI projects (FROs/Startups/Open Source FMs): text and pictures featuring the 3 most impactful FROntier AI projects that are closely related to the ELIAS Node (ideally a member of the node is a key figure in the project); their projects are automatically nominated for the ELIAS Alliance FROntier AI Award.
- Other key activities: text and pictures featuring other key activities of the ELIAS Node that are most relevant to nurture/advocate value creation and societal impact.
- Describe your existing technology transfer ecosystem, including spin-offs, collaborations with startups, industry, and business schools, sciencepreneurial education and team-building efforts, and financial support for early-stage transfer projects.
5. Connection to ELLIS
- ELIAS is part of the ELLIS initiative. Please describe your existing connection to the ELLIS/ELIAS community and how you plan to integrate the ELIAS node into this community effort.
To receive access to the application form you are asked to get in touch with the ELIAS Alliance Coordinator, Lisa Schöllhammer (elias-coordination@tuebingen.ai)
Guidelines for evaluation
Your proposal will be reviewed by a diverse team of international entrepreneurs and scholars based on your combined track record in entrepreneurship and AI research excellence and the level of commitment documented in your application, taking into account the following criteria:
- ELIAS Nodes need to have a physical location, i.e. a well specified co-working space dedicated to entrepreneurial activities and agreement to support a joint co-branding. Attractive space with clear commitment to co-branding contributes to a strong application.
- ELIAS Nodes have a convincing program for running sciencepreneurial courses in academia and support transfer projects. The application is strengthened if students can earn credit points for these courses, applicable towards their BSc/MSc/PhD degrees.
- ELIAS Nodes are supporting and ideally participating in building open source foundation models. In particular, they offer an educational program that allows students to acquire hands-on experience with building large models.
- ELIAS Nodes partner with a business school and actively support team building with complementary skills (e.g. tech + business).
- ELIAS Nodes have compelling collaborations with (a) startups and (b) industry.
- ELIAS Nodes are backed by ELLIS fellows and entrepreneurial mentors.
- ELIAS Nodes are managed by a dedicated lead administrative coordinator ideally with experience in the coordination of entrepreneurial activities.
Have Questions?
If you have any questions, please feel free to contact: