Five Franconian universities are joining the European AI research network ELLIS. The universities of Würzburg, Erlangen-Nuremberg, Bamberg, Bayreuth, and the University of Technology Nuremberg will form the ELLIS Unit Franconia.
The new consortium will be led by the Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg, FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg, and the University of Technology Nuremberg. The universities of Bamberg and Bayreuth complete the ELLIS Unit Franconia.
The Franconian consortium is one of seven new ELLIS Units officially announced by the European research network on May 18, 2026. Alongside ELLIS Unit Franconia, the newly established units are Czechia, Denmark, Grenoble, NRW, Slovenia, and Sweden. The network now comprises 44 ELLIS Units involving 150 institutions across Europe, from Sweden to Portugal.
New opportunities for Würzburg and Europe
ELLIS - the European Laboratory for Learning and Intelligent Systems - is one of Europe's leading networks in machine learning and artificial intelligence. The establishment of the Franconian consortium highlights the growing importance of AI research in the region and at the Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg. It opens up new opportunities for scientific collaboration, talent development, and joint research projects across Europe.
Würzburg's contribution to the research consortium comes from the Center for Artificial Intelligence und Data Science - CAIDAS .
