MPI-SWS researchers (together with DFKI in Kaiserslautern and researchers at INESC-ID) have been funded under the competitive Horizon Europe "Teaming for Excellence" programme. Their project will receive funding of 13M Euros from the European Union over 6 years.

The project, for a Sustainable Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (SAIL), will be a transformative project that will upgrade INESC-ID into a world-class Centre of Excellence (CoE) dedicated to the development of state-of-the-art, sustainable, and trustworthy
Artificial Intelligence. The project will tackle grand challenges in AI such as explainability, reasoning, and out-of-distribution performance. The Centre of Excellence will also strongly focus on education, launching a world-class Dual PhD programme in AI, jointly awarded by Instituto Superior Técnico (Portugal) and Rheinland-Pfälzische Technische Universität (RPTU, Germany).

Recognising the critical need for safe and fair AI, SAIL will also establish an AI Ethics and Regulation Hub to provide compliance guidelines and AI programs for citizens and professionals. Finally, SAIL will create a network of physical and computational infrastructure for the development and testing of technologies.

MPI-SWS has recently become a partner of the Max Planck School of Biomedical Artificial Intelligence, a new graduate school developing advanced AI methods for basic life sciences research. The school's focus will be on deepening understanding of biological systems by combining modern biomedical technologies with innovative approaches to artificial intelligence. The aim is to train a new generation of scientists who will develop algorithms that can learn, explain, and predict the principles of living systems and use these findings for molecular design.

The fellows of the school are internationally recognized researchers from 24 institutions -- including 14 Max Planck Institutes -- who come from a wide variety of fields, ranging from image and speech processing to immunology. From MPI-SWS, Krishna Gummadi, head of the Networked Systems research group, has been named a fellow of the newly founded graduate school.

The spokesperson of the new school is Karsten Borgwardt, Director at the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry in Martinsried near Munich, where the administration of the school will also be located. The new School will be financed under the funding agreement between the Max Planck Society and the Dieter Schwarz Foundation, as well as through contributions from the participating institutions.

The plan is to accept the first applications for doctoral positions at the school starting in fall 2026, with the first BMAI cohort beginning their doctoral studies in fall 2027.

About the Max Planck Schools

Since 2019, the Max Planck Schools are offering a visionary graduate program to exceptional PhD candidates. The faculties of each School unite the best scholars in their field to teach and work with highly motivated doctoral candidates, all embedded in a unique network spanning across universities and non-university research organizations. The Max Planck Schools are looking for highly talented applicants with Bachelor’s or Master’s degrees from all over the world, aiming to further develop their research skills and network in one of the most innovative graduate programs in Germany.

Further information:

Announcement by the Max Planck Society:
 https://www.mpg.de/26250857/max-planck-school-of-biomedical-artificial-intelligence

Announcement by the Max Planck Schools:
https://www.maxplanckschools.org/de/news-events/start-der-max-planck-school-of-biomedical-artificial-intelligence