On 29 October 2025, the ELLIS unit Amsterdam organized and hosted its first AI Research Retreat where over 50 participants representing the AI research community in Amsterdam, key industry partners, national and local organizations sat together in an exclusive setting, and took a step back to reflect, exchange views, and explore ideas on the shared challenges and opportunities to strengthen the European AI ecosystem. The retreat also held national significance, coinciding with the Dutch general election and underscoring the need to prioritise AI within the incoming government’s policy agenda.
As a grassroots initiative driven by world-leading researchers in AI and ML, which is closely linked to national and local organizations working in the field and supported by key industry partners, the unit plays a critical role in bridging impartial and science-focused discussions on the topic. From the outset, research has been the unit’s central focus, steering the ecosystem’s work and informing the goals it strives to achieve.
The retreat featured two powerful keynote presentations delivered by Prof. dr. Cees Snoek, ELLIS Fellow and the former Amsterdam unit Director, University of Amsterdam (UvA), and dr. Johann Brehmer, ELLIS Member at the Cusp AI. Both speakers presented the latest AI research and products they have been developing and articulated their views on how to optimise the roles of academia and startups in Europe to reinforce the regional AI ecosystem.
In between the keynote presentations, four ELLIS-affiliated PhD candidates, Aleksandre da Silva Pires, Anna Bavaresco, Christina Satzetaki, and Maksim Zhdanov presented their latest cutting-edge works in AI, painting pictures of how empowering young AI talents at the unit contributes towards advancing AI innovation.
Following the spotlight presentations, we progressed through the day with a panel discussion featuring Dr. Michael Pfeiffer (Bosch), Prof. dr. Cees Snoek (UvA), and Prof. dr. Sennay Ghebreab (UvA). The panel delved into how the ELLIS Unit Amsterdam helps shape the European AI ecosystem. Speakers explored opportunities to enrich the flow of academic ideas into industry, build stronger public–private partnerships, and create shared assets like models, compute infrastructure, and talent pipelines. They also discussed the crucial role of investment, from industry, universities, and governments, in regulation, funding, and long-term strategy to ensure the Netherlands and Europe can fully benefit from the momentum in AI.
The day concluded with a poster session featuring over 20 curated posters on various subfields within AI, presented by PhD candidates and MSc students from the UvA, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (VU), and Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica (CWI). At the session, participants networked and resumed the panel discussion in a more laid-back setting.
Conversations like this are crucial for positioning the unit, the Netherlands, and the EU within the fast-paced world of AI, while bringing different stakeholders together to explore ideas and create true synergy.
The first AI Research Retreat of the ELLIS unit Amsterdam was collaboratively co-organised by Madelon Hulsebos, Jan-Willem van de Meent, and Adela Pranindiati. We thank those who participated, including our partner organizations: CWI, VU Amsterdam, ELLIS unit Delft, and TNO, as well as our sponsors and industry partners: SAP, Bosch, Qualcomm Technologies, CuspAI, Adyen, Pinely, Google DeepMind, Anthropic, Kaiko.ai, Zeta Alpha, and New Theory.