ELLIS PhD Program: Call for Applications 2025
Program Overview
The ELLIS PhD Program is a cornerstone of the ELLIS initiative, dedicated to nurturing and educating the finest talent in machine learning and related research areas. It pairs exceptional students with distinguished academic and industrial researchers across Europe, offering a range of networking and training opportunities.
Supervision
Each PhD student is co-supervised by one ELLIS Fellow/Scholar or Unit Member and one ELLIS Fellow/Scholar, Unit Member or Member from a different European country. Joint supervision with a CIFAR fellow/Canadian AI Chair holder is also available as part of the ELLIS/CIFAR collaboration.
Student Experience
During their degree, students must conduct an exchange of at least 6 months with an international advisor. They can choose from three tracks:
Academic Track: Collaboration in AI/Machine Learning with an academic partner in another country.
Industry Track: Collaboration in AI/Machine Learning with an industry partner.
Interdisciplinary Track: Cross-domain collaboration with an academic partner specialized in a field unrelated to AI (e.g., biology, law, finance, etc.).
Research Areas
The program covers a broad spectrum of machine learning-driven research fields, including but not limited to:
AutoML
Bayesian & Probabilistic Learning
Bioinformatics
Causality
Computational Neuroscience
Computer Graphics
Computer Vision
Deep Learning
Earth & Climate Sciences
Health
Human Behavior, Psychology & Emotion
Human Computer Interaction
Human Robot Interaction
Information Retrieval
Interactive & Online Learning
Interpretability & Fairness
Law & Ethics
Machine Learning Algorithms
Machine Learning Theory
ML & Sustainability
ML in Chemistry & Material Sciences
ML in Finance
ML in Science & Engineering
ML Systems
Multi-agent Systems & Game Theory
Natural Language Processing
Optimization & Meta Learning
Privacy
Quantum & Physics-based ML
Reinforcement Learning & Control
Robotics
Robust & Trustworthy ML
Safety
Synthesis & Verification
Symbolic Machine Learning
Unsupervised Learning
Social Sciences & Humanities
Entrepreneurship & Tech transfer
How to Apply
To apply, interested candidates should register on the ELLIS application portal by October 31, 2025, 23:59 AoE. More information and registration details are available by October 31, 2025.