ELLIS PhD Program: Call for Applications 2025

Apply by October 31, 2025, to join the ELLIS PhD Program in 2026.

The ELLIS PhD program is a key pillar of the ELLIS initiative whose goal is to foster and educate the best talent in machine learning and related research areas by pairing outstanding students with leading academic and industrial researchers in Europe.

The program also offers a variety of networking and training activities, including summer schools and workshops. Each PhD student is co-supervised by one ELLIS Fellow/Scholar or Unit Member and one ELLIS Fellow/Scholar, Unit Member or Member based in different European countries. Joint supervision with a CIFAR fellow/Canadian AI Chair holder is also possible as part of our ELLIS/CIFAR collaboration.

Students conduct an exchange of at least 6 months with the international advisor during their degree and can choose one of 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 specialised in a field unrelated to AI (e.g., biology, law, finance, etc.)

Research areas include (but are not limited to) the following machine learning-driven research fields:

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 • Security, Synthesis & Verification • Symbolic Machine Learning • Unsupervised Learning • Social Sciences & Humanities • Entrepreneurship & Tech transfer

How to apply

Interested candidates should apply online through the ELLIS application portal by October 31, 2025, 23:59 AoE. Applicants first need to register on the portal.