Principal Investigators (m/f/d) as Hector Endowed Fellows of the ELLIS Institute Tübingen

ELLIS (European Laboratory for Learning and Intelligent Systems) is a European initiative in AI with a focus on scientific excellence, innovation and societal impact. The initiative unites many of the leading machine learning researchers in Europe and aims to create a pan-European AI Lab.

The ELLIS Institute Tübingen is sponsored with a 100 Mio EUR endowment from the Hector Foundation. We are located near Stuttgart in the historic city of Tübingen, a beautiful university town in the southwest of Germany, tucked against a vast nature park. Major cities including Stuttgart, Zurich, Munich and Frankfurt are within easy reach by public transportation. Serving direct flights to major European cities, Stuttgart airport is within half an hour.

Our mission is to build the next generation of learning systems and a deeper understanding of the organizing principles underlying intelligent systems, in an environment that aims to solve fundamental societal and scientific problems for humankind. To attract talent sharing this goal, we offer outstanding conditions, a fluid relationship with startups and the chance to have societal and economic impact, as part of a community of scientists working towards a joint European ecosystem. We encourage applications in all areas of machine learning, artificial intelligence, and related disciplines.

We are seeking to recruit independent Principal Investigators that will enjoy full academic freedom with no teaching and minimal service obligations, and will be provided considerable funding for personnel, equipment, and running costs. The ELLIS Institute is privately funded and overall packages will be world class. Positions will initially be offered for six years and come with an appointment as Fellow or Scholar of the ELLIS Society. They also include the possibilities for co-appointment with the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems, one of Europe’s leading AI research institutions, or co-appointment as full professor at the University of Tübingen. Both co-appointments are part of the Tübingen AI Center, a new joint research center of the University of Tübingen and the Max Planck Institute with permanent government funding. A tenure track option exists. Co-appointed PIs benefit from the resources and intellectual environment of the Center. It is home to eighteen faculty at the full professor level, a number that will increase to twenty-five over the next five years.

Diversity, equity, and inclusion are core values on our campus and in our recruiting efforts, as is the goal to create an intellectually diverse environment. All qualified applicants will receive consideration without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, or age. We strongly encourage applications from groups as well as research areas underrepresented in our research ecosystem, and encourage a statement pertaining to this objective.

Candidates should hold a PhD or equivalent international degree, and applications should contain a research statement including past accomplishments and future scientific plans (total up to three pages), as well as an academic CV incl. publication list, submitted in English as a single pdf-file through the online application system.

In addition, we ask for reference letters submitted directly by the referees. After you have registered in the online application system, you will get further information about how these letters should be sent.

To receive full consideration, applications should be received by December 15th, 2024.

Important dates:

- December 15th, 2024: Deadline
- January–February 2025: Review stage
- 10–12 March 2025: Symposium in Tübingen, Germany
- April 2025: Final decisions

Should you have any questions, please feel free to contact us at applications-pi@tue.ellis.eu.

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