Who We Are

Our Mission

We are dedicated to addressing some of the major questions of our time, ranging from understanding the principles of life to addressing the healthcare challenges of the future. Bringing together the unique strengths of EMBL, DKFZ, and Heidelberg University, we form a vibrant ecosystem that drives pioneering breakthroughs and sets new benchmarks in AI for science. Rooted in collaboration, transdisciplinary research, and tailored education, we empower the next generation to solve the grand challenges ahead.

Our Vision

Our mission is to overcome disciplinary silos by conducting and translating research relevant to life using AI. We will achieve this by fostering a community that blends the local culture of health and life sciences with the culture of AI and data science. We unify the data universe to create unprecedented breakthroughs. By training the next generation of AI scientists, we invest in the future.

Our Values

Excellence

We conduct frontier AI research with the highest scientific standards.
In AI applications and training, we make a difference and create impact.

Openness & Collaboration

Innovation and breakthroughs do not happen in silos - being open and collaborative is key.

Responsibility

We strive to drive the development of ethical and responsible AI methods in health and life science research and sharing of robust AI output.

Our Services to the Community

We bring stakeholders together to create a critical mass and interdisciplinary interactions.

We provide ethical guidelines, meeting space and research foundations such as data and technical infrastructure.

We create a brand for the AI research of the region.

We market scientific achievements and put them on the world’s radar.

We build an ecosystem - providing the best conditions for research & application.

We promote opportunities in the network.

We unify the community of AI and life science researchers and create synergies.

We train the next generation of AI scientists.

We facilitate translation and connections to our industry network.

European Laboratory for Learning and Intelligent Systems - ELLIS

Connection

The ELLIS Unit Heidelberg is part of the ELLIS Society.

ELLIS Society

ELLIS - the European Laboratory for Learning and Intelligent Systems - is a pan-European AI network of excellence which focuses on fundamental science, technical innovation and societal impact.

Founded in 2018, ELLIS builds upon machine learning as the driver for modern AI and aims to secure Europe’s sovereignty in this competitive field by creating a multi-centric AI research laboratory.

ELLIS wants to ensure that the highest level of AI research is performed in the open societies of Europe and follows a three-pillar strategy to achieve: (1) AI talent development - through the ELLIS PhD & PostDoc Program, (2) regional AI ecosystems - through the ELLIS Sites, (3) cross-border scientific innovation - through the ELLIS Programs.

Part of a Regional AI Ecosystem

ELLIS is establishing a network of research sites across Europe, consisting of ELLIS Units and Institutes.

These locations act as hubs for cutting-edge AI research, uniting leading scientists and strengthening collaboration with industry partners.

The ELLIS Society currently includes 42 units, 1 associate unit, and 2 institutes across 17 countries, involving a total of 60 partner institutions.

Picture credit: https://ellis.eu/sites - For more information, please visit https://ellis.eu

AI Health Innovation Cluster

The idea for AI Life Delta originated in the Think Tank of the AI Health Innovation Cluster (AIH). Financed through state funds approved by the state parliament of Baden-Württemberg, AIH was bringing together leading scientists at the interface of AI, healthcare, and data science to combine the expertise of the region’s renowned health and biomedical research institutions and foster collaboration on cutting-edge research for AI applications in health.

Mission

The AI Health Innovation Cluster (AIH) was a collaborative project linking challenging questions in the health and life sciences to the state of the art in AI research. The German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), Heidelberg University, Heidelberg University Hospital, University Hospital Mannheim, the Central Institute of Mental Health, and the Max Planck Institute for Medical Research first officially joined forces through AIH in 2024.

The collaboration among these seven institutions generated sustainable synergies in the academic, medical, and health economic sectors and together became a stronger voice for the use of AI in health research. AIH has established a network of 55 fellows and more than 100 PIs from seven research institutions aiming to integrate AI tools in biological and healthcare research. This network continues under the umbrella of AI Life Delta.

Structure of the Cluster

Through a competitive fellowship program, AIH funded interdisciplinary projects that linked data infrastructures, AI methods research, ethical-legal research issues, and clinical application fields across disciplines. The projects, which were selected solely on the basis of scientific excellence, synergistically linked several partners or institutions.

Central competence teams for important core tasks supported the funded projects and activities. The Software Competence Center ensured the sustainable use of software developments within the cluster. The Data Competence Center combined expertise in data engineering and professional software development with data science, particularly in the areas of AI, machine learning, and mathematical modelling. Thus, it served as a multiplier for biomedical research in the region by supporting use cases in research groups associated with AIH. The Scientific Competence Center for Ethics and Law of AI was dedicated to exploring the legal and ethical issues related to the development and use of AI technologies in health and life sciences in order to develop a concept that secure the use of AI in medical research in the future. This work set a important foundation for AI Life Delta.

We are a Grassroots Movement of AI Scientists in Heidelberg-Mannheim

We are the
AI Community of

globally leading biomedical institutions

The ELLIS UNIT Heidelberg hosts

AI Life Delta and is thereby growing

ELLIS faculty
members

partnering with
ELLIS Units

in
countries

In conjunction with the AIH Cluster link, we have a proven track record of over

funded
multi-disciplinary & -institutional
projects

PostDocs

Staff

Clinician Scientists

research fellows

Competence Centers
on Ethics & Law of AI, Data and Software Development

specialists in
Central
Structures

Faculty

ELLIS Faculty

Britta Velten

Heidelberg University

Group Leader for Multifactorial Data Analysis & Machine Learning in the Life Sciences

Centre for Organismal Studies Heidelberg (COS) & Center for Scientific Computing (IWR)

britta.velten@cos.uni-heidelberg.de

Britta Velten works at the interface of data science, machine learning, and the life sciences. Her team advances statistical methods and probabilistic machine learning to translate large-scale molecular data sets (‘omics data’) into biological insights and novel discoveries. A major focus lies on the development of latent variable models for data integration and dimension reduction, machine learning for temporal and spatial omics data, and causal inference to uncover regulatory mechanisms from molecular measurements. The methods developed by her group are made accessible to the whole life science community as open-source software on GitHub, Bioconductor, and PyPI.

For more information on her research, please visit https://velten-group.org/.

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