V001 / JSI

On July 8-9, 2025, the members of the Natural Language Processing team of the JSI Department of Knowledge Technologies (E8) attended the kick-off meeting of a new European project, ELLIOT, in Thessaloniki (Greece). The project is devoted to training, fine-tuning and applying the next generation of Multimodal Foundation Models, with a commitment to robust, open and fair AI. With a total budget of 25 MIO EUR, this project will run for four years and is executed by a consortium of 30 partners from 12 countries, bringing together leading European AI researchers. With a budget of 700.000 EUR, the JSI team will contribute to foundation model fine-tuning and algorithmic fairness, and will lead the ELLIOT’s community building efforts by supporting the mobility of researchers and organising conferences, workshops, summer schools and other events, in collaboration with the ELIAS and ELLIS scientific consortia. With ELLIOT, Europe positions itself at the frontier of open, trustworthy, and socially beneficial artificial intelligence — capable of driving innovation in critical areas such as media, Earth observation, autonomous systems, and public services.

The Machine Learning for Physics (ML4Physics) Summer School successfully concluded last week in Ljubljana, Slovenia, bringing together 55 participants — 47 from abroad — for a week-long deep dive into the intersection of machine learning and physics. The school was organized by the COMETA COST Action, SMARTHEP, the SMASH MSCA COFUND, the Jožef Stefan Institute, and the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics at the University of Ljubljana. Its goal was to equip participants from diverse backgrounds with solid knowledge of cutting-edge machine learning topics relevant to physics. Each day combined morning lectures, afternoon hands-on exercises, and evening keynote talks or social and outreach activities. The school featured 11 lecturers and tutors, as well as two keynote talks by Uroš Seljak (UC Berkeley) and Nenad Tomasev (DeepMind), who shared insights from both academia and industry. The ML4Physics Summer School proved to be a vibrant platform for learning, collaboration, and exchange, demonstrating the power of interdisciplinary training in shaping the future of AI in science.

On 23–24 June 2025, the FishEUTrust project coordinated by prof. dr. Nives Ogrinc (Department of Environmental Sciences) participated in the "R&I for a Competitive Green Transition" conference in Brussels, a key satellite event of the European Research and Innovation Days. This high-level gathering brought together leading policymakers, researchers, and innovators to explore how science can power Europe’s green and blue transitions. Out of more than 150 projects, FishEUTrust was honoured to be one of just 15 selected to exhibit at the event. The project also caught the attention of European Commissioner Ekaterina Zaharieva, who learned about our cutting-edge tools to foster transparency and trust in sustainable seafood. The team showcased two of FishEUTrust’s flagship innovations: Sensor technology for detecting bacteria and antibiotics in seafood, An immersive Virtual Supermarket experience. Events like this highlight the important role of innovation in creating a sustainable future—and show how FishEUTrust is leading the way in building a more transparent seafood system for everyone.

A ceremonial event marking the 20th anniversary of the Slovenian Fusion Association (SFA) was held on 24 June at the ICJT, Jožef Stefan Institute. Founded in 2005, SFA is one of Europe’s leading groups in fusion research and an important partner in the EUROfusion programme. The event was opened by Prof. Dr. Barbara Malič, Deputy Director of the Jožef Stefan Institute, who emphasised that fusion research is strategically important for the Institute and represents a field with great potential for a sustainable energy future. Dr. Tomaž Boh, Director-General of the Directorate for Science and Innovation, highlighted the importance of Slovenia’s participation in international research. Dr. Boštjan Končar presented the development of SFA from a small group to a key European partner, as well as its achievements and projects. The keynote speaker, Dr. Gianfranco Federici, Programme Director of EUROfusion, underlined SFA’s strong integration into the European fusion programme and the contributions of Slovenian researchers to developing technologies for future fusion reactors.