ERCIM Latest News

The final report from the AIOTI Workshop on Semantic Interoperability for Digital Twins, held on 5–6 February 2025 and hosted by ERCIM in Sophia Antipolis, is now available online.

Download the report

This comprehensive document captures key discussions, recommendations, and insights from leading experts on enabling semantic interoperability in industrial and environmental digital twin systems. The workshop, supported by Inria and the Horizon Europe projects Nephele and SmartEdge, emphasized practical solutions, best practices, and emerging tools in the field.

The 4th ERCIM “Beyond Compliance” Forum will be held from 29 to 31 October 2025 at the Inria Centre at Rennes University (IRISA - Institut de Recherche en Informatique et Systèmes Aléatoires), Rennes, France. This international event addresses research ethics in the digital age through dialogue and collaborative sessions.

Themes for 2025:

• Generative AI in research, teaching, and publishing
• Geopolitics of digital ethics, including infrastructure and digital sovereignty
• Data altruism and promotion of open academic resources
• Digital ethics for citizens, with emphasis on youth, literacy, and research strategies.

Co-located with the European Informatics Leaders Summit (ECSS’25) of Informatics Europe, the forum will open with a joint session organized by the Digital Ethics Working Groups of ERCIM and Informatics Europe.

Tentative Programme Highlights:

• Wednesday, 29 October (afternoon): Joint Opening Session & Keynote – Digital Ethics for Citizens and Youth
• Thursday, 30 October (morning): Tutorial & Interactive Discussion – Data Altruism and Open Academic Resources
• Thursday, 30 October (afternoon): Presentations & Roundtable – Geopolitics of Digital Ethics
• Friday, 31 October (morning): Thematic Presentations – Generative AI in Research, Teaching, and Publishing. 

Participation is free of charge. The programme will include keynotes, presentations, tutorials and interactive sessions, with opportunities for informal exchanges and networking.
Venue: Inria Centre at Rennes University (IRISA), Rennes, France.

More information and links to the last years' talks and videos can be found on the ERCIM Beyond Compliance webpage

A new position paper created by an ERCIM task group highlights the crucial role of software technology, development, and maintenance in securing Europe’s economic prosperity. The document calls for greater investment and attention to this often-overlooked area, stressing its foundational importance across industries and innovation.
The full paper, including the list of contributing task group members, is available from https://www.ercim.eu/publications/strategic-reports 

In 2024, the ERCIM Human Capital Task Group compiled information on staff exchange programmes offered by a subset of ERCIM members. These programmes aim to foster exchanges among participating institutions. A comprehensive overview of the programmes is now presented in a document available for download. 

ERCIM hosted the AIOTI Workshop on Semantic Interoperability for Digital Twins from 5–6 February in Sophia Antipolis, France, gathering around 50 experts. The workshop focused on advancing semantic interoperability and laying the groundwork for next-generation information systems by addressing real-world industrial challenges. It featured a mix of invited talks and community-submitted presentations that led to productive discussions. The slides and abstracts of most presentations are now available on the workshop web page, and a comprehensive public report will follow.

For more details, please visit the workshop web page

Generative AI (GenAI) and Large Language Models (LLMs) are transforming science and society, presenting significant opportunities alongside inherent challenges. European digital science institutes and organizations are well-positioned to contribute to responsible development and use of these technologies.

This report summarizes the discussions and findings from the 2024 ERCIM Visionary Event "Challenges and Opportunities of Foundational Models and Generative AI (GenAI) for Science and Society," held on 16 April 2024 in Brussels. Experts from across Europe convened to examine the rapidly evolving landscape of GenAI and LLMs, their impact on science and society, and the role of European institutions in this context.

This report first presents the findings of the event. Subsequently, it outlines several key highlights and high-level recommendations. For more details, see the section Recommendations for Institutional AI Strategies.

by Behçet Uğur Töreyin (İTÜ), Maria Trocan (ISEP) and Davide Moroni (CNR-ISTI)

Approximately forty researchers attended the International Workshop on Computational Intelligence for Multimedia Understanding (IWCIM), organized annually by the ERCIM Working Group Multimedia Understanding through Semantics, Computation and Learning (MUSCLE). The workshop took place as a satellite event of IEEE ISCAS 2024 held in Singapore on 21 May 2024.

by Maurice ter Beek (CNR-ISTI)

The yearly conference of the ERCIM Working Group on Formal Methods for Industrial Critical Systems, FMICS [L1], the key conference at the intersection of industrial applications and formal methods, reached its 29th edition. This year the participants met in Milan, Italy, during 9-11 September 2024.