AI Grid and DFKI foster European cooperation in Pisa and Trento
Berlin, Deutschland: From June 2 to 6, 2025, a week-long Science and Innovation Tour (SIT) took place in Italy under the leadership of AI Grid, an organization that promotes young AI talent. The tour took 15 selected AI talents – doctoral and master's students – to two of Europe's most traditional AI research hubs: Pisa and Trento. The delegation was accompanied in Trento by Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Wahlster, founding director and current CEA of the DFKI and chairman of the AI Grid executive committee. The aim of the trip was to strengthen the German-Italian research network, promote knowledge transfer across national borders, and breathe life into the European idea in AI research.
Fascinating Italian-German cooperation potential for the next generation of AI talent through AI gigafactories
In Trento, the research delegation visited the Fondazione Bruno Kessler (FBK), Italy's largest and leading AI research center, where several successful discussions took place on new research collaborations between AI Grid, FBK, and DFKI. In the future, it will not only be matrix multiplication, as accelerated today by GPUs for conventional machine learning methods, that will play an important role in AI. In current agent-based neuro-symbolic systems, agent communication, constraint solving, and logical deduction, among other things, also play a central role, so that the development of further hardware accelerators as so-called chiplets will play a prominent role for the AI gigafactories currently being designed. The SIT participants were very impressed that FBK also operates a clean room and an experimental chip manufacturing facility, enabling the entire chain from new AI algorithms to acceleration chips to be developed and tested at FBK. It was agreed to offer the expertise of FBK and DFKI in further application work in Italy and Germany on AI factories and to involve interested AI Grid members in pioneering projects as early as possible. In addition, the competition for AI gigafactories offers an excellent platform for jointly founding and promoting start-ups. With the AI Grid members, there is already great potential for future founders.
Collaboration as the key to competitiveness
“The exchange with Italian research institutions—in particular the computer science research institute CNR-ISTI in Pisa and the FBK in Trento—impressively underscores the enormous potential of European research,” emphasizes Laure Poirson, project manager of the AI Grid. “With Europe's excellent research ecosystem and exceptionally qualified talent pool, we have the opportunity to drive technological developments forward and create tangible added value for our society. The European Commission's current investments in AI research and programs such as ”Choose Europe for Science“ make Europe a particularly attractive place for research and innovation. That's very positive!” Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Wahlster also emphasizes the collaboration with colleagues in Italy: “As a long-standing member of the scientific advisory board of FBK/irst (1998-2014) and as a recipient of the ”L'Aquila di San Venceslao" order from the autonomous province of Trento, it was a great honor for me to give a Lectio Magistralis in the packed main lecture hall. Germany wants to remain one of the world's most important factory equipment suppliers, together with Italy. I have shown that large language models (LLMs) need to be supplemented by large process models (LPMs) and large action models (LAMs) so that generative neural models can not only generate text or images, but also determine the next actions. These AI innovations will enable multi-adaptive factories, teams of robots and humans, and batch size 1 in zero-defect production. We discussed how we can continue to work closely together on current topics such as AI gigafactories, neuro-symbolic and agent-based AI, and chiplets for accelerating AI algorithms."
About AI Grid – the AI talent factory with European ambitions
AI Grid is an initiative funded by the German Federal Ministry of Research, Technology, and Space (BMFTR) to promote young AI researchers. With over 250 members, 27 micro focus groups (specialized communities on topics such as robotics, deep learning, and trustworthy AI), over 80 mentors from science and industry, 10 international ambassadors, and around 12 exclusive events per year, including those on Europe's AI hotspots, AI Grid aims to establish a resilient network for excellent scientific exchange. Following the Spring School in Paris in cooperation with SCAI and Sorbonne University, the SIT in Italy was the second transnational event of its kind this year – further events are in the planning stage.
