Final ELSA General Assembly

After four successful and eventful years, ELSA will host its final General Assembly. We are excited to welcome the network, the ELSA Consortium, ELLIS members, EU-funded partner Networks of Excellence, industry representatives and EU policymakers.
So, register for the last ELSA General Assembly!

What: ELSA General Assembly and workshop day
When: May 5 – 7, 2026
Location: CISPA Helmholtz Center for Information Security, Stuhlsatzenhaus 5, 66123 Saarbruecken

Important Dates

Open Industry Call Submissions	April 7, 2026
Registration for the General Assembly	April 17, 2026
Poster Submissions	April 26, 2026
Contributed talks for Workshop 2	April 26, 2026 – Find out more.
Registrations for Workshops	April 30, 2026
Mobility Funding Application	May 4, 2026

Agenda and Workshop Topics

We are currently working on the agenda and will publish more details soon.

Tuesday, May 5 – Conference Day
This day will focus on the ELSA network, use cases, work packages, and research posters.

Timings, May 5th

8:45 – 9:00	Registration
9:00 – 9:30	Welcome, Organisation, Agenda, ELSA Update – ELSA Coordinator Mario Fritz, CISPA
9:30 – 10:00	“How does the AI Act and the research community complement each other?“ – Representative of the EU AI Office
10:00 – 10:20	AI Office Research and Technological Development: RAISE and Frontier AI Initiatives – Representative of the European Commission
10:20 – 11:00	Coffee Break & Poster Exhibition
11:00 – 11:30	Scaling trust and power: European consortia as a central pillar in FP10 – Ioannis Legouras, Helmholtz Brussels
11:30 – 12:30	ELSA Work Packages Updates
12:30 – 13:30	Lunch Break & Poster Exhibition
13:30 – 14:30	ELSA Use Cases Sessions
14:30 – 15:00	Poster Pitch Session
15:00 – 16:00	Coffee Break & Poster Exhibition
16:20 – 16:30	Summary and Closing Remarks – ELSA Coordinator Mario Fritz, CISPA
16:30 – 18:00	Free Time
from 18:00	Social Dinner at CISPA

Wednesday, May 6 – Conference Day
This day will include keynotes on the “European Networking Landscape in Secure and Safe AI” and “New Frontiers in Secure and Safe AI”, a panel discussion and promising start-ups.

Timings, May 6

8:45 – 9:00	Registration
9:00 – 9:50	Pitches: ELSA Newcomer Startups – Restoring Digital Trust in the Age of AI – Detesia – Formally Verified Physical Access Control for Critical Infrastructure and EU AI Act Compliance – SYNAC.IO – Redefining Secure Software Development in the AI Era – Reware Labs – Averden-Trust-Grate: A pre-deployment trust layer for localization – Averden – AI for building permit review implementation – LightMirror
9:50 – 10:50	Pitches: ELSA Rising Star Startups – AI Security Is Not a Checkbox. We Checked. – sequire technology GmbH – PHAIEOM: unlocking biomedical data for compliant AI – PRAIVACY UG – Can We Trust AI to Secure Itself? How We Prove It. – XOR Bench – CAI and the “alias” brains – Alias Robotics – Computing on data you cannot see – OASYS NOW – Fairness-Aware Machine Learning for Neurodegenerative Disease Early Detection – Starlab Barcelona
10:50 – 11:20	Coffee Break & Industry Call Poster Exhibition
11:20 – 12:40	Keynotes on the “European Networking Landscape in Secure and Safe AI“: – “Tackling AI & Security Challenges in SMEs and the Public Sector: Insights from an EDIH” by Alexandra von Preuschen, DAISEC (European Digital Innovation Hub for AI and Cybersecurity) – Talk by a representative of ELLIS – Talk by Erik Miehling – IBM Research, representative of ELIAS – “Secure AI using Hardware/Software Co-Design” by Edgar Gonzàlez i Pellicer (Openchip & Software Technologies, S.L./ELLIOT)
12:40 – 14:00	Lunch Break & Poster Exhibition
14:00 – 14:15	Award Ceremonies: Best Poster Award & Open Call Awards
14:15 – 15:40	Keynotes on “New Frontiers in Secure and Safe AI“: – “From Artificial Flattery to Linguistic Negation: Jailbreaking LLMs through Prompt-based Attacks” by Diego Miguel Lozano, ELLIS Alicante – “From Distribution Shift to Certification: Foundations for Safe AI Deployment” by Werner Zellinger, Johannes Kepler University Linz, ELLIS Linz – “The Liability Frontier: Governing Autonomous Agency in a Multi Polar World” by Borys Woś (IDEAS Research Institute – ELLIS Warsaw) – “EuroLLM and Beyond: Open Multilingual and Multimodal Large Language Models for Europe” by a representative of the Instituto de Telecomunicações – ELLIS Lisbon
15:40 – 16:10	Coffee Break
16:10 – 17:10	Panel Discussion on “New Frontiers in Secure and Safe AI – Wrapping Up“
17:10 – 17:20	Summary and Closing Remarks – ELSA Coordinator Mario Fritz, CISPA

Thursday, May 7 – Workshop Day

The workshops will focus on collaboration, knowledge exchange, and practical engagement. They will address academics, policymakers, and industry representatives.

Workshop 1: “AI in Cybersecurity: Offensive Capabilities, Impacts, and Response Strategies“

You can find the description, speakers, and the workshop timings on this separate workshop page.

Workshop 2: “Towards Integrated Understanding of Trustworthy AI” – Contributions welcome!

You can find the description, call for abstracts, and the workshop timings on this separate workshop page.

Registration

Please register by April 17, 2026, and join us for three inspiring days at our Final ELSA General Assembly.

We are excited to welcome you in Saarbrücken.

Present your research: Poster Session

Besides bringing the ELSA network together and opening up a space for collaboration and idea exchange, the assembly will offer you the opportunity to present your research to an audience of leading experts in safe and secure artificial intelligence, trustworthiness, privacy, federated learning, and more. We highly encourage you to apply to:

Present your research in a poster session
Pitch your poster and join the ELSA Best Poster Award competition

When you register for the assembly, please highlight that you want to present a poster. The event offers two options: You can either only present your poster as part of the poster session or shortly pitch it too. With a two minute pitch, you automatically join the ELSA Best Poster Award!

In both cases, please notice that you will have to send your poster as a PDF file to the ELSA Coordination Team by April 29, 2026. The poster format should be max A0 in size and vertically orientated. Posters need to be printed by the presenters themselves.

You changed your mind about presenting a poster? Don’t worry, you can still join after you have already registered. Simply send an email to the ELSA Coordination Team (deadline April 26, 2026).

Open Industry Call: SME and Startup Pitches

Are you a startup or small- and medium-sized enterprise (SME) with an innovative project in the area of safe, secure, and trustworthy AI? We invite you to present your company and vision at the ELSA General Assembly!
We are launching an open call for startups and young SMEs to compete in two award categories. Selected companies will pitch their projects live in front of the ELSA network and an independent jury.

Award Categories

Applicants must self-select the category that best fits their company:

1) ELSA Newcomer Award

This category is aimed at young, recently founded startups and researchers with an idea at the beginning of their journey.
To apply, submit a short summary (one page maximum) including:

A description of your project, vision and objectives
Information about your company (e.g., founding date, team structure, gender distribution, number of employees)

2) ELSA Rising Star Award

This category is for established startups and SMEs that have already demonstrated growth and measurable progress.
To apply, submit a short summary (one page maximum) including:

A description of your project
Key milestones and achievements
Information about your company (e.g., founding date, team structure, gender distribution, number of employees)

Selection Process

All applications will be reviewed and pre-selected by an independent jury.
A jury will select the most outstanding submissions.
Only the selected companies will be invited to pitch at the ELSA General Assembly.

Pitch at the General Assembly

Selected startups and SMEs will:

Receive the opportunity to pitch their company and project.
Have 10 minutes for their presentation.
Present in front of the ELSA General Assembly and jury.

Awards

One winner per category will receive a trophy.
All selected companies will receive a Runner-Up Certificate in recognition of their achievement.
Visibility and Exposure through ELSA’s communication channels.
Valuable connections to the ELSA network at the General Assembly.

Apply

Applying is easy: Simply send your one-pager to ELSA Coordination via email by April 7, 2026. We will come back to you in a timely manner.

Apply and join the Pitch Competition

We are excited for your submissions!

How to reach CISPA

Here’s how you can reach CISPA’s main building in Saarbruecken. We thank the CISPA team for providing the information below.

By plane

Saarbrücken airport (SCN) offers daily non-stop flights to a number of European cities. A taxi ride from the airport to Saarland University takes about 20 minutes (taxis available at +49 681 33033 or +49 681 55000). Alternatively, a local bus service (R10) will take you from the airport to Saarland University in 45 minutes. The bus runs approximately twice an hour between 5 am and 8:45 pm on weekdays.

For details, see the R10 timetable: http://www.saarfahrplan.de

Frankfurt airport (FRA) is convenient for travellers from most destinations. Getting from Frankfurt airport to Saarbrücken takes ca. 1 1/2 hours by car and ca. 2 hours by train (see “By train” below). Airports in Paris or Luxembourg are other convenient options, connected to Saarbrücken by train and bus.

By train and bus

Saarbruecken’s main railway station is called “Saarbruecken Hauptbahnhof”. It is well connected to other German cities.
Connections from the main station: Bus services 111, 112, and 124 go from the Hauptbahnhof to Saarland University; the bus ride takes between 15 and 25 minutes. Get off at “Universität Busbahnhof” and follow the road down to the end of the campus. CISPA is on your left.
Other convenient bus stops in the city: Rabbiner-Rülf-Platz, Rathaus
Bus stop in front of CISPA: If you get off at “Stuhlsatzenhaus”, you find yourself right on CISPA’s doorstep. The busses 101, 102, 136, 138, 163 stop there.

For details, access the timetables: http://www.saarfahrplan.de

By car

GPS coordinates of the University campus: N 49.259386 E 7.051715

CISPA is located at Saarland University’s east entrance (“Universität Ost”). You can conveniently park your car right outside our main building or use the multistorey car park “Universität Ost” a few hundred meters away.

Hotels

For your convenience, please find a list of hotel recommendations below. Please note that these are only our hotel recommendations. You are free to stay in any hotel you like. We advise participants to book sooner rather than later.

Mobility Funding

We support travels to the General Assembly with our mobility fund. Before applying, please read the terms and conditions carefully. The deadline to apply for mobility funding is April 17, 2026.

Experienced Researchers

Terms and Conditions

Application

PhDs and Postdocs

Terms and Conditions

Application