EAIF - 12th Edition

European AI Forum (2026-09-29)

The European AI Forum convenes national AI associations, policymakers, researchers, and industry leaders from across Europe. The conference is a key meeting point for AI governance, AI Act implementation, competitiveness, technological sovereignty, and cross-border collaboration.

Agenda

Time	Duration	Session	Speaker
09:00	30 min	Registration & Welcome Coffee	—
09:30	10 min	Joint Opening Speech
09:40	6 min	Announcement — AI Awards 2026
09:46	10 min	Sovereignty	Aurélien Palix, DGE / French Ministry of the Economy
09:56	12 min	Digital resilience and sovereignty	Arno Pons, Digital Resilience Initiative
10:08	12 min	From Lab to World: Europe's Strategic Bet on AI Innovation	Hedi Karray, EIC Programme Manager for AI
10:20	12 min	Building a European AI Industry Requires Coherent Policy	Frans van Bruggen, AIC4NL
10:32	12 min	AI in Science	Liviu Stirbat, Head of Unit, European Commission DG RTD
10:44	12 min	CADA / data protection & AI	Félicien Vallet, CNIL / EDPB
10:56	12 min	Keynote — Austrian AI Factory approach	Karl Kugler, Head of AI Factory Austria (AI:AT)
11:08	12 min	Bias and social media manipulation with AI	Tijl De Bie, Ghent University
11:20	12 min	Sovereignty and European LLMs	Michal Valko, Founding Researcher, Isara Labs
11:32	19 min	Morning Break & Networking	—
11:51	54 min	AI-on-Demand: Connecting Europe’s AI Community, Assets, and Opportunities
12:45	45 min	Networking Lunch	—
13:30	15 min	Address	Lucilla Sioli, Head of the AI Office, European Commission

Confirmed speakers:

Aurélien Palix — Deputy Director for Networks and Digital Usage, Direction Générale des Entreprises (DGE), French Ministry of Economy. Oversees French economic policy on AI, cultural and creative industries, and cybersecurity. Corps des Mines; ENS and Sciences Po. Talk: sovereignty.

Arno Pons — Délégué Général, Digital New Deal. Co-designed the Digital Resilience Index (DRI) with David Djaïz and Yann Lechelle. Advises on European digital sovereignty and a “third digital way.” Talk: digital resilience and sovereignty.

Hedi Karray — EIC Programme Manager for Artificial Intelligence (EISMEA / European Commission). Expert in semantic AI and ontology-based engineering; former professor at the University of Technology of Tarbes. Talk: From Lab to World: Europe's Strategic Bet on AI Innovation.

Frans van Bruggen — Lead, Values, Standards and Regulations, AI Coalition 4 Netherlands (AIC4NL); previously Head of AI Policy at De Nederlandsche Bank. Focus: AI Act, ISO/IEC 42001, AI risk management and assurance. Talk: coherent European AI industrial policy.

Liviu Stirbat — Head of Unit, AI in Science, European Commission DG Research and Innovation.

Félicien Vallet — Head of the AI Department, CNIL; contributes to LINC and EDPB-related work. OECD.AI expert group on AI, data and privacy. Talk: CADA / AI and data protection.

Karl Kugler— Head of AI Factory Austria (AI:AT), part of EuroHPC JU (AIT + Advanced Computing Austria). Former Accenture Data & AI Advisory lead in Austria. Talk: the Austrian AI Factory approach.

Tijl De Bie — Senior Full Professor, Ghent University; leads the AIDA group (IDLab-ELIS). ERC Advanced Grant (VIGILIA) on misinformation without censorship; work on fairness and human-centric AI. Talk: bias and social-media manipulation with AI.

Michal Valko — Founding Researcher, Isara Labs; tenured researcher at Inria; lecturer at MVA, ENS Paris-Saclay. Formerly Google DeepMind and Meta (Llama). Talk: sovereignty and European LLMs.

Maria João Barros & Breana Callan — AI-on-Demand (AIoD): project coordinator and comms/marketing lead. Session with Álvaro on connecting European AI communities, resources, and opportunities.

Lucilla Sioli — Director of the European Commission AI Office (DG CNECT). Leads EU AI strategy, AI Act implementation, GPAI Code of Practice, AI factories/gigafactories, and international engagement on trustworthy AI.