GRAIL has taken an early step towards strengthening collaboration with other European AI initiatives by participating in workshop “Multimodal Foundation Models: From Research to Innovation”, organised by the ELLIOT project and held in Barcelona on the 1st of July 2026.
GRAIL was represented by Simona Neri, Magí Dalmau and Néstor García from Eurecat Technology Centre, coordinators of the GRAIL project. Their participation formed part of GRAIL’s clustering activities, aimed at establishing connections with related European projects, identifying common challenges and exploring opportunities for collaboration from the very beginning of the project.
The workshop brought together researchers, industry representatives and European AI initiatives to discuss advances in multimodal foundation models and how these technologies can move from cutting-edge research towards real-world applications.
Connecting GRAIL and ELLIOT
ELLIOT – European Large Open Multi-Modal Foundation Models for Robust Generalization on Arbitrary Data Streams is a Horizon Europe project developing open and trustworthy multimodal foundation models capable of working with different types of data and supporting applications in several domains, including robotics. Its focus on multimodal AI creates clear points of connection with GRAIL and its work on foundation models for robotics.
The workshop therefore provided an excellent opportunity to exchange perspectives with the ELLIOT community and discuss potential synergies between the two projects. While ELLIOT approaches multimodal foundation models from a broad perspective, GRAIL focuses specifically on developing trustworthy and adaptable Generative AI technologies for robotic systems.The GRAIL representatives also had the opportunity to meet Yiannis Kompatsiaris, coordinator of ELLIOT, and Dimosthenis Karatzas, host of the event, helping to establish an early connection between the two initiatives.
