Villers-Cotterêts, 18 June 2026. Following the ALT-EDIC Assembly of Members meeting on 18 June, Fabio Pianesi (Italy) has been appointed as the new Chair of the Assembly of Members and Stefan Leijnen (Netherlands) has been appointed as Vice-Chair. They will take over the responsibilities of Thibault Grouas (France) and Juan Martínez Samalea (Spain), respectively.
As ALT-EDIC continues to grow, the Chair and Vice-chair will be instrumental in steering the ALT-EDIC strategic vision, expanding its activities, and championing its mission to serve the language technology community.
The Assembly of Members gathered at the Château de Villers-Cotterêts
Meet Our New Chair: Fabio Pianesi
Fabio Pianesi is the representative of Italy in the Assembly of Members and was elected a member of the ALT-EDIC Supervisory Board in March 2025. He is a distinguished fellow at the Fondazione Bruno Kessler (FBK) and as a member of the Supervisory Board of 28Digital (formerly EIT Digital).
Fabio brings more than 20 years of experience in language and communication technologies. A psychologist by education with a specialisation in Computer Science, Fabio joined the Natural Language Processing unit of FBK, serving first as deputy-head and then as head of the Cognitive and Communication Technologies division (1998 – 2008). From 2008 until 2011, he led the joint FBK-UniTn Computational Cognition Laboratory. He has been working with 28Digital since 2010, first focusing on partners’ attraction, mobilisation and engagement, then as Vice-President of the Trento Node and also as Research Director from 2013 to 2016, until he became Head of External Collaboration. He led “ARISE Europe” between 2017 and 2020.
Known for his expertise in ecosystem building and development, European policies, and relations with international international funding agencies, the Assembly of Members has entrusted Fabio with the responsibility to lead the ALT-EDIC forward.
Meet Our New Vice-Chair: Stefan Leijnen
Supporting the new Chair is the incoming Vice-chair, Stefan Leijnen, the representative of the Netherlands in the Assembly of Members. Stefan holds a PhD in Machine Learning and is professor of the Artificial Intelligence research group at the Utrecht University of Applied Sciences. As International Lead of the AI Coalition for The Netherlands (AIC4NL), he works collaboratively to advance the nation’s AI strategy and promote ethical standards within the rapidly evolving landscape of artificial intelligence.
He has been collaborating in several initiatives on humanitarian innovation and ethical implications of emerging technologies. From 2016 until 2018, he was the Director of The Asimov Institut. The Asimov Institute publishes on fundamental breakthroughs in neural network research, advises on the societal and business impact of data and AI, and develops tools for the creative industry. He has also worked as Chief Technology Officer at War Child Holland from 2017 until 2019, where he oversaw the Can’t Wait to Learn literacy and numeracy program, offering e-learning to children in Sudan, Lebanon, Jordan, Uganda and Chad. War Child Holland was the winner of the DCHI Public Award for Best Humanitarian Innovation 2018.
His expertise in ethical AI and his research on the societal impact of language technologies will be an important aspect of his support to the ALT-EDIC as Vice-chair.
A Heartfelt Thank You to Thibault Grouas and Juan Martínez Samalea
As we look to the future, we also want to express our immense gratitude to our outgoing Chair, Thibault. Over the last three years, his leadership has been nothing short of transformative. We would also like to thank our outgoing Vice-Chair, Juan Martínez Samalea, for the support and trust he has shown us over these first few years.
Under their steering and guidance, the ALT-EDIC was created, eighteen members joined, and three major projects coordinated by ALT-EDIC have been submitted, accepted and launched (ALT-EDIC4EU, LLMs4EU, and LLM-BRIDGE).
We thank them again for their efforts and we look forward to seeing them again as members of the Assembly of Members.
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