Logo SiS FVG
Logo SiS FVG
SISSA - International School of Advanced Studies
12 November 2026

How neural networks represent meaning: €2.5 million ERC Synergy Grant awarded to SISSA

Alessandro Laio of SISSA has been awarded €2.5 million through an ERC Synergy Grant for a project investigating how modern deep neural networks, and large language models in particular, represent and organise the meaning of texts and images internally.
In addition to Alessandro Laio, the project will involve Matthieu Wyart of EPFL in Lausanne and Marco Baroni of Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona. The research team as a whole will receive a total of €10 million in funding.