ELI General Assembly Announces Leadership Transition

The current Director General of the Extreme Light Infrastructure ERIC (ELI) will step down at the end of September 2026. Allen Weeks announced his departure after eight years at a recent meeting of the ELI General Assembly in June. During his tenure as Director General, ELI established its world-leading user programme and integrated its facilities under a unified management and governance structure. It is recognised as a leading international research infrastructure serving a rapidly growing user community.

"ELI is the first global research infrastructure based in Central Europe and it is a scientifically ambitious organisation already recognised internationally as a leading laser-based facility,” says Allen Weeks. "I’m very proud of what we’ve done here together, the dedication of the staff, our users, and our member countries provides a strong foundation to strengthen ELI’s impact in the years ahead."

Weeks will move on to lead the construction of the Electron Ion Collider at Brookhaven laboratory on Long Island, New York. A search committee established by ELI’s General Assembly is launching the recruitment process for a new Director General.

“ELI is well positioned to continue delivering on its mission while the recruitment process is underway. The General Assembly thanks Allen Weeks for his leadership and contribution to ELI during an important period in its development,” says Jan Hrušák, Chair of the ELI General Assembly. “Our priority now is to ensure that momentum continues without interruption for our scientific community.”

Florian Gliksohn, ELI’s current Executive Director, has been appointed Interim Director General for the duration of the recruitment process. Since joining ELI in 2017, he has held several key positions, contributing to the organisation’s construction phase and transition to operations. With a background in management, law, and finance, he brings extensive experience in leading large-scale scientific infrastructures and international technology start-ups.

In its first four years offering access to the global scientific community, ELI's international user base has expanded rapidly and broadly. Across eight User Calls more than 2000 researchers from 43 countries submitted 879 experimental proposals. Of those, 560 have been accepted for implementation. This reflects the growing demand for ELI's scientific offering and excellence-based user programme. It is by far the largest laser-driven user programme by a single organisation in the world.

That growth has led to an increase in the countries supporting ELI as well, with 10 members and observers all together. In 2026 three new Observers joined as ELI welcomed Montenegro, Slovakia and Poland. Meanwhile, Germany signalled an intention to join ELI as a Full Member from the beginning of 2027 at a meeting in June. These developments reflect growing confidence among European governments in the organisation's long-term scientific mission. ELI continues to build momentum across its scientific programme, international partnerships, and membership, positioning the organisation for its next phase of growth.