Extreme Light Infrastructure (ELI) is part of a new generation of large European research facilities with the main goal of creating laser equipment with unique parameters. ELI’s research projects will cover the interaction of light with matter at an intensity level ten times higher than current achievable values. The ELI Beamlines facility in the Czech Republic will provide ultra-short laser pulses of a few femtoseconds duration with peak power up to 10 PW. ELI Beamlines will create a portfolio of unique secondary sources covering photons in a broad spectrum of wavelengths as well as accelerated electrons, protons and ions for interdisciplinary applications in physics, medicine, biology and materials science. Specific applications are in cancer treatment, 3D diagnostic methods and material structures, among other areas. These state-of-the-art sources will be driven by ultra-intense lasers with the possibility of synchronising them in unique combinations with near-absolute precision. Two other centres will be set up in Hungary (ELI Attosecond – ultra-short optical pulses) and Romania (ELI Nuclear Physics – photonuclear physics).