A five-day intensive school in Vienna bringing together PhD students and young researchers across more than 30 lectures and six parallel tracks covering the full breadth of artificial intelligence, from foundational theory to applied and trustworthy systems.
ESSAI 2026 is the fourth edition of the European Summer School on Artificial Intelligence, a five-day programme organised by EurAI and held in Vienna, Austria. The school delivers introductory and advanced courses across six parallel tracks, taught by international academic and industry lecturers. In 2026, the event also encompasses the 2nd International Summer School on Bilateral AI and is co-located with the 5th ACM Europe Digital Humanism Summer School.
ESSAI 2026 occupies a distinctive place on the European AI education calendar as a structured, curriculum-style school rather than a paper-presentation conference. The programme spans the full spectrum of artificial intelligence research, from learning theory and knowledge representation to robotics, foundation models, and quantum machine learning. With more than 30 lecturers drawn from universities and industry across multiple continents, the school offers PhD students and early-career researchers a structured opportunity to deepen technical knowledge, engage directly with course instructors, and connect with a peer cohort working across AI subfields. The 2026 edition broadens its thematic scope through the integrated Bilateral AI track and the co-located Digital Humanism school, reflecting growing European interest in the societal dimensions of AI research.
The programme addresses all major areas of artificial intelligence through coordinated lecture series:
The full programme lists over 30 lecturers in total; individual session assignments beyond those above are not publicly disclosed as of verification.
ESSAI 2026 is accepting course and tutorial proposals. The submission deadline was 3 December 2025. The call for papers URL is not publicly disclosed as of verification.
Topics open for submission include:
Autonomous Agents and Multi-agent Systems, AI for Social Good, Causality and Causal Learning, Computer Vision, Ethical Legal and Social Aspects of AI, Foundation Models, Human-In-The-Loop AI, Knowledge Representation and Reasoning, Learning Theory, Machine Learning, Natural Language Processing, Neural Networks, Neuro-Symbolic Learning and Reasoning, Planning and Strategic Reasoning, Quantum Machine Learning, Reinforcement Learning, Robotics, Safe Explainable and Trustworthy AI, Search and Optimisation, and Uncertainty in AI.
ESSAI 2026 functions as one of the few European-level structured AI schools capable of covering the discipline end-to-end in a single week, making it a practical and cost-efficient option for PhD students seeking breadth across theory, applications, and responsible AI in a single programme.
Registration for ESSAI 2026 is open to all eligible participants via the official registration page. One pricing tier is publicly disclosed as of verification:
| Category | Fee | Condition |
|---|---|---|
| Student | EUR 525 | Early bird rate, valid until 30 April 2026 |
Standard pricing after the early bird deadline is not publicly disclosed as of verification. Complimentary access categories are not publicly disclosed as of verification.
Registration page: https://essai2026.eu/registration.php
ESSAI is structured as an educational school rather than a research paper venue. Content is delivered as multi-session lecture courses and tutorials designed to build knowledge systematically. There is no proceedings-based paper presentation format. Participants attend as learners rather than as presenters of accepted research.
No. The six-track structure covers the full breadth of AI: from foundational areas such as learning theory and constraint satisfaction to applied domains including robotics, NLP, and computer vision, alongside emerging and cross-cutting topics such as quantum machine learning, neuro-symbolic reasoning, and trustworthy AI.
The 2026 edition integrates the 2nd International Summer School on Bilateral AI as a dedicated content strand within the ESSAI programme. Bilateral AI encompasses topics related to bidirectional knowledge exchange between humans and AI systems, with courses including Wikidata and linked data applications. Precise scope beyond what is listed in the programme is not publicly disclosed as of verification.
EurAI is a federation of national artificial intelligence societies established in 1982 and governed by Belgian law. It represents AI research communities from across Europe and works to promote research, study, and application of artificial intelligence through a portfolio of events and policy engagement activities. Its principal event properties include the European Conference on Artificial Intelligence (ECAI), the Advanced Course on Artificial Intelligence (ACAI), and the European Summer School on Artificial Intelligence (ESSAI). EurAI also engages with European policymakers and institutions on matters relevant to the AI research community.
The number of employees at EurAI is not publicly disclosed as of verification. Further details on EurAI are available at https://www.eurai.org/.
ESSAI 2026 is held in Vienna, Austria, from 6 to 10 July 2026. The specific venue name and address are not publicly disclosed as of verification.
The early bird student rate of EUR 525 is available until 30 April 2026. Pricing applicable after that date is not publicly disclosed as of verification.
Yes. ESSAI 2026 is co-located with the 5th ACM Europe Digital Humanism Summer School and incorporates the 2nd International Summer School on Bilateral AI as an integrated programme strand. Practical details on cross-registration or joint access for co-located events are not publicly disclosed as of verification.
| Official website | https://essai2026.eu/ |
| Register | https://essai2026.eu/registration.php |
| not disclosed | |
| Programme | not publicly disclosed as of verification |
| Organiser website | https://www.eurai.org/ |
| Organiser LinkedIn | https://be.linkedin.com/company/european-association-for-artificial-intelligence-eurai |