7-8 July 2026, 09:00-18:00 CEST

Palais des Académies, Brussels, Belgium

Participation Free

On the 7th and 8th of July 2026, the Palais des AcadÈmies in Brussels will host the Final Conference of the ENFIELD Project, a flagship Horizon Europe Network of Excellence in Artificial Intelligence. Titled Advancing AI in Europe: From Foundations to Real-World Applications, this two-day event brings together leading voices from academia, industry, and public policy to confront the most consequential challenges shaping the future of AI on the continent.

The conference arrives at a defining moment for European AI governance. With the EU AI Act entering its enforcement cycle and the AI Continent Action Plan setting out Europe's ambitions for technological sovereignty, the need for a coherent, evidence-based dialogue between researchers, industry, and regulators has never been greater. ENFIELD's Final Conference is designed to serve precisely that forum — translating years of collaborative research into actionable insight for practitioners and policymakers alike.

“Europe does not simply need more AI. It needs AI that is trustworthy, sustainable, and genuinely aligned with the values and strategic interests of its citizens. ENFIELD's work has been to turn those principles into verifiable, deployable outcomes." — Georgios Spathoulas, Technical Coordinator, NTNU.

This two-day conference will include keynote speeches, panel discussions, demonstrations and networking sessions designed to connect participants. The programme opens on Day 1 with a keynote from Rod Evans, NVIDIA’s Vice President for Supercomputing, HER Cloud, and AI for Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Drawing on over 30 years of experience in the IT sector, Rod Evans will address the challenges related to AI infrastructure, focusing on energy constraints and sustainability of data centers. Day 2 opens with a keynote by Virginia Dignum, Professor of Responsible Artificial Intelligence at Umea University and one of the world's foremost authorities on AI ethics and governance. A member of expert groups at UNESCO, the OECD, and the United Nations High-Level Advisory Body on AI, Dignum will examine the tension between innovation imperatives and the demands of human-centric regulation.

Further sessions will address data quality and explainability, Edge AI and robustness, EU AI Act compliance for industry, AI literacy and workforce development, and EU AI sovereignty. The conference will conclude with the formal presentation of ENFIELD's strategic outcomes and roadmap, and its alignment with Europe's broader ambitions for a competitive, responsible and sovereign AI ecosystem.

All sessions are free to attend, and demonstrations of research results will be presented throughout both days. Registration for the event is open here. Follow the latest news and information on the website: enfield-project.eu/final-conference.