Open Research: Call for presentations

We invite developers and users of open tools and technologies used in a research and investigation context to contribute to the 2026 edition of FOSDEM, the largest open-source conference in Europe. We understand research as the general process of knowledge production and inquiry. This includes scientific research, investigative journalism, data journalism, OSINT, as well as research and investigations undertaken by NGOs, civil society, community and activist groups, etc.

We seek talks about:

• New releases of open source software. Introduce a new tool or infrastructure about knowledge production or management. We appreciate context about the project, at the crossroads of open source software and open science.
• Present and/or ask for feedback on open technology stacks used in a knowledge creation or production project (research, journalistic inquiry, archive creation or publication…) which collects, analyses, treats, documents, visualizes, and/or shares data.
• Discuss tool design and implementation that enhance the understanding and literacy of inquiry outputs: data visualisation techniques and issues, knowledge access and exploration means. E.g., how to hold an algorithm accountable to social scientists; how to foster better reproducibility and interoperability thanks to FLOSS; or how to cope with biases of a chart for a data journalist.
• Contribute to the debate about bridging tech culture with research and investigative environments (data journalism, investigative journalism, activism and academia), including tips and best practices for navigating tensions, as well as the contribution of the open source movement to research and investigations sustainability through organizational hosting, funding for projects, support and maintenance, etc.
• Share your experience about building open source devices or communities across a variety of research and investigative contexts.

We welcome talks from various research and investigative contexts: research labs, libraries, newsrooms, museums, hackerspaces, maker labs, community and activist groups. We welcome your experience on various topics: open science, open data, commons, research on research, sustainability… Any subjects related to open source technologies in research contexts are welcome even if not in this list.

The Open Research devroom consists of 6 hours of talks held physically in Bruxelles on Sunday 1st of February 2026

1. Time slots

• Lecture talks will last 20 minutes followed by 10 minutes for questions (and changing speaker)
• Lightning talks will last 10 minutes followed by 5 minutes for questions (and changing speaker)

2. Language and publication

Talks have to be in English and will be recorded. All FOSDEM talks are published under Creative Commons CC-BY licence on the FOSDEM video recordings archive.

HOW TO SUBMIT

1. Important dates:

• Proposal Deadline: 1 Dec 2025 AOE
• Accepted talk announced: 2025-12-15
• FOSDEM Conference: Sunday February 1st 2026 morning + afternoon at Université libre de Bruxelles, Solbosch campus.
• Submit early if you can!

2. Submissions

Must include:

• Title
• Abstract
• Description
• Talk licence: FOSDEM is an open-source software conference, please specify which OSI approved license your proposal uses.
• Speaker name, contact, biography and availability

Can include:

• Submission notes: write if you want to give a Lightning talk or Lecture here. Add any other details as needed (visible only to devrooms managers)
• Session Image: Use this if you want an illustration to go with your proposal. Please do not upload files larger than 10.0 MB.
• Additional speaker: you can add co-authors here.
• Extra review material: private materials you want to show to reviewers

Please make sure to add links to relevant online materials (such as website, publications, code repository…) to either abstract or extra review material.

To get inspired on possible abstract styles, length and format, you can read previous edition talks on FOSDEM archives:

• Open Research @ FOSDEM 2025
• Open Research @ FOSDEM 2024
• Open Research @ FOSDEM 2023
• Open Research @ FOSDEM 2022
• Open Research @ FOSDEM 2021
• Open Research @ FOSDEM 2020

3. Submitting your talk through Pretalx

The submission process is managed in the Pretalx system used by the FOSDEM conference. You must create an account in the system to submit. Once logged in, select “submit a proposal” and select the “Open Research” track.

Apply here: https://pretalx.fosdem.org/fosdem-2026/cfp

If you have any issues with Pretalx, do not despair: contact us at open-research-devroom-manager@fosdem.org.

Follow us on Mastodon (@FosdemResearch@fosstodon.org) for updates and announcements.

About the Open Research devroom

The Open Research devroom addresses FLOSS developers in a broad community concerned with research production and curation: scientists, engineers, journalists, archivists, curators, activists. The tools and technologies targeted are typically creating, handling or sharing knowledge artifacts: data, academic papers, books, collections, web contents, algorithms, artworks. This devroom provides a place and time to discuss the issues related to the creation and usage of open research technologies, with the ambition to foster discussions between designers, developers and users, bridging multiple knowledge-based communities together, and with the broader FLOSS community.

The Open Research devroom aims to:

• Allow knowledge-based tool developers to publicize their effort and become aware of other FLOSS projects.
• Facilitate the pooling of coding efforts on (often poorly funded) tools.
• Create a network where otherwise isolated developers, research engineers can share common FLOSS concerns.
• Provide social recognition for people who work in fields where designing and developing tools is less considered than usual outcomes (e.g. not publishing papers in research, not writing investigation in data journalism, etc).

For more contextual information, you can also read about the state of the conversation in the devroom in 2020-2021.