[FOSDEM] CfP for the Open Research Devroom

Diego Diego email at diegodiego.net
Mon Nov 10 12:22:31 UTC 2025 

Hi y'all,

You can find our CfP on on website <https://research-fosdem.github.io/>.

---


      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 <https://fosdem.org>, 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.


    Event and talks format

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 <https://video.fosdem.org/>.


  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
    <https://archive.fosdem.org/2025/schedule/track/research/>
  * Open Research @ FOSDEM 2024
    <https://archive.fosdem.org/2024/schedule/track/open-research/>
  * Open Research @ FOSDEM 2023
    <https://archive.fosdem.org/2023/schedule/track/open_research_tools_and_technology/>
  * Open Research @ FOSDEM 2022
    <https://archive.fosdem.org/2022/schedule/track/open_research_tools_and_technologies/>
  * Open Research @ FOSDEM 2021
    <https://archive.fosdem.org/2021/schedule/track/open_research_tools_and_technologies/>
  * Open Research @ FOSDEM 2020
    <https://archive.fosdem.org/2020/schedule/track/open_research_tools_and_technologies/>


        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 at fosdem.org.

Follow us on Mastodon (@FosdemResearch at fosstodon.org) 
<https://fosstodon.org/web/@FosdemResearch> for updates and announcements.


  About the Open Research devroom

The Open Research devroom addresses FLOSS 
<https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/floss-and-foss.en.html> 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 <https://reticular.hypotheses.org/1825> in the devroom 
in 2020-2021.


  Committee

Your proposal will be assessed by our committee:

  * Anne Lee Steele <https://aleesteele.com>
  * Célya Gruson-Daniel Inno3 <https://inno3.fr/> and COSTECH Lab
    <https://costech.utc.fr/Le-COSTECH> (Université de Technologie de
    Compiègne)
  * Deborah Udoh
  * Diego Antolinos-Basso, research software engineer at the Académie du
    journalisme et des médias, University of Neuchâtel, CH
    <https://www.unine.ch/ajm>.
  * Émilien Schultz
  * Jim Madge <https://blog.jmadge.com>
  * Mathieu Jacomy, assistant professor at the Tantlab
    <https://www.en.culture.aau.dk/research/research-groups/tantlab> in
    Copenhagen and designer of Gephi <https://gephi.org/>.
  * Paul Girard, Human Data Interfaces engineer at OuestWare
    <https://ouestware.com>
  * Sara Petti
  * Victor Daussy-Renaudin
  * Violeta Menéndez González <https://violetamenendez.github.io/>,
    Senior Research Software Engineer at CoSTAR National Lab
    <https://www.ukri.org/councils/ahrc/remit-programmes-and-priorities/convergent-screen-technologies-and-performance-in-realtime-costar/costar-national-lab/>.
  * Yo Yehudi

Contact us: open-research-devroom-manager at fosdem.org

We post updates about the devroom at FOSDEM and our online event on 
Mastodon <https://fosstodon.org/@FosdemResearch> and Bluesky 
<https://bsky.app/profile/fosdemresearch.bsky.social>.




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