SAIL in 2025 – Year in Review (Part 1)

The year kicked off with strong momentum across the SAIL research network, marked by international exchange, inspiring events, and exciting collaborations.

🌍 An early start to the conference year
The SAIL conference year began in January with COLING 2025 in Abu Dhabi, marking the first international appearance of SAIL research in 2025. Over the course of the year, many further conferences followed, including ACL 2025 in Vienna (Austria), ISWC in Nara (Japan), K-CAP in Dayton, Ohio (USA), and PRICAI in Wellington (New Zealand), bringing SAIL research to audiences around the world.

🤝 International research exchange
At the beginning of the year, we were delighted to welcome Prof. Tibebe Beshah Tesema from Addis Ababa University (Ethiopia) as a SAIL Fellow at Paderborn University. During his three-month research stay withthe DICE Research Group, he contributed to ongoing research and strengthened our international collaboration.

🎓 Spring School & Lecture Series
In March, we hosted the SAIL Spring School “Innovating AI Evaluation – Beyond Accuracy and Precision” at Bielefeld University, bringing together researchers to discuss new perspectives on evaluating AI systems. Alongside this, our “Robust AI” lecture series continued to provide a platform for in-depth discussion and knowledge exchange.

🏛️ Policy meets research
On 22 July, we welcomed Dr. Carsten Linnemann and Thomas Jarzombek to the Heinz Nixdorf Institute at Paderborn University. During a project showcase, we presented the SAIL research network and offered insights into our ongoing work and vision.

🚀 Looking ahead
Throughout the year, we laid the organisational and conceptual groundwork for a series of major events in collaboration with the Wissenswerkstadt Bielefeld, which took place later in 2025.

This is just the beginning of our 2025 highlights. Stay tuned for Part 2 of our SAIL Year in Review.✨