[visionlist] COSYNE 2026: Call for Workshop Proposals; Abstract submission opens soon

[Tomas Hromadka]

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Computational and Systems Neuroscience 2026 (Cosyne)

MAIN MEETING
12 - 15 March 2026
Lisbon, Portugal

WORKSHOPS
16 - 17 March 2026
Cascais, Portugal

www.cosyne.org

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IMPORTANT DATES

   Abstract submission opens: 05 September 2025
   Abstract submission deadline: 16 October 2025

   Workshop proposal submission opens: 05 September 2025
   Workshop proposal submission deadline: 23 October 2025
   

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               COSYNE MEETING & WORKSHOPS
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The annual Cosyne meeting provides an inclusive forum for the exchange of empirical and theoretical approaches to problems in systems neuroscience, in order to understand how neural systems function.

The MAIN MEETING is single-track. A set of invited talks is selected by the Executive Committee, and additional talks and posters are selected by the Program Committee, based on submitted abstracts. The WORKSHOPS feature in-depth discussion of current topics of interest, in a small group setting.

Cosyne topics include but are not limited to: neural basis of behavior, sensory and motor systems, circuitry, learning, neural coding, natural scene statistics, dendritic computation, neural basis of persistent activity, nonlinear receptive field mapping, representations of time and sequence, reward systems, decision-making, synaptic plasticity, map formation and plasticity, population coding, attention, neuromodulation, and computation with spiking networks.

We would like to foster increased participation from experimental groups as well as computational ones. Please circulate widely and encourage your students and postdocs to apply.

When preparing an abstract, authors should be aware that not all abstracts can be accepted for the meeting. Abstracts will be selected based on the clarity with which they convey the substance, significance, and originality of the work to be presented.


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             CALL FOR WORKSHOP PROPOSALS
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A series of workshops will be held after the main Cosyne meeting. The goal is to provide an informal forum for the discussion of important research questions and challenges. Controversial issues, open problems, comparisons of competing approaches, and alternative viewpoints are encouraged.

Workshop proposals deadline: 23 October 2025
To submit your Cosyne 2026 Workshop Proposal, please visit Cosyne.org -> Workshops -> Call for Proposals

The overarching goal of all workshops should be the integration of empirical and theoretical approaches, in an environment that fosters collegial discussion and debate.

- There will be 6-10 workshops/day, running in parallel.
- Each workshop is expected to draw between 15 and 80 people.
- The workshops will be split into morning and late afternoon sessions.
- Workshops will be held in Cascais, Portugal.
- Workshop speakers do NOT receive free registration, travel expenses, or accommodation for either the main meeting or the workshop sessions. Organizers should let invited speakers know that they are expected to pay for workshop registration fees.

Workshop organizer responsibilities include coordinating workshop participation and content, scheduling all speakers, submitting a final schedule for the workshop program, and moderating the discussion. Organizers can, but need not, be speakers. One complimentary (free) organizer registration is provided per workshop. For workshops with two organizers, the free registration can be given to one of the organizers or split evenly between them.

Any required multimedia resources beyond a projector, screen, and microphones will be the responsibility of the workshop organizers to coordinate with Cosyne and the workshop venue A/V staff.

EVALUATION CRITERIA

As stated above, the goal of Cosyne workshops is to provide an interactive, informal forum for discussions. Relevant topics include, but are not limited to: sensory processing; motor planning and control; functional neural circuits; motivation, reward and decision making; learning and memory; adaptation and plasticity; neural coding; neural circuitry and network models; and methods in computational or systems neuroscience.

Workshop proposals will be evaluated by the Cosyne Workshop Chairs, and a subset of the proposals will be selected. The proposals will be evaluated according to the following six metrics (which will be weighted equally):

- Relevance to the Cosyne community
- Integration of experimental and theoretical issues
- Current interest in the topic in the scientific community
- Potential for new research directions and interactions to emerge
- Distinctive scope/approach compared to other workshops (including previous years’)
- Diversity and equity in the proposed speaker (we are looking for representation of women or nonbinary individuals, individuals from other underrepresented groups, and a balance of established and early career researchers)

In order to foster discussion within Workshops and reduce overlap between workshops, organizers should inform invited speakers that a speaker can take part in no more than two Workshops.

WORKSHOP PROPOSAL

Each workshop proposal will include:
- Name(s) and email address(es) of the organizers (2 organizers per session is strongly recommended, but 3 will be allowed).
- A title.
- A brief description of 1. what the workshop will address and accomplish, 2. why the topic is of interest, 3. who is the targeted group of participants.
- Names and email addresses of speakers, who should already have agreed to participate should the proposal be accepted.
- Only proposals for one-day workshops will be accepted. The Workshop Chairs reserve the right to ask two workshops to merge into a two-day workshop, should topics align.
- A brief resume of the workshop organizer(s) along with a short list of workshop-relevant publications (about half a page total).
- A description of how you have addressed diversity and equity in your workshop.  	

Experience has shown that the best discussions during a workshop are those that arise spontaneously. A good way to foster these is to have short talks and long question periods (e.g. 30+15 minutes), and to have plenty of breaks. We recommend keeping the number of talks small (i.e., fewer than 10 talks per day).

WORKSHOP COSTS

Detailed registration costs, etc, will be at www.cosyne.org. Please note: Cosyne does NOT provide travel funding for workshop speakers. Organizers should let invited speakers know that they are expected to pay for workshop registration fees. Participants are encouraged to register early, in order to qualify for discounted registration rates. One complimentary (free) organizer registration is provided per workshop. For workshops with two organizers, the free registration can be given to one of the organizers or split evenly between them.

COSYNE 2026 WORKSHOP CHAIRS
   Workshop Chairs: N Alex Cayco Gajic (ENS) and Guillaume Lajoie (MILA/U Montreal)

COSYNE WORKSHOPS CONTACT
   workshops [at] cosyne.org


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                 COSYNE 2026 COMMITTEES
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ORGANIZING COMMITTEE
   General Chairs: Tatiana Engel (Princeton) and Kevin Franks (Duke)
   Program Chairs: Kimberly Stachenfeld (DeepMind) and Mark Histed (NIH)
   Workshop Chairs: N Alex Cayco Gajic (ENS) and Guillaume Lajoie (MILA/U Montreal)
   Tutorial Chairs: Eva Dyer (Georgia Tech) and Talmo Pereira (Salk)
   Mentorship and Networking Chairs: Denise Cai (Mount Sinai) and Luke Sjulson (Albert Einstein)
   Undergraduate Travel Chairs: Lea Duncker (Columbia) and Kevin Miller (DeepMind)
   Development Chair: Michael Long (NYU)
   Social Media Chair: Sabera Talukder (Caltech)
   Audio-Video Media Chair: Carlos Stein Brito (Chamaplimaud)
   Poster Design: Maja Bialon

PROGRAM COMMITTEE
   Mark Histed (NIH) Co-chair
   Kimberly Stachenfeld (DeepMind) Co-chair
   Mikio Aoi (UCSD)
   Arkarup Banerjee (CSHL)
   Helen Barron (Oxford)
   Marcus Benna (UCSD)
   Adrian Bondy (Princeton)
   N Alex Cayco Gajic (ENS)
   Hannah Choi (Georgia Tech)
   Ben Cowley (CSHL)
   Brian DePasquale (BU)
   Sridhar Devarajan (IISc)
   Laura Driscoll (Allen Institute)
   Eva Dyer (U Penn)
   Becket Ebitz (U Montreal)
   Noemi Elteto (DeepMind)
   Arseny Finkelstein (Tel Aviv U)
   Juan Alvaro Gallego (Imperial)
   Matt Golub (U Washington)
   Laura Grima (Janelia)
   Bilal Haider (Georgia Tech)
   Kiah Hardcastle (Harvard)
   Y Kate Hong (CMU)
   Michele Insanally (U Pittsburgh)
   Jonathan Kao (UCLA)
   Ann Kennedy (Northwestern)
   Kishore Kuchibhotla (JHU)
   Anna Levina (U Tubingen)
   Camilo Libedinsky (National Institute of Singapore)
   Laureline Logiaco (CU Anschutz)
   Emily Mace (Med Cntr Gottingen)
   Emily Mackevicius (Basis)
   Francesca Mastrogiuseppe (Champalimaud)
   Alexander Mathis (EPFL)
   Luca Mazzucatto (U Oregon)
   Dan McNamee (Champalimaud)
   Jorge Mejias (UVA)
   James Murray (U Oregon)
   Hendrikje Nienborg (NIH)
   Ramon Nogueira Manas (U Chicago)
   Gouki Okazawa (Inst of Neurosci, China)
   Marino Pagan (U Edinburgh)
   Agostina Palmigiano (UCL)
   Hannah Payne (NYU)
   Rui Ponte Costa (Oxford)
   Carolina Rezaval (U Birmingham)
   Erin Rich (NYU)
   Alex Roxin (Centre de Recerca Matematica)
   Shreya Saxena (Yale)
   Benjamin Scott (BU)
   Alireza Soltani (Dartmouth)
   Nicholas Steinmetz (UW)
   Carsen Stringer (Janelia)
   Jennifer Sun (Cornell, DeepMind)
   Marie Suver (Vanderbilt)
   Tatjana Tschumatchenko (U Bonn)
   John Tuthill (U Washington)
   Ali Weber (Bryn Mawr)
   Brandon (Brady) Weissbourd (MIT)
   Alex Williams (NYU)
   Klaus Wimmer (Centre de Recerca Matematica)
   Anqi Wu (Georgia Tech)

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
   Stephanie Palmer (U Chicago)
   Anne-Marie Oswald (U Pittsburgh)
   Alexandre Pouget (U Geneva)
   Anthony Zador (CSHL)


CONTACT
    meeting [at] cosyne.org


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                COSYNE MAILING LISTS
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