Dear colleagues,

We are excited to announce that the Social Simulation Fest (SocSimFest) will continue its annual tradition in 2026. The festival offers a unique platform for ESSA members (and others) to connect and engage with the community.

Join us on Tuesday 19th and Wednesday 20th of May 2026 whether to hear our inspirational talks, participate in ESSA@Work in progress or interactive workshops on diverse social simulation topics. We look forward to world-wide suggestions and participation on this FREE event.

See below the exciting programme for this year’s Social Simulation Festival. Each session lasts between 1 and 1.5hrs. Full details https://socsimfest.eu/2026-programme/

• Inspirational Speakers:
  ** Clémentine Cottineau-Mugaza - Simulating the spatio-temporal effects of urban segregation on health inequalities
  ** Christophe Le Page - Participatory Agent-Based Modelling and Simulation: Engaging Local Communities to Support Social Learning in Socio-Ecological Systems
• ESSA@work - submit your work in progress here
• Can GenAI Enhance Social Simulation without Compromising Scientific Standards? - Peer-Olaf Siebers (University of Nottingham, UK)
• The Agent-Verse - The Computational Social Science Society of the Americas (CSSSA) workshop
• ABMs and Artificial Intelligence Synergies -
• Vittorio Nespeca (Leiden University, NL), Francesca Giardini (University of Groningen, NL), Loïs Vanhée (Umeå University, SE) ( Open Forum with ESSA’s Management Committee - Learn more about ESSA & the MC, meet others or bring a topic for discussion.
  *Starting a Journey Towards a Science of ‘Narratisation’ - Bruce Edmonds (Centre for Policy Modelling, Manchester University, UK & UiT The Norway University of the Arctic Tromsø, NO), Deniz Sirin (Climate Service Center Germany (GERICS) / Helmholtz-Zentrum Hereon, DE), Zuzanna Kurowska (Adam Mickiewicz University, PL); Martin Neumann, (Alpen Adria University Klagenfurt, DE); Rok Novak, (Jozef Stefan Institute, SI)

Register before May 19th to receive the Zoom link: https://survey.su.se/Survey/60368

Best regards,
The Fest Committee (Cristina Chueca Del Cerro, Fabian Lorig, and Nanda Wijermans)

P.S. For further information and inquiries, please contact us at comms.essa<at>gmail.com