About this Event
ICAI Exchange 2026: Academia, Industry & Government Co-Lab Event
ICAI Exchange 2026 is an open, collaborative event that brings together diverse perspectives from across the AI ecosystem to inspire innovation, spark connections, and foster meaningful knowledge exchange. By bridging academic research, industry R&D, and public sector challenges, this interactive gathering creates a non-hierarchical space where participants co-create solutions and build lasting partnerships.
This event provides an open setting for AI professionals, industry and governmental partners, along with public and private sector leaders to exchange experiences, tackle shared challenges, and strengthen AI collaboration to better meet societal needs.
Expand your network across the Dutch AI ecosystem, spark creative ideas through fresh cross-sector perspectives, and build inspiring collaborations that drive real-world impact together.
Check the overview of the tracks below.
Tracks overview:
Round 1
Track 1 - Mind the Gap: Researchers x Industry
Speaker: Corrinke Boon (Ground to Play)
Topic: Addresses the different timelines, incentives, and terminology between academic labs and corporate partners. Through interactive small-group dialogue, participants share honest perspectives to build mutual understanding.
Track 2 - Research Matchmaking
Speaker: ICAI
Topic: Connects researchers across disciplines based on shared expertise, methods, and challenges. Through facilitated matchmaking and focused conversations, participants discover unexpected synergies and collaborative opportunities.
Track 3 - Engineering Hybrid Intelligence Systems: Synthesising a Decade of Research
Speaker: Chiara Natali (VU & Hybrid Intelligence)
Topic: Reflects on nearly a decade of Hybrid Intelligence research through the CARE framework (Collaborativeness, Adaptiveness, Responsibility, and Explainability). Based on an analysis of ~350 publications, this session explores how theoretical principles translate into real-world human-agent teams and practical system building blocks.
Track 4 - From Policy Challenge to Scientific Research
Speaker: TNO
Topic: How can societal and policy challenges be translated into relevant and researchable scientific questions? And how can research findings effectively reach policy and practice? This session explores the connection between government, academia, and practice, focusing on co-creating research questions, generating societal value, and increasing the applicability and impact of scientific research.
Track 5 - Go Fast or Go Far?
Speaker: Kickstart AI
Topic: Your place in the AI ecosystem. An interactive exploration of our ecosystem: how government, academia, and industry make a difference together.
Track 6 - The Future of Conversational Agents
Speaker: LATTICE Lab
Topic: What would it take to build capable, trustworthy AI without depending on big tech? During this LATTICE session, we will present the lab's most recent advances and invite the audience to discuss and challenge the future directions for conversational agents. Researchers at the LATTICE lab are working on text-based conversational agents, with a focus on lower-resource settings: contexts where training data is scarce, domains are highly specialized, and supercomputing infrastructure is not available. The lab places particularly focuses on developing AI systems that are socially aware, explainable, and responsible.
Track 7 - AI Techniques for Model-Based Optimisation
Speakers: Sigur de Vries (RU & ASMPT Lab), Rens de Heer (UU & RAIL Lab), Issa Hanou (TU Delft)
How can AI help us solve complex optimisation problems in the real world? In this inter-lab session, researchers from several ICAI labs will share how they use AI and model-based optimisation across different research areas and applications. Through a series of short and accessible scientific talks, you will discover different approaches to challenges such as finding interpretable models, planning and optimising railway hubs, and developing intelligent robotic systems. By bringing together perspectives from different labs and domains, the session aims to spark new ideas, connections and opportunities for knowledge exchange.
Round 2
Track 8 - Great Idea or Great Impact?
Speaker: Kickstart AI
Topic: The art of AI adoption Discover the difference between a successful and a stranded use case, and bridge the gap between technical success and human adoption.
Track 9 - Making Thinking Visible: Human-AI Collaboration in Individual and Group Decisions
Speakers: Dr. Catha Oertel & Dr. Morita Tarvirdians (Hybrid Intelligence)
Topic: Explores AI systems designed to augment human decision-making processes rather than provide direct recommendations. Featuring hands-on demonstrations of ReflectiMate (Socratic personal reflection) and Bubble Board (group brainstorming analysis), participants will see how interactive AI models human thinking and prompts deeper self-interpretation.
Track 10 - Academic and Industry Research: Empirical Research Methods for Successful Collaborations
Speakers: Filippo Scaramuzza & Marco Tonnarelli (ERMSEI)
Topic: Demonstrates how empirical research methods (such as Action Design Research and ethnographic studies) bridge academia and industry. Participants will explore practical strategies for formulating joint research questions, balancing scientific rigor with real-world constraints, and generating value for both practice and literature.
Track 11 - Bridging AI Research & Government
Speaker: AI Lab for Public Services
Topic: This interactive session explores how collaboration around AI research can be strengthened. Through the exchange of experiences and perspectives, the session will address shared challenges, opportunities for better connecting research with societal and public-sector needs, and ways to strengthen knowledge exchange and collaboration. The session provides an open setting for discussion, new connections and identifying opportunities for future collaboration.
Track 12 - From AI Research to Startup: Your First Steps
Speaker: Peter Westerhuijs (TTT.AI)
Topic: Guides researchers through the academic spin-off journey, from recognizing commercial potential to taking early entrepreneurial steps, enriched by direct insights from a successful academic founder.
Track 13 - Technical Deep Dive: Advances in Robotics & AI
Speakers: OpenBots
Topic: This technical deep dive explores current research and developments in robotics and embodied AI. Researchers from the OpenBots Lab will share technical approaches, challenges and insights from their work on intelligent systems that perceive, learn, interact and act in the physical world. The session offers researchers an opportunity to discover methods and ideas that can be relevant beyond robotics and to exchange perspectives on open technical challenges.
Agenda
🕑: 10:00 AM - 11:00 AM
Registration & Walk-in
Info: A warm welcome with coffee and tea.
🕑: 11:00 AM - 11:20 AM
Keynote Session 1
Info: TBA
🕑: 11:20 AM - 12:00 PM
Keynote Session 2
Info: TBA
🕑: 12:00 PM - 01:00 PM
Lunch & Networking Moment
Info: A delicious lunch combined with a moment to connect with fellow AI researchers.
🕑: 01:00 PM - 02:15 PM
Round 1 Track Sessions - Connect: Building the Dutch AI Ecosystem
Info: In this round, the focus is on connecting with each other. Participants can choose which session they want to participate in (Tracks 1 to 7).
🕑: 02:15 PM - 02:45 PM
Break
🕑: 02:45 PM - 04:00 PM
Round 2 Track Ses. - Create Impact: From Research to Real-World Applications
Info: In this round, the focus is on creating impact real-world impact. Participants can choose which session they would like to participate in (Tracks 8 to 13).
🕑: 04:00 PM - 04:15 PM
Short Break
🕑: 04:15 PM - 05:00 PM
Wrap-up
🕑: 05:00 PM - 06:15 PM
Networking & Drinks
Info: We end with a moment to raise our glasses and toast to a day full of insights and new collaborations!
Event venue & nearby stays
Utrecht, Netherlands
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