TRAIL Summer Workshop 2025: Advancing Trusted AI Together in London

Supporting international collaboration in Research and Innovation is a great privilege of our role as a General Representation. We are proud to highlight the dynamism of our research community and to showcase how Belgian excellence contributes to global discussions on the future of artificial intelligence.

From 25 August to 5 September 2025, the TRAIL Summer Workshop 2025, hosted in London in partnership with King’s College London Institute of Artificial Intelligence, with the support of Wallonie-Bruxelles International – Research and Innovation and Circle U. (European University Alliance), brought together more than 110 PhD and postdoctoral researchers from Belgium, the UK, and across Europe.

Over two weeks, participants worked across 13 research challenges in fields such as healthcare, Industry 4.0, logistics, aeronautics, space, agri-tech and clean-tech, tackling scientific and societal issues with real-world impact, while focusing on collaborative learning, project development, and knowledge exchange in artificial intelligence (AI).

Building on a European tradition

Now in its sixth edition, the TRAIL Summer Workshop has previously been hosted in Tournai (2020), Paris (2021), Berlin (2022), Nantes (2023) and Lisbon (2024). This year’s London workshop continued the tradition of providing an immersive environment where participants work closely with senior experts on projects with real-world applications.

On Tuesday the 26^th, the workshop launched and alongside hands-on research, attendees heard from leading experts in the field such as Prof. Luca Viganò, Prof. Pierre Geurts, Rony Darazi and Loïc Lefevre on the importance of international collaboration across research, exchanged insights, and engaged in discussions on the future of AI.

TRAIL Summer Workshop opening presentations 

Exploring the frontiers of AI

Artificial intelligence is transforming every sector of society, from healthcare and education to mobility, energy and industry. Europe is striving to remain at the forefront of this technological revolution.

The TRAIL Summer Workshop provides an immersive environment where young researchers work side by side with experts to co-develop the future of AI.

In line with this ambition, the 2025 programme covered key scientific themes including:

• Trustworthy AI
• Human–AI Interaction
• Embedded and Energy-Efficient AI
• Privacy-Preserving Approaches
• Multi-Agent Systems
• Social and Ethical Impacts
• AI in Higher Education

Participants also engaged with methods at the forefront of AI research, including physics-based models, digital twins, weakly supervised learning, active learning, natural language processing, generative AI and multimodal AI.

The workshop concluded on Friday the 5^th of September with the team’s projects presentations, insights from institutional leaders such as Circle U Alliance Secretary-General Mr Kevin Guillaume, King’s College London Vice President of R&I Sir Bashir Al-Hashimi, and the General Representative of Wallonia Brussels to the UK Mr Motonobu Kasajima, and reflections on the future of European collaboration in AI research.

UK–Belgian leadership in European research

This year’s workshop highlighted the growing importance of collaboration between the UK and Belgium in shaping Europe’s AI research landscape.

The TRAIL Institute — established by French-speaking universities in Belgium and several accredited research centres — has become a cornerstone of AI research in Wallonia, bringing together more than 300 affiliated researchers, 50 partner companies and over 100 collaborative projects.

In London, TRAIL is partnering with the King’s Institute for Artificial Intelligence and the Circle U Alliance, reflecting a shared commitment to advancing AI research and reinforcing the UK’s place within the wider European academic community.

TRAIL ecosystem presentation

King’s College London – Institute of Artificial Intelligence — The King's Institute for Artificial Intelligence brings together the diverse community in artificial intelligence (AI) at King's College London.

As the UKRI AI Review puts it, UKRI will seek to ensure that the UK has the right environment by “promoting the interdisciplinarity and cross-sector working needed for successful advances in AI.”  At King's, our AI work lies in every faculty across the entire university, with activity spanning core AI (its technical underpinnings), applications and societal implications.

Royal College of Arts – Computer Science Research Centre  — The RCA’s Computer Science Research Centre is an interdisciplinary research centre in design-led computer science, exploring areas including robotics, artificial intelligence, augmented and virtual reality, and advanced visualisation and simulation.

The Computer Science Research Centre will not only provide significant and long-lasting benefit to the RCA but also for the wider research community by pioneering the STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art & design, mathematics) agenda. Injecting scientific disciplines into a mix of creative ones will lead to innovative new discoveries.

Imperial College – Audio Experience Design Lab — The Audio Experience Design theme includes researchers and projects in areas related with both the physical and the perceptual natures of audio, with particular focus on sonic interaction and user experience. Currently, the main active research areas are: Spatial hearing and binaural audio, Wearable embedded interactive audio systems, Audiology and hearing devices.

We put particular attention towards applications and the impact of our research, aiming at both developing novel technologies and techniques, and at using them to improve the quality of life for end users through how they experience audio interfaces.

Strengthening ties through senior-level collaboration

As part of the programme, London also hosted the European AI Networking Event – Belgium & UK Collaboration on Thursday 4 September 2025.

A delegation of 20 senior Belgian researchers, including representatives from TRAIL, met with UK leaders to strengthen partnerships and identify opportunities for future collaboration:

Discussions focused on:

• Joint presentations of Belgian and UK initiatives in AI
• Identification of collaborative project opportunities
• Round-table discussions to shape joint proposals

The European AI Networking Event – Belgium & UK Collaboration

Supported by Wallonie-Bruxelles International

The Research and Innovation Department, together with its Scientific Counsellor based in London since 2024 to strengthen Wallonia-Brussels’s scientific and academic presence in the UK.

This representation fosters closer ties between researchers, institutions and industries, ensuring that Belgian expertise is recognised on the global stage.