Call for contributions

Background
 

The UK AI research community plays a key role on the global stage in advancing fundamental research in artificial intelligence while having unique strengths in interdisciplinary research that fuels novel applications and industries, as well as shaping AI policy and regulation. To support the community, over the last 5 years UKRI has invested in large research programmes including the AI Hubs and AI CDTs as well as in key parts of the AI research ecosystem such as the Turing Institute, Responsible AI UK, BRAID, the TAS Programme, and Bridge AI.  These sit alongside a number of other aligned programme grants, research projects, and fellowships (e.g., Turing AI Fellowships) that now account for over £300m of investments.   

This community is made up of researchers from diverse backgrounds and disciplines that share a number of similar research challenges or overlap in terms of the problem areas they address. In many cases, AI innovations often cut across many applications, industries and disciplines, but few opportunities exist for UK AI researchers to come together to share their latest research across these boundaries.  UKAIRS will showcase the very best of the research (including already published outputs) funded by UKRI whilst also providing a platform for UK AI researchers, at all career stages, to discuss emerging challenges and inform the wider community of industry, government, and civil society. 

Purpose
 

UKAIRS  aims to bring researchers from all UKRI AI investments, covering both technical topics, and social sciences and humanities perspectives, to present their work on AI related subjects to the whole community with the goal of shaping the UK’s research priorities, identifying cross-fertilisation opportunities, and informing the narrative around the challenges to delivering AI that benefits society and the economy.  UKAIRS will invite research contributions through research papers, posters, and demos.  

As this is the first edition of the symposium (with a full conference to follow in 2026), and to help manage demand, contributions are only invited from researchers, students, and practitioners directly funded by a UKRI project or programme (including pump-priming projects and impact accelerator awards) in the last 3 years (June 2022).  We particularly encourage contributions from early career researchers.  Contributions can be papers already published at other venues, provocations, demos, posters, and abstracts (see formats below). 

Subject Areas and Review Process
 

UKAIRS invites researchers, students, and practitioners involved in ALL UKRI AI investments (not only hubs or CDTs) to submit the following types of contributions. The review process is covered in italics: 

  1. World Class Research Track (already published conference or journal paper): You will submit your peer-reviewed and published work (PDF).  
    REVIEW: Assessment for thematic relevance 
  2. Emerging Research (3000 words): Research and early-stage research. You may propose a demo or a poster slot.
    REVIEW: peer review by up to 2 reviewers.
  3. Engagement/Satellites/Panel suggestions for panel presentation to stimulate cross-community dialogue at the symposium. You will submit a 2-page document presenting the need for this engagement.  
    REVIEW: Assessment for relevance and programme. 

Rather than prescribe thematic areas, we aim to develop thematic areas through a bottom-up approach that joins up parts of the community that do not currently share common platforms. Applicants should clearly state the thematic areas/keywords of relevance to their submission. 

Key dates
 

Full call: 1 March 2025
Submission System open: 31 March 2025
Deadline for papers, posters and demos: 30 April 2025
Notifications: 21 June 2025
Registration opens: 21 June 2025
Camera ready due: 10th July 2025

All deadlines are at 23:59 Anywhere on Earth

Submission process
 

All submissions will proceed through the following process. Please contact the Papers chairs if you have any questions.  

  1. Preparing your submission:  papers, must be in English and in PDF format; and include figures, tables, proofs, appendixes, and any other content. 
  2. Emerging research/provocations should be no longer than 3,000 words. For more information about the paper templates, including downloading the LaTeX or Word templates. Please use the 2-column template (\documentclass[sigconf]{acmart}) which can be found here. 
  3. Submitting your contribution: Include your title, abstract, author details, and the contribution as a PDF. We ask you to ensure your submission is accessible for all users. To accomplish this, please follow the SIGCHI Guide to an Accessible Submission. 
Presenting your work
 

Papers. Authors of accepted papers will be invited to present their paper at UKAIRS (typically 10-15 min talk TBC).

Emerging Resesarch Submissions. Depending on the type of submission (demos, posters, papers, provocations), accepted submissions will be given a space or a speaking slot to present their work.

We strongly encourage authors to consider the accessibility of their papers and presentations, such as by including figure descriptions. Please consider the EPSRC guidance for neuro-inclusive meetings and events.  If you have any questions about creating accessible submissions, please contact us.

LLM Statement
 

We are following the ACM guidelines on the use of Large Language Models (LLMs) in authoring papers. This means that any text generation from an LLM such as ChatGPT must be clearly marked where such tools are used for purposes beyond editing the author’s own text. While we will not use tools to detect text generated by LLMs, we will investigate submissions brought to our attention and will desk reject papers where LLM use is not clearly marked. We recommend that authors read the ACM Policy on Authorship and related SIGCHI blog post.

Questions?
 

If you have any questions, please contact info@rai.ac.uk