SUM4Products Autumn Workshop 2026

Autumn Workshop

SUM4Products is holding an Autumn Workshop online on Thursday 17th and Friday 18th September.

Prospective and current academic and industry partners are invited to attend.

The workshop will be an interactive working session and a chance to ensure that the next year’s network activities reflect the challenges and opportunities that matter most to our community. As one of the few occasions enabling many members of our network (both academic and industry) to come together, the workshop will provide the best opportunity to develop ideas that will lead to concrete collaborations.

Register to attend

Schedule

Thursday 17th September, 10am-12.30pm:

  • Update on SUM4Products network opportunities for academic and industry partners

  • Provide ideas and suggestions for future network activity: We encourage participants to take some time before the meeting to consider the activities, themes and opportunities you would most like us to prioritise.

  • Industry sandpit session: Industry partners will deliver short presentations on ongoing challenges with breakout rooms for collaboration to develop ideas. We hope this interactive format will help shape industry challenges into strong proposals and teams that can be taken forward for the next Research Project Scheme funding round or Study Group.

Friday 18th September, 10am-11.30am:

  • Special Interest Group (SIG) discussion: Following discussion and feedback on Thursday, small-group discussions will be facilitated across proposed SIG themes. Details of groups who wish to take things forward will be shared with the wider network when applications for SIG funding are launched.

    The topics proposed so far span multiple disciplines and sectors, and we are keen for industry and academic partners to help broaden this agenda further by suggesting additional themes and areas of interest.

Information for all participants

Register to attend. Deadline for registrations is end of the day on Sunday 30th August 2026.

All meetings will take place on Microsoft Teams. Please register to be sent the link to join the meeting.

We are committed to making the meeting as valuable as possible for both academic and industry participants, so if there are any activities, discussion topics, or networking opportunities you'd like to see included, please do share your suggestions.

There is no cost to attend this SUM4Products workshop.

Information for industry participants

Industry participants are invited to deliver a short (under 10-minute) presentation outlining a few (<5) emerging challenges, opportunities or project ideas you’d like to explore with the academic community as part of the sandpit.

The sandpit is a free opportunity to get some feedback and guidance from our academic community, and we have now reserved some triage workshop slots with our partners at the KE Hub for industry ideas that could benefit from further discussion following the sandpit.

If you would like to take part, please complete our registration form. As the number of sandpit presentation slots is limited, we encourage you to register your interest as early as possible.

Confidentiality

At SUM4Products events, industry partners discuss challenges to academic members of the network. These events are open to all academic members of the network and other industry partners. Given the open nature of these events, it is not possible to ask participants to sign non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) in advance of, or during, any events. However, any follow-up work, such as work funded by the SUM4Products short projects with a defined project team, can be carried out under an NDA.

If you have questions about data sharing and confidentiality, please contact the SUM4Products team.

Code of Conduct

The SUM4Products Network+ and partner universities are committed to providing a welcoming, inclusive, and safe community for all. We expect cooperation and support from all participants to help ensure an environment where everyone is treated fairly and where diversity is valued. Participants would be expected to adhere to our Code of Conduct throughout their engagement with the Study Group.

Photos from our events

Photos from our meeting will be shared on this page in October 2026.