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Date

02 - 03 Jul 2026

Language

English / Spanish

Location

Universitat Politècnica de València - Paraninfo

Streaming

Disponible

ValgrAI Scientific Council Forum 2026

Welcome to the ValgrAI Scientific Council Forum 2026!

Welcome to a new edition of the ValgrAI Scientific Council Forum! The VSCF is a highly significant forum for meeting and dialogue in the Valencian Community, where nationally and internationally renowned experts, researchers, and leading professionals from the field of Artificial Intelligence (AI) present cutting-edge research and strategic visions for the future of technology. This forum has established itself as a strategic platform for analysing the main advances in Artificial Intelligence, promoting the exchange of knowledge and discussing the impact of this technology on society and industry.

ValgrAI is an ecosystem driven by the Valencian Community to lead and promote research, training, and knowledge transfer in artificial intelligence, positioning the Valencian Community as a benchmark in this field within Europe.
We are delighted to announce a new edition of the ValgrAI Scientific Council Forum, the leading AI event in the Valencian Community! This gathering, which will take place in an exceptional setting, will feature national and international experts and is set to be a key event for professionals, academics and anyone interested in the field of AI.
The upcoming #VSCF2026 will take place on 2 and 3 July 2026 and is divided into two distinct days: on 2 July, it will take place in the Paraninfo at the Polytechnic University of Valencia, whilst on 3 July, the 10th UMI Meeting will be held in the Assembly Hall of the ETSINF at the Polytechnic University of Valencia. Save the date!

What can I expect from VSCF2026?

The ValgrAI Scientific Council Forum 2026 will consist of TWO days dedicated to showcasing the most significant and innovative advances in the field of Artificial Intelligence. The event programme includes:
  • Cutting-edge research: we will present the latest studies and projects in AI that are shaping the future of technological innovation.
  • Applied innovation: we will explore practical applications of AI in key sectors, driving the transformation of industry and society.
  • Technological advances: we will discuss the challenges and opportunities presented by AI, always from an ethical and sustainable perspective.
Furthermore, the forum is distinguished by its commitment to fostering a collaborative environment, encouraging the exchange of ideas and establishing synergies amongst the sector’s key players: students, businesses, and researchers.

Thursday 2 July 2026

(Auditorium, Polytechnic University of Valencia – UPV)

9:00 – 9:50 | Registration.

9:50 – 10:00 | Welcome address by Vicent Botti (General Director of ValgrAI) and Ana Cidad (Managing Director of ValgrAI).

10:00 – 10:45 | KEYNOTE #1 Virginia Dignum (Umeå University) – “The AI Paradox: How to Make Sense of a Complex Future”

10:45 – 11:40 | The future of AI: ValgrAI Researchers

  1. Iván Monzón (UJI)
  2. Sara Martín Frechina (UPV)
  3. Yulia Karpova (UPV)
  4. Mireia Costa Sánchez (VRAIN-UPV)
  5. Iván Arcos (ESTSINF-UPV)
  6. Rongjun Ma (UPV)
  7. Juan José Cabrera (UMH)
  8. Juan Carlos Carrillo (UPV)
  9. Nicolas Martin Morcillo (University of Alicante) – “End-to-end MLOps pipeline in Snowflake for urban water demand forecasting — ValgrAI Grant – Aguas de Alicante (Veolia Group)”.

11:50– 12:15 | Coffee break

12:15 – 13:30 | Company talks

  1. S2 Grupo: Luis Búrdalo – SOCIIA “Soc Industrial Automation with AI”.
  2. Pangeanic: Manuel Herranz (CEO) – “Sovereign AI: ontologies, small models and ‘tokens are the new coal’”.
  3. Nunsys: Fernando Mengod – “Artificial Intelligence applied to Smart Cities”.
  4. Veolia: Cristina Baixauli – “Artificial intelligence: a new cross-cutting theme in water management”.
  5. Idrica: José Vicente Cercós – “From data to decisions… and from decisions to actions with Xylem Vue”.

13:30 – 14:00 | KEYNOTE #2 José Mª Azorín. (Miguel Hernández University) – “AI-powered brain-machine interfaces for neurorehabilitation with exoskeletons”

14:00 – 15:30 | Lunch

15:30 – 16:15  | KEYNOTE #3 Hioraki Kitano (Chief Technology Officer (CTO) and Senior Executive Vice President of Sony Group Corporation) – “Creating the Warp-drive for Scientific Discovery”

16:15 – 17:30 | Discussion Panel with ValgrAI Scientific Council – “Claude, GPT, Gemini et al… Is this really the AI we want?”

Moderator: Ramón López de Mántaras

Participants:

  • Tom Dietterich (Oregon State University)
  • Virginia Dignum (Umeå University)
  • Hiroaki Kitano (CTO and Senior Executive Vice President of Sony Group Corporation)

17:30 – 17:45 | Closing ceremony

Participants:

Hiroaki Kitano

Chief Technology Officer (CTO) y Senior Executive Vice President de Sony Group Corporation

Keynote “Creating the Warp-drive for Scientific Discovery”

Virginia Dignum

Umeå University

Tom Dietterich

Oregon State University

Jose M. Azorin

Universitdad Miguel Hernández (UMH)

Title: “AI-powered brain-machine interfaces for neurorehabilitation with exoskeletons”.

Short bio: Jose M. Azorin is the Director of the Brain-Machine Interface Systems Lab and Full Professor of the Systems Engineering and Automation Department at Miguel Hernández University of Elche (Spain). In addition, he is the Director of the International Affiliate BRAIN (Building Reliable Advances and Innovation in Neurotechnology) Site at UMH, which is the only site of the BRAIN center in Europe (industry-university collaborative research center funded by National Science Foundation from USA). He has been a visiting professor at the University of Houston, USA (Fulbright grant). His current research interests are Brain-Machine Interfaces, Neurorobotics and Rehabilitation Robotics. Over the last  years, his research has been funded by prestigious grants from the European Union, other international government agencies, and Spain. He has been the PI of more than 30 research projects, and his research has resulted in more than 300 technical papers and 4 patents. Currently, he is a Distinguished Lecturer of the IEEE Systems Council and President of AITADIS (Iberoamerican Association for Assistive Technologies).

Ramón López de Mántaras

IIIA-CSIC

Vicent Botti

Director General de ValgrAI

Ana Cidad

Directora Gerente de ValgrAI

José Vicente Cercós

Idrica

Manuel Herranz

CEO de Pangeanic

Title: IA Soberana: ontologías, pequeños modelos y “tokens are the new coal”.

Fernando Mengod

Nunsys

Title: “Inteligencia Artificial aplicada a las Smart Cities”

Iván Monzón

UJI

You can see previous editions here!

10th UMI Meeting

Friday 3 July 2026

(ETSINF Lecture Theatre, Polytechnic University of Valencia – UPV)

10:30 | Registration.

11:10 | Welcoming address by Vicent Botti (General Director of ValgrAI) and Ana Cidad (Managing Director of ValgrAI).

11:20 | Presentation by José Miguel Such (INGENIO – UPV) – “Human-centred AI Privacy”.

11:40 | Presentation by Enrique Vidal (PHRLT – UPV) – “Towards AI Self-Awareness of Knowledge Limitations: Estimating Prediction Accuracy.”

12:00 | Presentation by Juan Antonio Pérez (UA) – “Ethical aspects of collecting linguistic data from indigenous peoples.”

12:20 | Presentation by Pedro Sanz (UJI) – “Robotics for Intervention in Extreme Environments: Current Research and Emerging Challenges.”

12:40 | Presentation by Amparo Alcina (UJI) – “The Ecodrive Project.”

13:00 | Presentation by Adrián Palma (UV) – “The Spanish Artificial Intelligence Sandbox: A Controlled Environment for Validating AI System Compliance”.

13:20 | Closing remarks.

13:30 | Networking and reception.

Participants:

Adrian Palma

UV

Title: The Spanish Artificial IntelligenceSandbox: A Controlled Environment for Validating AI System Compliance.
Bio: Adrián Palma holds a PhD and is a professor of administrative law at the University of Valencia. He teaches in the Law and Data Science degree programs at that university. He defended his doctoral thesis in 2021, in which he analyzed the legal framework for data protection throughout the lifecycle of artificial intelligence systems. In 2022, he published his monograph entitled “Automated Decisions and Data Protection: Special Attention to Artificial Intelligence Systems”. He is a member of the privacy team at OdiseIA. He is currently part of the mentoring team of the regulatory sandbox for AI systems developed by the Secretariat for Digitalization and Artificial Intelligence of the Government of Spain.

Amparo Alcina

UJI

Title: Ecodrive Project.

Enrique Vidal

PHRLT- UPV

Title: Towards AI Selfawarness of Knowledge Limitations: Estimating Prediction Accuracy.
Bio:Enrique Vidal is an emeritus professor of the Universitat Politècnica de València (Spain) and former co-leader of PRHLT research center in this University. He has published more than three hundred research papers in the fields of Pattern Recognition, Multimodal Interaction and applications to Language, Speech and Image Processing and has led many important projects in these fields. Dr. Vidal is a fellow of the International Association for Pattern Recognition (IAPR) and his current h-index is 70, according to Google Scholar.

José Miguel Such

Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV)

Title: Human-centred AI Privacy
Abstract: AI has had tremendous success recently in solving complex problems. However, research has demonstrated that, with the inclusion of AI, risks and vulnerabilities could also be introduced in a system. In this talk, I will focus on privacy risks in AI-based systems particularly from a human-centred perspective. I will then talk about our current research and projects towards making AI-based systems privacy-aware and helping users manage their privacy when interacting with them.
Bio: Prof Jose Such is Research Professor at the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), where he leads the Human-centred AI Security, Ethics and Privacy (HASP) Lab at the INGENIO research institute, a joint venture between CSIC and Universitat Politecnica de Valencia. Previously, he was Full Professor of Computer Science at King’s College London in the UK from 2021 to 2025 and Full Professor (part-time) at Universitat Politecnica de Valencia from 2023 to 2025. At King’s, he was the founder and Director (2018-2025) of the King’s Cybersecurity Centre, an Academic Centre of Excellence in Cyber Security Research (ACE-CSR) recognised by NCSC and EPSRC. He was also Reader (2018-2021) and Senior Lecturer (2016-2018) at King’s College London, Lecturer (2012-2016) at Lancaster University, and he completed a PhD at Universitat Politecnica de Valencia in 2011. His research interests are at the intersection between Artificial Intelligence, Human-Computer Interaction, and Cyber Security, having published in the top venues in these fields (IJCAI, AAAI, ICML, ACL, CHI, IEEE S&P, Usenix Security, PETS). Jose is Associate Editor of IEEE Security & Privacy, and his research has been funded through a multi-million euros portfolio of projects by UKRI, EPSRC, ICO, UK Government, Google, InnovateUK, INCIBE, AEI and GVA.

Juan Antonio Pérez

UA

Title: “Ethics aspects of collecting linguistic data from indigenous people”.

Pedro José Sanz Valero

IEEE Senior Member & Head of IRS-Lab (UJI)

Title: “Robotics for Intervention in Extreme Environments: Current Research and Emerging Challenges”
Bio: Full Professor in the Computer Science and Engineering Department at Jaume I University of Castellón (Spain), and head of IRS-Lab (Interaction and Robotic Systems Lab). My current research interests focus on Robotics and Artificial Intelligence applied to real life scenarios and, with special emphasis, in field robotics and intervention systems.

Vicent Botti

Director General de ValgrAI

Ana Cidad

Directora Gerente de ValgrAI

You can see previous editions here!

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Sponsors:

Would you like to sponsor the event? Send us an email at esther.cervero@valgrai.eu!