DiTraRe Symposium 2025: Symposium on Digitalisation of Research ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe Karlsruhe, Germany, December 2-3, 2025

We are delighted to announce the DiTraRe Symposium on Digitalisation of Research at the Centre for Art and Media (ZKM) in Karlsruhe, Germany on 2nd and 3rd of December 2025. The Symposium will tackle key challenges and opportunities related to digitalisation of research which nowadays affects everyone, from research to politics and also the public sphere.

The digital transformation of research is rooted in decades of technological advancement. The introduction of computers in research, the rise of the internet, and the revolutionary launch of the World Wide Web fundamentally reshaped collaboration and access to knowledge. Cloud computing has further facilitated large-scale data storage and analysis, becoming crucial for many scientific fields. The increasing reliance on digital data has led to transformative practices, from managing the vast datasets produced by experiments to employing tools such as Electronic Lab Notebooks and data publication in repositories for reproducibility and accessibility. Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning technologies are now being used to analyse complex datasets and make predictions. Additionally, the movement towards open science promotes transparency and accessibility of research data and publications, further driving the digital transformation of science.

Through a keynote presentation, panel discussions and interactive formats participants will have the opportunity to engage with leading experts and share their own experiences with digitalisation. By sharing knowledge between and across disciplines, this event aims to contribute to a next level discussion and ideas for solutions on questions that come along with the fast developing digitalisation and involvement of AI in research.

The Symposium will also feature a dedicated poster slam and a poster session. Make sure to showcase your research in the form of a poster! We accept poster papers, describing the contents of your poster, which will be later included in the Symposium proceedings.

Why Present a Poster?

• Showcase your research to an interdisciplinary audience of experts and peers.
• Receive valuable feedback and expand your professional network.
• Gain visibility and recognition for your work.

Submission Guidelines

All papers must be original. At least one author of the accepted submission must be attending the event in person and give a flash presentation.

• Please prepare your submission using the DiTraRe LaTeX template for conference proceedings. Download the files from here.
• Page limit: 2 pages (excluding references). No appendix allowed.
• Language: English.
• Accepted posters will be presented as flash talks during poster slam and the dedicated poster session at the Symposium.
• After the Symposium, the poster papers will be included in the proceedings from the event and published at KITopen.
  • LaTeX file with attachments (graphics etc.) formatted using the DiTraRe proceedings template will have to be provided for each submission.

List of Topics

We welcome poster submissions on topics related to the digital transformation of research in a wide range of research branches. Our DiTraRe Leibniz Science Campus is investigating the influence of digital transformation of research in multidimensional way. With this call for posters, we would like to give you the opportunity to present your research to an interdisciplinary audience.

The following areas are especially aligned with our Symposium sessions:

• Knowledge Representation and AI, i.e.:
  • AI-Ready University
  • Data Infrastructures as a Foundation for AI Projects
  • Federated Infrastructures, Knowledge Representation and AI in the Humanities
• Legal and Ethical Challenges, i.e.:
  • Law and Ethics in Digitalization of Research
  • AI and Usage of Research Data
• Research Infrastructures, i.e.:
  • Advancing Machine Learning Through Open and Large-Scale Data Initiatives
  • Leveraging Established E-Infrastructures to Enhance Research Data Management and EOSC Integration
  • NFDI: A Science-Driven Network for FAIR Research Data as a Common Good
• Impact on Science and Society, i.e.:
  • Digital Transformation in Science – the Role of Generative AI Tools for Changes in Research Practice and Knowledge Production
  • Publishing in the Age of AI: How Generative AI Is Transforming Scientific Communication
  • Generative AI in the Practice of Scientific Policy Advice - Potentials and Challenges at the Interface of Science and Politics
  • Reflection on the Science Society Interface of Generative AI

Furthermore, potential topics include, but are not limited to:

• AI and Machine Learning in Research and Academia
  • AI Ethics
  • Generative AI and Large Language Models as Research Assistants
  • Foundation models for scientific discovery
  • AI in the scientific Peer Reviewing process
  • Responsible AI in Academia
  • Bias detection and mitigation in research AI systems
  • Transparency and explainability in AI-driven research
  • Academic Integrity and AI
  • Policy frameworks for AI adoption in research
  • Legal and regulatory challenges in cross-border digital research
• Research Data and Infrastructures
  • Advanced research data management and FAIR principles
  • Research data governance and stewardship strategies
  • Hybrid and multi-cloud strategies for research computing
  • Containerization and reproducible Research Environments
  • Environmental impact of digital research infrastructure
• Digital Research Methods and Tools
  • Social Media Analysis and Digital Ethnography
  • Computational approaches to Digital Heritage Preservation
  • Virtual and Augmented Reality in Research Presentation and Analysis
  • Digital platforms for Citizen Science
  • Gamification Strategies for Research Participation
• New Ways of Collaboration and Communication
  • Virtual Research Teams and distributed scientific collaboration
  • Digital lab notebooks and collaborative research workflows
  • cross-cultural digital collaboration
  • Next-generation scholarly publishing
  • Alternative metrics and impact assessment in digital environments
  • New ways of Science Communication
  • Digital Divides and equitable access to research outcomes
  • Ditigal literacy and computational thinking for researchers
• Emerging Technologies and Future Directions
  • Preparing research communities for quantum computing
  • Virtual and augmented reality for field research and data collection
  • Mixed reality collaborations spaces for research teams
  • Immersive data exploration
  • Smart laboratory environments
  • Edge AI and distributed intelligence in research infrastructures

Committees

Program Committee

• TBA

Organizing committee

• Anna Jacyszyn, FIZ Karlsruhe - Leibniz Institute for Information Infrastructure
• Katja Keller, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Institute for Sports and Sports Science (KIT IfSS)
• Christian Bonatto-Minella, FIZ Karlsruhe - Leibniz Institute for Information Infrastructure
• Silvia Becker, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Institute of Biomedical Engineering (KIT IBT) + University Heart Center Freiburg, Bad Krozingen
• Harald Sack, FIZ Karlsruhe - Leibniz Institute for Information Infrastructure + Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Institute of Applied Informatics and Formal Description Methods (KIT AIFB)

Important dates

• Registration and submissions open: July 2025. 
• Submission deadline: 17.10.2025 end of the day AOE.
• Acceptance notice: 5.11.2025.
• Symposium: 2.12.2025, 12:00 - 3.12.2025, 13:30.
• Proceedings camera-ready version submission: 17.12.2025.

Contact

All questions about submissions should be emailed to ditrare@fiz-karlsruhe.de. Find more info on the event: https://www.ditrare.de/en/symposium-2025.