The CoSInES-Bayes4Health Masterclass on Variational Inference was hosted at the MRC Biostatistics Unit, University of Cambridge, from the 7th to the 10th of November, 2022. This event was the second in the series, after the successful Masterclass on Sequential Monte Carlo in March-April 2022, and continued in the spirit of sharing knowledge and encouraging collaboration between early-career researchers affiliated with the grants.

This workshop expanded slightly from the previous Masterclass in terms of both length (4 days) and attendance (30 attendees, with some of them attending online). Additionally, due to the main topic of the workshop, many of the lectures were delivered by early-career researchers from outside of the grant, spanning groups in Cambridge, UCL, Oxford, and the CNRS in Paris.

The organisation of the event was again led by Filippo Pagani, assisted closely by Francesca Crucinio, Andi Wang and Sam Power. Local organisation was aided by Alison Quenault and Sharon Dippenaar. The high-level research programme for the workshop was developed collaboratively by Sanmitra Ghosh, Hélène Ruffieux, and Deniz Akyildiz. The lectures themselves were planned and delivered by Hélène Ruffieux, Camilla Lingjaerde, Sanmitra Ghosh, Tui Nolan (all Cambridge), Kamélia Daudel (Oxford), and Badr-Eddine Chérief-Abdellatif (CNRS). Additionally, more advanced research-level seminars were presented by Jeremias Knoblauch (UCL) and Rob Cornish (Oxford).

The event was again well-received by the audience, who praised the high quality and interactivity of the tutorial presentations, as well as the freedom provided by the schedule for interaction between attendees outside of lectures. Planning for the next instalment of the Masterclass series is already underway, and is eagerly anticipated by many.