Lancaster University’s Psychology Department has welcomed researchers from across the world for the 10th Lancaster International Conference on Infant and Early Child Development (LCICD 2026), bringing together experts to share the latest research on how babies and young children grow and develop.

Since launching in 2015, the conference has grown into one of the leading international events in the field of infant development. Running from Wednesday 26th August to Friday 28th August, LCICD 2026 is once again being hosted at Lancaster University, home to the well-established Infant and Child Development Lab.

The Lab covers research from 0 to 4 years, including research examining development in the womb (prenatal studies). Reflecting this wide-ranging work, the conference programme covers topics including cognitive and language development and research about infant curiosity behaviours.

This year, Lancaster is welcoming more than 100 academics, alongside 25 speakers and 98 poster presentations. The conference also features three keynote speakers:

• Professor Linda Smith, Indiana University Bloomington, who is giving a talk on ‘secrets in training data’ and how we can use the visual experiences of infants, recorded in their home environment, to design training data that can even support learning machines.
• Professor Gustaf Gredebäck, Uppsala University, will be giving a talk on social cognition, and how it may be sensitive to experience across different developmental contexts, including rural Bhutan, high-density communities in Zimbabwe, and refugee populations from the Democratic Republic of Congo living in camps in Uganda.
• Professor Sam Wass, University of East London, will be giving a talk titled "Finding order in chaos: influences of environmental complexity and predictability on development", with a focus on directions for future research.

Interest in the conference was higher than ever this year, with organisers receiving more than 130 abstract submissions. The strong response has allowed the conference to offer additional hardship fund grants to early career researchers, helping to make attendance more accessible.

Two new session themes have also been added to this year’s programme. The first, ‘behaving to learn’, focuses on how children learn through their behaviour, while the second explores new tools and methods for research with infants and young children.

For the first time, LCICD has also introduced a mentorship scheme, matching early career researchers with academics working in similar areas. The scheme pairs each of the 25 mentors with two mentees, creating opportunities to exchange ideas and build new professional connections during the conference.

Commenting on the success of the conference, Dr Eleanor Johns said:

“LCICD continues to be a space for sharing successes, asking questions, and exploring how new research is shaping our understanding of infant and early childhood development. We’re excited to have introduced our first mentorship scheme, bringing together academics at different career stages to connect and share knowledge. We hope this creates even more valuable opportunities for connection and learning, and we are excited to see the potential partnerships that flourish from the scheme.”