Workshops

Presenter at a workshop

MARS workshops

We are committed to turning mathematical research into solutions that tackle real-world challenges. Achieving this requires collaboration across disciplines, bringing together expertise from academia, industry, and government.

Our workshops are designed to:

  • Foster interdisciplinary collaborations with researchers, focusing on our four main application areas.
  • Connect experts from different fields to explore innovative approaches to complex research challenges.
  • Engage non-academic partners to ensure we maximise the potential for translation into tangible impact.

Past workshops

Flooded road

AI for Adaptive Environmental Decision-Making (June 2025)

Bringing together UK and international academics from computer science, economics, and environmental science, alongside practitioners from organisations such as the Environment Agency and JBA, this workshop explored how AI can support smarter, more adaptive responses to environmental risk. The discussions connected real-world challenges with cutting-edge research in modelling, optimisation and decision support.

Outcomes: New research collaborations and a co-authored working paper capturing key insights from the workshop and outlining priorities for future work.

Atomic grid

Mathematics, AI and Data Science for Material Innovations (June 2025)

This interdisciplinary workshop showcased emerging advances in the mathematical and scientific foundations of materials innovation, drawing participants from across the UK and internationally. The event provided a platform for PhD students and early-career researchers to present their work, helping to build a new community at the forefront of materials research.

Outcomes: Fresh collaborative initiatives, strengthened links between Lancaster researchers and colleagues at other institutions, and foundational work to support future large-scale grant proposals.

Group of academics standing in front of a hill

Mathematics in the Life Sciences (May 2025)

This workshop convened researchers from across the life sciences to explore how mathematical methods and AI can drive discovery in fields ranging from biology and chemistry to environmental science, medicine and physics. Participants shared challenges, exchanged tools and approaches, and identified where quantitative methods could meaningfully accelerate progress.

Outcomes: New interdisciplinary collaborations, a shared plan for future joint research, and the launch of an externally funded follow-up workshop on AI for Ecology.

Virus particle

Probabilistic Programming Day (September 2024)

Part of the Isaac Newton Institute’s Modelling and Inference for Pandemic Preparedness (MIP) programme, this workshop, co-funded and co-organised by MARS, brought together an international community of researchers working at the intersection of pandemic preparedness, probabilistic methods, and outbreak data analysis. It offered a rare opportunity for experts to reconnect in person after COVID and exchange emerging ideas in epidemic modelling.

Outcomes: New research collaborations, strengthened international networks, and plans for follow-up meetings to refine and share the insights developed during the MIP programme.

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