34th International Conference on Artificial Neural Networks (ICANN 2025)

Since 1992, ICANN has grown into one of Europe’s most important conferences in the fields of artificial intelligence, deep neural networks, neuroscience, and neurotechnologies. The conference was organized by the European Neural Network Society (ENNS, https://e-nns.org/) in cooperation with EBRAINS, Lithuanian University of Health Sciences (LSMU) and Vytautas Magnus University (VMU) in Kaunas, Lithuania.

This year, the conference was chaired by two world-renowned experts in AI and neuroscience - Prof. Yoshua Bengio (Université de Montréal, Canada) and Prof. Viktor Jirsa (Aix-Marseille University, France; EBRAINS Chief Science Officer). Prof. Yoshua Bengio (Université de Montréal, Canada) is one of the world’s leaders in Artificial Intelligence and Deep Learning, the most cited computer scientist worldwide, and the recipient of the 2018 A.M. Turing Award, considered the "Nobel prize of computing". He is Co-President and Scientific Director of LawZero, a nonprofit organization committed to advancing research and developing technical solutions for safe-by-design AI systems, the Founder and Scientific Advisor of Mila, and a Canada CIFAR AI Chair.

Prof. Viktor Jirsa (Aix-Marseille Université, France; EBRAINS Chief Science Officer) is renowned for his fundamental work in theoretical neuroscience, and for the open-source simulation platform The Virtual Brain, used to build personalised brain models for epilepsy surgery and other brain disorders. He served as a lead investigator in the EU Flagship Human Brain Project and its successor infrastructure EBRAINS. Jirsa’s contributions have been recognised with numerous honours, including the Human Brain Project Innovation Prize (2021).

The conference was opened by ENNS President Prof. Stefan Wermter (University of Hamburg, Germany), EBRAINS Chief Science Officer Prof. Viktor Jirsa, LSMU Rector Prof. Rimantas Benetis, Director of the LSMU Neuroscience Institute Prof. Arimantas Tamašauskas, and VMU Rector Prof. Juozas Augutis.

Plenary talks addressed breakthroughs in AI and neuroscience research, the use of virtual brain twins in medicine, ethical aspects in AI and neuroscience, and the impact of technology on human identity.

Presentations were given by Prof. Viktor Jirsa (Aix-Marseille University, France), Dr. Emmanuel Bengio (McGill University / Recursion/Valence Labs, Montréal, Canada), Prof. Christiane Woopen (University of Bonn, Germany), Prof. Bernhard Schölkopf (Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems, Tübingen, Germany), Dr. Gintarė Karolina Dziugaite (DeepMind, USA), and Prof. Alessio Micheli (University of Pisa, Italy).

Topics at the intersection of neuroscience and AI – including links between memory processes in the brain and deep neural networks, mathematical models of brain activity and medical applications, and the development of trustworthy AI systems – were presented by invited speakers Dr. Mihai Petrovici (University of Bern, Switzerland), Prof. Mehmet Fatih Yanik (ETH Zurich, Switzerland), Michael Deistler (University of Tübingen, Germany), Dr. Ameya Pandurang Prabh (Tübingen AI Center, Germany), and Dr. Ignas Budvytis (Resilient Robotics, Cambridge, UK).

One of the highlights of the conference was the public panel discussion “Where does AI Lead to? Opportunities and Risks,” featuring leading global experts Prof. Yoshua Bengio, Prof. Viktor Jirsa, Prof. Christiane Woopen, Dr. Gintarė Karolina Dziugaite, and Prof. Bernhard Schölkopf. The panel explored ethical dilemmas in AI, questions of human identity, the interaction between neuroscience and AI systems, and perspectives for safe and responsible AI development.

The conference also featured an extensive program of parallel sessions and tutorials covering diverse topics in AI and neuroscience: foundations and advances in artificial neural network architectures, the reliability of AI systems, neuromorphic systems, applications of deep neural networks in drug discovery, and methodologies for constructing virtual brain models applied to the diagnosis of brain diseases and personalised treatment planning.

ICANN 2025 received 375 research paper submissions, of which 170 were accepted, and 42 workshop and special session submissions, of which 29 were selected.

Conference proceedings were published in Artificial Neural Networks and Machine Learning – ICANN 2025 (Editors: Walter Senn, Marcello Sanguineti, Aušra Saudargienė, Igor V. Tetko, Alessandro E. P. Villa, Viktor Jirsa, Yoshua Bengio). Springer, 2025.

The ICANN 2025 Organizing and Program Committee brought together a strong international team of AI and neuroscience experts. Prof. Ausra Saudargiene (Lithuanian University of Health Sciences; Vytautas Magnus University, Kaunas, Lithuania, EBRAINS Lithuania National Node coordinator) and Assoc. Prof. Linas Petkevicius (Vilnius University; President of the Lithuanian Artificial Intelligence Association, Lithuania) were leading a local organizing team, and the committee also included distinguished international scientists: Prof. Walter Senn (University of Bern, Switzerland), Prof. Igor Tetko (Helmholtz Munich, Germany), Prof. Alessandro Villa (University of Lausanne, Switzerland), and Prof. Marcello Sanguineti (University of Genoa, Italy).

The conference also marked the continuation of joint initiatives by Lithuanian University of Health Sciences, Vytautas Magnus University and Kaunas University of Technology in the fields of neuroscience and AI, including the establishment of the EBRAINS Lithuania National Node.

See the event programme here.

The conference has received funding from the Research Council of Lithuania (LMTLT), agreement No P-MOR-25-22-VDU, and has been performed in a cooperation with EBRAINS and the European Neural Network Society (ENNS).

Video recordings

You can watch video recordings from the conference in the playlist below.