In 2026, there will once again be plenty of opportunities to learn about and discuss Open Science and related topics at various online and offline events. To help you choose, this blog post presents some highlights from our event calendar. As always, the focus is on the use of Open Science in business studies and economics, scientific methods, and the role of AI in a constantly evolving research landscape.
Workshops, seminars, conferences, coffee lectures and much more, whether as online events or on-site: in 2026, there will again be many events that offer a great opportunity to refresh and expand your knowledge and exchange ideas with new contacts. The following list contains a small selection of upcoming events aimed at both Open Science beginners and experienced practitioners. Further events can be found in the Open Economics Guide event calendar, which is continuously updated.
10.02. | Online
Organised by: forschungsdaten.info
„The FAIR principles (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable) are a central guiding framework for research data management. They indicate how reusable published datasets are. The careful preparation of research data by researchers, along with the functionality and features of the repositories used, together determine the FAIRness of datasets. But how can we concretely measure how “FAIR” a dataset actually is? This is where FAIR Assessment Tools come into play—tools that objectively evaluate the FAIRness of data.“
26.02. - 27.02. | Nuremberg (Germany)
Organised by: BERD@NFDI in cooperation with the Digital Research Academy (DRA) and the Institute for Employment and Research (IAB)
„Curious how others handle ethical or governance challenges around data access and privacy? Do you have data that drives you crazy and need somebody to talk about it? Wondering if you have the best method to get the most out of your data? Or maybe you just have a data-related question that has been on your mind for a while, but you have not had the right space to ask it? If you have questions likes these, we invite you to join us for an engaging unconference-style workshop fostering collaboration and innovation across business, economics, and related research fields. Share insights, connect with peers, and create tangible outcomes on topics like reproducible research, unstructured data, and AI.“
02.03 - 06.03. | Online
Organised by: University of Liverpool
„Open Research Week 2026 is a collaboration between the University of Liverpool, Liverpool John Moores University, Edge Hill University, and the University of Essex. It is a week that celebrates and promotes open research for researchers and colleagues who support open research. Whilst some sessions are UK-focused, others will be of interest to colleagues around the world.“
03.03. | Online
Organised by: BERD@NFDI
„This online course is dedicated to the use of AI-powered tools in research. It offers an overview of existing AI tools and how they can be integrated at different stages of research: project planning and organization, literature review, data analysis, and the reporting and communication of results. We will discuss the opportunities these tools provide but also their limitations and how to critically evaluate them. Finally, we will address ethical considerations and the current standards for transparently disclosing one’s own use of AI.“
17.03. | Online (German Language)
Organised by: Twillo
„Would you like to use artificial intelligence (AI) in education and be on the safe side legally? Are you working with Open Educational Resources (OER) and wondering how you can use AI tools in a legally compliant way and create innovative teaching materials? Then we cordially invite you to our workshop "AI, OER and law - solving practical cases together". After a theoretical part on copyright issues relating to the creation of (OER) teaching materials with AI, we will solve practical cases in groups and thus learn how to use AI programs in a legally compliant manner.“
14.04. | Online
Organised by: BERD@NFDI
„Do you ever feel that the data you need for your research is accessible but it’s not in a convenient table, such as company reports or building plans? Perhaps the information you need is spread out across many different documents?
If only we could read and extract structured data from thousands of written documents.
In this course, we explore how to accomplish this task by combining web scraping, Optical Character Recognition (OCR), and Natural Language Processing (NLP). Over four weeks, we provide online lessons and interactive sessions to learn the fundamentals of these key technologies.“
09.06.| Online
Organised by: BERD@NFDI
„How do machines learn to make the right choices? How can individuals, firms, organizations, and researchers use automated decision-making? This course provides an introduction and intuition for designing algorithms that allow machines to learn based on reinforcements. Reinforcement learning provides decision rules based on learning from partial, implicit, and delayed feedback.“
16.06. - 17.06. | Manchester (UK)
Organised by: University of Salford, Manchester
„The Economic Perspective on Artificial Intelligence (EPEAI) is an international academic conference series focusing on the economic, business, and policy implications of artificial intelligence (AI). The series brings together researchers, policymakers, and practitioners to analyse how AI technologies affect firms, markets, labour, and governance. Founded in 2023 by Hochschule Ruhr West (HRW) in Mülheim an der Ruhr, Germany, the EPEAI has since expanded to include partner institutions in South Africa and the United Kingdom. It is regarded as one of the first recurring scientific formats dedicated exclusively to the economic perspective on AI. “
01.09 - 18.09. | Online/Berlin (Germany)
Organised by: Verband der Hochschullehrerinnen und Hochschullehrer für Betriebswirtschaft e.V.
„This course focuses on quantitative empirical accounting research, covering theoretical, methodological and technical aspects of this research program. It also introduces students to the concepts of Open Science. In terms of applications, it concentrates on financial and other related disclosure issues but also touches on some managerial and auditing topics .“
04.11. | Online
Organised by: Technische Informationsbibliothek
„During the workshop, you will first learn about the most important (legal) principles for the use and creation of open educational materials. The core of the workshop is the practical design of open teaching/learning scenarios. Using real use cases, you will discuss the opportunities and challenges of open teaching and learn how you can integrate OER into the phases of lesson planning, implementation and follow-up in a meaningful way. You will also get to know the functions and features of our portal www.twillo.de a little better.“
Workshops, webinars and much more on Open Science, business studies and economics in the event calendar You can find numerous other event topics and types in the Open Economics Guide event calendar. Would you like to submit your own event suggestions? We look forward to hearing from you!