Summer School on Consciousness and Metacognition
July 8th-10th 2026, London
About the Summer School
The Summer School on Consciousness and Metacognition 2026 is the fifth in a series of interdisciplinary summer schools hosted by UCL in London (UK). The goal of this summer school is to serve as an that aims at fostering knowledge dissemination and professional networking.
Notably, research on consciousness and metacognition (“thinking about thinking”) spans the neurosciences, psychology, philosophy, and artificial intelligence, and is naturally interdisciplinary. There is a rich and growing research tradition at the intersection of consciousness and metacognition. However, despite much excitement in this research area, the tools and interdisciplinary background needed to carry out robust, impactful research in metacognitive and consciousness science are rarely acquired in standard graduate or postdoctoral education, even in cognitive science.
This year we will place a particular emphasis on new innovations in the field. Technological advancements and improved practices in open research allow us to innovate more rapidly than ever before. We hope this workshop will serve as a catalyst for young innovators in the field as they seek to accelerate their own progress, and possibly launch the next big breakthrough. We invite all applicants to propose an innovation they would like to explore. It can relate to any area of research in the field. It can be a new study, method, technology, explanatory framework, or any improvement in research collaboration.
Previous examples of innovations in consciousness and metacognition include:
- Adversarial collaborations to distinguish between different theories of consciousness, or ways of productively combining existing theories
- New domains of inquiry for metacognition research - for instance understanding the metacognitive capacities of AI systems, or how confidence is formed in higher-dimensional stimulus spaces
We will select a small number of proposed innovations to workshop at the summer school. If your idea is selected, you will receive expert guidance to help you develop it. We also have a £2,500 prize fund to help some innovators test their ideas.
The school will be hosted by UCL in London on 8-10th July, 2026.
Who can apply?
We welcome applications from graduate students and postdoctoral fellows. Approximately half of the spots in the summer school will be reserved for UCL students and the other half will be open to people from other institutions. Please clearly indicate your affiliation in the application form.
There are no application or tuition fees. For traveling participants, we will contribute up to £200 towards transportation costs and provide accommodation for the duration of the school. A social dinner will also be covered for all students.
Everyone interested in attending the summer school should fill out the application form HERE. Applications will be considered up until midnight on Saturday, February 28th, 2026.
This year’s Summer School on Consciousness and Metacognition has been funded by DataCite and the Templeton World Charity Foundation
