Conference attendance for the Centre for Social and Economic Network Analysis

This year the Centre for Social and Economic Network Analysis (SENA) contributed to the organisation and successful delivery of two international academic conferences of wide global visibility.

Venice Network Workshop (25–26 September 2025)

SENA, through its Director, played a central role in the organisation of the Venice Network Workshop, hosted at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice. The event was funded by a grant supported by the European Union’s Next-GenerationEU – National Recovery and Resilience Plan.

The workshop aimed to gather leading scholars in network theory to present cutting-edge research and encourage new collaborations. The programme focused on frontier work in economic and social networks, encompassing both empirical analyses and theoretical contributions.

The event was a significant success, featuring 22 presentations delivered by researchers from around the world. Notably, the workshop welcomed two distinguished invited speakers: Professor Sanjeev Goyal, one of the founders of modern social network theory, and Dr Matthew Elliott, both from the University of Cambridge.

Bristol–Essex–UCL Workshop on Decentralised Financial Markets (14–16 July 2025)

Lukas Altermatt (University of Essex) and Piero Gottardi (SENA, University of Essex) co-organised the annual Bristol–Essex–UCL Workshop on Decentralised Financial Markets, held at the University of Bristol.

The conference received financial support from the University of Bristol, the Centre for Social and Economic Network Analysis (Essex), the Centre for Finance (UCL), and the ERC Consolidator Grant “Financial Inclusion, Fairness and Stability in the AI Era”, funded by UKRI.

While the opening day was dedicated to the role of artificial intelligence in financial markets, the three-day programme featured twelve research presentations covering a broad range of topics. The workshop attracted an internationally diverse group of participants, with around half of the attendees traveling from the United States.