The 4th GRADE Action conference invites scholars, practitioners, policymakers, and community stakeholders to contribute to a dialogue on the role of cross-European media transfers in shaping local creative computing cultures. As digital practices continue to evolve across Europe, understanding how media, knowledge, and creative methodologies circulate transnationally and in a historical perspective is crucial to supporting Europe’s Digital Decade objectives and nurturing a vibrant, inclusive digital future.
This conference will bring together participants from grassroots initiatives, GLAM institutions, educational organisations, and policy bodies from across Europe and beyond. Our aim is to highlight the value of creative computing as a practical and applied concept with diverse historical trajectories, and to foreground its longitudinal and immediate impact on communities, industries, and public institutions. By creating a shared space for reflection, exchange, and collaboration, the conference seeks to strengthen the network’s long-term legacy and support sustained engagement with stakeholders well beyond the lifetime of the COST Action.
A continued priority of this Action is the promotion of gender equality and the meaningful involvement of minority groups in creative computing fields. We particularly encourage submissions from Young Researchers and Innovators (YRIs), especially those from Inclusiveness Target Countries (ITCs).
Keynote speakers: Christine Dunbar-Hester, Maria B. Garda
Conference details
• Date: May 26-27, 2026
• Location: University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Social Sciences, Kardeljeva ploščad 5, 1000 Ljubljana, and Computer History Museum – Računalniški muzej, Celovška cesta 111, 1000 Ljubljana
• Format: hybrid
• Zoom link: https://uni-lj-si.zoom.us/j/98370598440
There is no registration fee for attending this conference. The event is open to all COST GRADE members, and to the wider interested public. A limited number of travel grants is available to COST GRADE members.
Program committee: Maria B. Garda, Natalija Majsova, Gaja Zornada
Program outline
May 26: Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Ljubljana
9:00 Registration
9:30 Welcome
9:45 Keynote lecture 1: Christine Dunbar-Hester (online)
11:00 Coffee break
11:30 WG1 session (Women and minorities OER showcase)
13:00 Lunch break
14:30 WG2 session: White paper
16:00 Coffee break
16:30 Roundtable: Revisiting old futures
18:00 GC Session
May 27: Computer History Museum
9:30 Museum tour
10:45 Coffee break
11:00 Silicon Dawn volume session
12:30 Lunch break
14:00 Keynote lecture 2: Maria B. Garda (creative computing as a useful operational umbrella term for media and heritage studies (a pre-print paper is coming) + showcase of the Green Paper results
15:30 Stakeholder roundtable
17:00 Exhibition launch + WG3 session
Photo Credit: Ljubljana – Historical Museum, Czech Republic – CC BY.