CALL FOR WORKSHOP PROPOSALS

The COSYNE 2025 Call for Workshop Proposals is now closed.

COSYNE WORKSHOPS

A series of workshops will be held after the main Cosyne meeting. The goal is to provide an informal forum for the discussion of important research questions and challenges. Controversial issues, open problems, comparisons of competing approaches, and alternative viewpoints are encouraged.

The overarching goal of all workshops should be the integration of empirical and theoretical approaches, in an environment that fosters collegial discussion and debate.

There will be 6-10 workshops/day, running in parallel.
Each workshop is expected to draw between 15 and 80 people.
The workshops will be split into morning and late afternoon sessions.
Workshops will be held in Mont-Tremblant, QC, Canada.
Workshop speakers do NOT receive free registration, travel expenses, or accommodation for either the main meeting or the workshop sessions. Organizers should let invited speakers know that they are expected to pay for workshop registration fees.

Workshop organizer responsibilities include coordinating workshop participation and content, scheduling all speakers, submitting a final schedule for the workshop program, and moderating the discussion. Organizers can but need not, be speakers. One complimentary (free) organizer registration is provided per workshop. For workshops with two organizers, the free registration can be given to one of the organizers or split evenly between them.

Any required multimedia resources beyond a projector, screen, and microphones will be the responsibility of the workshop organizers to coordinate with Cosyne and the workshop venue A/V staff.

EVALUATION CRITERIA

As stated above, the goal of Cosyne workshops is to provide an interactive, informal forum for discussions. Relevant topics include, but are not limited to: sensory processing; motor planning and control; functional neural circuits; motivation, reward, and decision making; learning and memory; adaptation and plasticity; neural coding; neural circuitry and network models; and methods in computational or systems neuroscience.

Workshop proposals will be evaluated by the Cosyne Workshop Chairs, and a subset of the proposals will be selected. The proposals will be evaluated according to the following six metrics (which will be weighted equally):

Relevance to the Cosyne community
Integration of experimental and theoretical issues
Current interest in the topic in the scientific community
Potential for new research directions and interactions to emerge
Distinctive scope/approach compared to other workshops (including previous years)
Diversity and equity in the proposed speaker (we are looking for representation of women or nonbinary individuals, individuals from other underrepresented groups, and a balance of established and early career researchers)

FULL WORKSHOP PROPOSALS - Deadline 4 October 2024

Workshop proposals can be submitted here.

In order to foster discussion within Workshops and reduce overlap between workshops, organizers should inform invited speakers that a speaker can take part in no more than two Workshops.

The proposals will include:

Name(s) and email address(es) of the organizers (2 organizers per session is strongly recommended, but 3 will be allowed).
A title.
A brief description of 1) what the workshop will address and accomplish, 2) why the topic is of interest, and 3) who is the targeted group of participants.
Names and email addresses of speakers, who should already have agreed to participate should the proposal be accepted.
Proposed workshop length (1 or 2 days). Most workshops will be limited to a single day. If you think your workshop needs two days, please explain why.
A brief resume of the workshop organizer(s) along with a short list of workshop-relevant publications (about half a page total).
A description of how you have addressed diversity and equity in your workshop.

Experience has shown that the best discussions during a workshop are those that arise spontaneously. A good way to foster these is to have short talks and long question periods (e.g. 30+15 minutes), and to have plenty of breaks. We recommend keeping the number of talks small (i.e., fewer than 10 talks per day).

WORKSHOP COSTS

Detailed registration costs, etc, will be available here.

Please note: Cosyne does NOT provide travel funding for workshop speakers. Organizers should let invited speakers know that they are expected to pay for workshop registration fees. Participants are encouraged to register early, in order to qualify for discounted registration rates. One complimentary (free) organizer registration is provided per workshop. For workshops with two organizers, the free registration can be given to one of the organizers or split evenly between them.

Questions: workshops [at] cosyne.org