The AI, Data and Robotics Forum (ADRF) is one of Europe’s leading events dedicated to Artificial Intelligence (AI), data, and robotics. The 2025 edition took place in Stavanger, Norway, on September 23 and 24 - with a strong presence from INESC TEC. Before the event ended, an announcement was made: ADRF 2026 will take place in Porto, with INESC TEC responsible for organising the event.
In Norway, the INESC TEC delegation - featuring researchers Ricardo Bessa, Marcelo Petry, Pedro Leite, Maria Inês Pereira, and João Pedro Souza – participated in multiple levels, from keynotes and workshop presentations to technology demonstration stands.
Ricardo Bessa, INESC TEC researcher and coordinator of the Power & Energy Systems area, joined two sessions, where he participated as a speaker. In the session GenAI4EU within the Apply AI Strategy, he was the invited speaker representing the ADRA thematic group on energy. The workshop introduced the GenAI4EU initiative, a programme designed to mobilise generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) models to serve the needs of Europe’s public sector and industry. The goal of the session was to link this initiative with the Apply AI strategy, which seeks to foster real-world AI applications in strategic sectors. The second workshop, AI, Your Way: Trusted, Scalable and Ready to Deliver, discussed the practical challenges of adopting AI across organisations and critical sectors of society, focusing on trust, scalability, and reliability of the technology; during the session, the researcher mentioned the publication co-authored with various European industry and academic partners.
“AI has the potential to automate tasks and support human decision-making, but it still faces significant challenges, such as scaling across large systems and the need for ongoing monitoring and maintenance to ensure user trust,” explained Ricardo Bessa.
Marcelo Petry and João Pedro Souza, INESC TEC researchers in Robotics and Intelligent Systems, represented the project iBot4CRMs. They joined the project stand and the workshop Urban Mining & AI-powered Robotics: Securing Europe's Critical Raw Materials supply, which brought together researchers, industry, and policymakers to discuss robotic and AI-based solutions for the sustainable recovery of critical raw materials. Within the same project, Marcelo Petry took part in the session iBot4CRMs & Cogniman Sponsor Presentations, delivering a presentation on perception, robotics, and AI.
“The recovery of critical raw materials from electronic and urban waste will only become economically viable with the development of methodologies that integrate AI and collaborative robotics. AI-based solutions enable the detection, classification, and localisation of materials and objects, while robotic systems carry out repetitive tasks - such as unscrewing, separating, and handling components - and human operators provide the flexibility to interpret new situations, unexpected events, or product variations that have not yet been modelled,” said Marcelo Petry, INESC TEC researcher.
Meanwhile, Pedro Nuno Leite, a researcher at INESC TEC in the field of Artificial Intelligence and decision support, presented the Institute’s work in the session Enhancing resilience and sustainability of European critical infrastructures using ADR technologies, focusing on the resilience and sustainability of European critical infrastructures. His participation addressed INESC TEC robotics solutions and AI algorithms, which represent the state of the art in turbines inspection and maintenance using drones, surface vehicles and underwater robots.
“It is important to demonstrate in Europe that robotic solutions are the future of these maintenance operations, and that developing robots with autonomous decision-making capabilities and resilience to harsh environments is the most effective way to accelerate their adoption in the market,” said the researcher.
At the closing dinner, Ricardo Bessa made the official announcement for ADRF 2026: INESC TEC will be responsible for organising the event, which will take place at the Alfândega Congress Centre in Porto, between October 13 and 15, 2026.
“The choice of Porto and INESC TEC to host the 2026 edition represents international recognition of our scientific excellence and organisational capacity,” explained João Claro, Chairman of INESC TEC - who, along with other Institute researchers, was directly involved in the successful bid to bring the event to Porto.
It is estimated that ADRF 2026 will bring together more than 500 experts, researchers, policymakers, and industry representatives in Porto, consolidating Portugal’s role at the European forefront in AI, data, and robotics.
This article was first published on 29 September by INESC TEC.
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