Merge pull request #13 from RL4AA/announcement/rl4aa26

Announcement/rl4aa26

Author: joelaxelwulff

content/posts/announcements/rl4aa26_announcement.md

@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 ---
 title: "Announcing RL4AA'26 taking place 30 March - 1 April 2026 in Liverpool, UK"
-date: 2025-11-01
-draft: true
+date: 2025-11-17
+draft: false
 tags: ["workshop", "event"]
 categories: "Announcements"
 ShowToc: false
@@ -13,45 +13,43 @@ cover:
   relative: false
 ---
 
-We are delighted to announce the ["3rd International Workshop on Reinforcement Learning for Autonomous Accelerators" RL4AA’25](https://rl4aa.github.io/RL4AA25/)! To be held **2 - 4 April 2025** at **DESY** in **Hamburg, Germany**. Following the very successful RL4AA'23 and RL4AA'24 workshops, the goal of this workshop is to exchange experiences and ideas about RL in the context of particle accelerators amongst both experts and beginners.
+We are pleased to announce RL4AA'26, the fourth workshop of the series organised by the **[Reinforcement Learning for Autonomous Accelerators (RL4AA) Collaboration](https://rl4aa.github.io/)**. After three very successful workshops (**KIT** in 2023, **Salzburg** in 2024, and **DESY** in 2025) RL4AA'26 will be hosted as a **[LIV.INNO](https://livinno.org)** Workshop on Reinforcement Learning for Autonomous Accelerators by the University of Liverpool and Cockcroft Institute in the musically iconic port city of Liverpool.
 
-### We have an exciting workshop program lined up!
-
-- Two keynotes by RL experts
-  - Jan Peters (University of Darmstadt)
-  - The second speaker will be announced soon.
-- Hands-on RL challenge
-- Contributed talks
-- Posters
-- Introduction to RL
+RL4AA brings together the reinforcement learning and accelerator physics communities to share results, practical insights from the field, and the big questions ahead for real-world RL. Expect engaging **keynotes**, **invited and contributed talks**, a lively **poster session**, and a **hands-on coding challenge**.
 
 ### More details:
 
-- Workshop website: https://rl4aa.github.io/RL4AA25/
-- Indico link: https://indico.scc.kit.edu/event/4216/
-- Call for abstracts: open until 24 January 2025
-- [Registration](https://indico.scc.kit.edu/event/4216/registrations/764/):
+- Workshop website: https://rl4aa.github.io/RL4AA26/
+- Indico link: https://indico.ph.liv.ac.uk/event/2025/overview
+- Call for abstracts: open until **31st December 2025**
+- [Registration](https://indico.ph.liv.ac.uk/event/2025/registrations):
   - **Open right now!**
-  - Registration deadline: 7 March 2025
+  - Registration deadline: 31st December 2025
   - Thanks to generous sponsorships, there are **no registration fees!**
-- Workshop: 2 - 4 April 2025, Hamburg, Germany
+- **Workshop: 30 March - 1 April 2026, Liverpool, UK**
 
 Please join us if you have worked in reinforcement learning or you are simply interested and would like to start! This workshop is intended to foster discussions and to start interesting projects together.
 
-Note also that this year’s workshop is organised in coordination with [5th ICFA Beam Dynamics Mini-Workshop on Machine Learning for Particle Accelerators (MaLAPA)](https://indico.cern.ch/event/1382428/overview) workshop at CERN (8 - 11 April). Both workshops are organised closely following each other such that you can attend both of them.
-
 We highly encourage every participant to submit a poster and share their work with other participants to have a lively exchange!
 
-Do not hesitate to share this invitation with your colleagues and contact the organizers at [email protected] for questions.
-
-We are looking forward to seeing you in Hamburg!
-
-The RL4AA’25 organizing committee,
-
-_Annika Eichler (DESY),
-Jan Kaiser (DESY),
-Christian Hespe (DESY),
-Simon Hirlaender (University of Salzburg),
-Andrea Santamaria Garcia (University of Liverpool),
-Chenran Xu (Karlsruhe Institute of Technology),
-Borja Rodriguez Mateos (CERN)_
+Do not hesitate to share this invitation with your colleagues and contact the organizers through [email protected] for questions.
+
+We can’t wait to welcome you to Liverpool in 2026!
+
+The RL4AA’26 organizing committee,
+
+_**Andrea Santamaria Garcia** (University of Liverpool and Cockroft Institute),
+**Jan Kaiser** (DESY),
+**Simon Hirlaender** (University of Salzburg),
+**Chenran Xu** (Argonne National Laboratory),
+**Borja Rodriguez Mateos** (CERN)
+**Joel Axel Wulff** (CERN)
+**Malachi Schram** (Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility)
+**Alexander Brynes** ("ASTeC, STFC"),
+**Amelia Pollard** ("ASTeC, STFC"),
+**Ana Guisao-Betancur** (University of Liverpool and Cockroft Institute),
+**Joseph Wolfenden** (University of Liverpool and Cockroft Institute),
+**Sophie Gresty** (University of Liverpool and Cockroft Institute),
+**Matt King** (ASTeC, STFC),
+**Naomi Smith** (University of Liverpool and Cockroft Institute),
+**Alexandra Welsch** (University of Liverpool and Cockroft Institute)_