300 international experts. Three days in Ghent. One fundamental question: how do we build AI on data and knowledge we can trust?
Last week, Ghent hosted SEMANTiCS 2026, the 22nd International Conference on Semantic Systems, bringing together researchers, industry, governments and technology providers from around the world.
We are proud that IDLab’s KNoWS research group at Ghent University - imec is serving as the local chair this year, bringing SEMANTiCS to Ghent for the first time.
The conference is right at the heart of what the KNoWS team works on: making data interoperable, reusable and trustworthy through technologies such as Knowledge Graphs, Linked Data and semantic web technologies — foundations that are becoming increasingly important as AI systems find their way into more and more domains.
“SEMANTiCS is about moving beyond AI systems that work only within isolated data exchanges. By improving interoperability, we can connect data, knowledge and systems at scale — and build AI applications that can work reliably across organisational and technological boundaries.”
— Prof. Pieter Colpaert, Ghent University - imec, IDLab-KNoWS
Local press coverage (in Dutch):
One day before the conference, a free event, called Trust Triggers, was organized in De Krook. This is a community event bringing together researchers, practitioners and organisations working on trustworthy data exchange, interoperability and neurosymbolic AI: https://trustflows.eu/events/2026/09/trust-triggers/
