Hi all,

We’re excited to announce the UniReps workshop, taking place on December 12th coinciding with NeurIPS in Paris!

The Call for Papers for the 4th edition of UniReps is live! 

Submit via OpenReview

Deadline: 4th October 2026 (AoE)

Our workshop theme focuses on a central question:

Why, when, and how do distinct learning processes yield similar representations, and to what extent can these be unified?

Neural systems, whether artificial or biological, often converge on structurally similar internal representations when exposed to semantically related inputs. This workshop brings together researchers from Neuroscience, Artificial Intelligence, and Cognitive Science to build a unified understanding of this phenomenon and explore its theoretical and practical implications.

We invite contributions addressing the following questions:

• When? Under what conditions do similar representations emerge, and how can we measure this?

• Why? What mechanisms, biological or computational, drive representational convergence?

• What for? How can we harness this understanding for modular deep learning, model merging, transfer learning, and beyond?

Topics of Interest Here’s a non-exhaustive list of themes we’re excited to explore, targeting especially their relationship with the questions listed above:

• Model merging, stitching, and compositionality

• Representational alignment and similarity measures

• Identifiability and symmetry in neural models

• Learning dynamics and mechanistic interpretability

• Multimodal and multiview learning

• Disentangled representations

• Linear mode connectivity

• Representation Similarity Analysis (RSA)

• Multi-agent communication

• Mechanistic interpretability

• Representation universality

Submission Tracks Full Paper (Archival)

• Up to 9 pages (excluding references and appendix)

• Anonymous submission

• Published in dedicated workshop proceedings

• Poster + spotlight opportunities

Extended Abstract (Non-Archival)

• Up to 4 pages

• Anonymous submission

• Poster + spotlight opportunities

• Perfect for early-stage work, negative results, or opinion pieces

Both tracks are eligible for best papers awards.

Join Our Program Committee We’re looking for dedicated reviewers to help maintain the high standard of our review process. Each reviewer is assigned no more than two submissions, and we’re planning to introduce Reviewer Awards to recognise outstanding contributions.

Interested? Sign up here to join the UniReps 2026 Program Committee.

We look forward to your submissions and hope to see you at UniReps!

Warm regards,
The UniReps Organising Team