AISSAI/GAP 2026: Exploring the Convergence of AI and High-Performance Computing for Science

From 17 to 19 June 2026, the AISSAI/GAP 2026 – Grenoble AI for Physical Sciences workshop brought together an international community of researchers at the Maison de la Création et de l’Innovation (MaCI), Université Grenoble Alpes. The event was organised as part of the thematic trimester “HPC and AI convergence at the Exascale era”, led by the CNRS AISSAI Center in connection with PEPR NumPEx.

Following the success of its first edition in 2024, GAP 2026 focused on the rapidly developing interface between artificial intelligence and the physical sciences. The workshop explored key research directions including inverse problems, simulation-based inference, data-driven scientific discovery and foundation models for science, while highlighting advances in theory, algorithms and high-performance computing.

The three-day programme featured keynote talks from leading international experts and covered a broad range of scientific applications, including climate and geosciences, astrophysics, neuroscience and engineering systems. Among the invited speakers were researchers from EPFL, Stanford University, ETH Zurich, the University of Tübingen, Inria, CNRS and several international universities.

A dedicated poster session provided an opportunity for participants to present ongoing research and exchange ideas across disciplines. Particular attention was given to work exploring the synergies between AI and HPC in the Exascale era, a central challenge for the future of scientific computing.

For NumPEx, GAP 2026 contributed to a broader effort to foster dialogue between the HPC and AI communities and to explore how their convergence can transform scientific computing at Exascale. By bringing together experts from different fields, the workshop helped identify new opportunities for collaboration and highlighted the methodological and computational challenges that will shape the next generation of AI-enabled scientific applications.