Scientific track

call for papers

ERF 2027 · European Robotics Forum · Birmingham, UK · 2–4 March 2027
Theme: Robotics for Sustainable and Circular Industry

The ERF 2027 Scientific Track invites original, peer-reviewed contributions on robotics and AI for robotics, with a focus on sustainability, circularity and industrial applications. As Europe pursues its twin green and digital transition, keeping materials, components and products in use — through repair, refurbishment, remanufacturing and recovery — has become central to industrial competitiveness. These are precisely the tasks that resist conventional automation, and robotics and AI are the enabling technologies that make circular industry viable at scale.

The track is organised in two subject areas — Robotics and AI for Robotics — both framed by the conference theme. Contributions reporting enabling methods are welcome where their relevance to sustainable and circular industrial practice is made clear. The full list of topics is set out in the Call for Papers (placeholder — link to the full Call for Papers PDF).

Accepted papers will be published as a fully open-access volume in the indexed Springer Proceedings in Advanced Robotics (SPAR) series, freely available worldwide on publication under a Creative Commons licence, with no charge to authors.

View call for papers

Scientific Track chairs

Professor Niels Lohse

Scientific Track Chair, University of Birmingham, UK

Professor Samia Nefti-Meziani

Co-Chair, University of Birmingham, UK

Professor David Butler

Co-Chair, University of Birmingham, UK

International Scientific Programme Committee

The Scientific Track is peer-reviewed by the International Scientific Programme Committee (ISPC), an international body of established, mid-career and early-career researchers spanning robotics, AI for robotics, sustainable and circular manufacturing, and human factors. Committee members are listed below.

[Placeholder — list of International Scientific Programme Committee members to be inserted here, each with name and affiliation (and country). Recommended format, following the committee document: grouped or alphabetical, e.g. “Name — Institution, Country”. Area Chairs may be marked. The confirmed membership will be supplied once invitations are accepted.]

Overview

At a glance

Format: 4–10 pages, single-column, PDF, prepared with the official SPAR templates (LaTeX or Word)
Review: single-blind peer review
Publication: open access in Springer SPAR
Presentation: oral or pitch-and-poster

Key dates

Submission deadline: 12 October 2026
Notification of acceptance: 16 December 2026
Camera-ready / final submission: 18 January 2027

All deadlines are 23:59 CET.

Paper format and templates

Please prepare your contribution using the official Springer Proceedings in Advanced Robotics (SPAR) templates, in either LaTeX (preferred) or Word. Use the MathPhysSci reference style with numbered citations. Authors are encouraged to include ORCID iDs in the paper header and are responsible for obtaining written permission for any third-party copyrighted material.

Download the SPAR templates and author guidelines: SPAR templates (LaTeX and Word) (placeholder — link to the template pack hosted on the ERF 2027 site).

The templates and Springer’s proceedings author guidelines are also available from the Springer conference-proceedings guidelines.

Submit your paper

Submissions are handled through Microsoft CMT. Registration on the CMT platform is required before submitting.

The Microsoft CMT service was used for managing the peer-reviewing process for this conference. This service was provided for free by Microsoft and they bore all expenses, including costs for Azure cloud services as well as for software development and support.

Submit via Microsoft CMT