Hybrid Human–AI Collaborative Networks took centre stage at international conference with INESC TEC participation 

The 26th edition of the international IFIP/SOCOLNET Working Conference on Virtual Enterprises took place in Porto, bringing together more than 100 participants and featuring contributions from INESC TEC in the organisational process. 

Under the theme Hybrid Human–AI Collaborative Network – highlighting collaborative integration between humans and Artificial Intelligence (AI) in organisational and technological networks – PRO-VE 2025 brought another edition of the conference to the city of Porto. Each year, the event welcomes the scientific and industrial community to discuss challenges, practices and advances in collaborative networks. 

Between 27 and 29 October, the Abel Salazar building, in the heart of the city, hosted more than 100 participants for technical and thematic sessions, keynote speeches, academia and industry panels, as well as project and poster presentations. Topics addressed included collaborative networks in the digital era, AI as an enabler of collaboration, collaborative networks in healthcare, trust and ethics in human–AI relations, as well as research challenges common to these areas. Dino Pedreschi, from the University of Pisa, Vicente Traver, from the Universitat Politècnica de València, and Bruno Silva, from Muvu Technologies, attended as keynote speakers. 

INESC TEC joined this initiative during the organisational phase and throughout the conference; António Lucas Soares, a researcher at the institution and one of those responsible for the enterprise systems engineering area, served as Conference Chair, strengthening a relationship that began in 1999 (the year when PRO-VE was held for the first time in Porto with contributions from INESC TEC) and was renewed in 2016. 

With around 60 papers presented and published in two volumes of Springer Advances in Information and Communications Technology, the conference focused on several central aspects on current challenges in science and technology. These included the integration of AI into human collaborative processes, reliability, ethics and trust in collaborative networks, as well as tools and methodologies that combine human skills with intelligent systems. 

The researcher mentioned in this news piece is associated with INESC TEC and the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto