For details on sessions, speakers, and timings, please see the Workshop Agenda. Titles and abstracts are available under Speaker Information. 

Main Focus

NIBAI-2025 is a unique interdisciplinary workshop bringing together leading minds in animal behaviour, systems neuroscience, artificial intelligence, and bio-robotics to explore the fundamental principles that underpin intelligence.

In recent years, research across animal systems—from insects to mammals—has uncovered remarkable ways in which living organisms perceive, adapt, and solve complex challenges. Simultaneously, rapid advancements in AI and machine learning have enabled machines to replicate certain intelligent behaviours. Yet, these domains often operate in isolation.

NIBAI-2025 aims to bridge this divide:
By fostering dialogue between biologists, neuroscientists, AI researchers, and engineers, the workshop seeks to build a common foundation of understanding. Our goal is to illuminate how natural intelligence emerges in animals, and how those insights can inspire the development of more robust, efficient, and adaptive artificial systems. Likewise, biologists and neuroscientists will benefit from exposure to cutting-edge technologies and computational methods developed within the AI and robotics communities.

From micro-level neural coding to macro-level behaviours and modelling frameworks, participants will examine how natural strategies for sensing, learning, and acting in dynamic environments can inform the next generation of autonomous systems, machine learning architectures, and bio-inspired robotics. The workshop will also help biologists understand the design constraints and implementation challenges faced by engineers—fostering mutual understanding and innovation.

Together, we’ll chart a path towards understanding intelligence as a shared, evolving phenomenon—across both natural and artificial domains.

Confirmed Keynote Speakers (Alphabetical Order) 

• Andrew Barron, Macquarie Minds and Intelligences Initiative, Australia

• Josep Call, School of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of St Andrews, UK

• Gonzalo de Polavieja, Champalimaud Research, Champalimaud Foundation, Portugal

• Mikko Juusola, School of Biosciences, University of Sheffield, UK

• Colin Klein , School of Philosophy, The Australian National University, Australia 

• Aurel Lazar, Department of Electrical Engineering, Columbia University, USA

• James Marshall, Centre of Machine Intelligence, University of Sheffield, UK

• Robert Plomin, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, King’s College London, UK

• Maria Tello Ramos, Department of Psychology, University of Hull, UK

• Giorgio Vallortigara, Department of Psychology and Cognitive Science, University of Trento, Italy

• Barbara Webb, School of Informatics, University of Edinburgh, UK

👉 To explore speaker titles, abstracts, and biographies, please visit the Speakers Information page. 

Organising Committee

• HaDi MaBouDi, University of Sheffield, UK

• Mikko Juusola, University of Sheffield, UK

• Andrew Barron, Macquarie University, Australia

Executive Committee 

• Marie Genevieve Guiraud, Macquarie University, Australia

• Alice Bridges, University of Sheffield, UK

• Ali Asgar Bohra, University of Sheffield, UK

Workshop Programme

Sponsors & Supporters