February 2nd to 4th 2026

It has been ten years since the first direct detection of gravitational waves, a breakthrough that opened an entirely new window onto the Universe. In the decade since, both the number of observed events and the gravitational-wave community itself have grown tremendously. To build on this continuing momentum, we are delighted to announce a joint LISA Meeting, organized under the new Consortium between the Fundamental Physics and Waveform Working Groups.

The workshop will take place from February 2nd to February 4th, 2026, in Trieste, Italy. Trieste is a lovely city located in the north-east part of Italy, close to the border with Slovenia. The city of Trieste is Italy's most cosmopolitan city. 

The first day of the meeting will be dedicated to fundamental physics, with presentations on recent theoretical developments in gravity and on the prospects for their observability and measurement through data analysis. These sessions will be followed by informal discussions aimed at identifying the key challenges and requirements for testing General Relativity in the strong-field regime.

The second day will be devoted to waveform modelling, with updates from a variety of approaches and methodologies.

Building on last year’s initiative, this joint meeting is designed to bring together the complementary expertise of both communities. By joining forces, we aim to converge on common needs, share challenges, and strengthen collaboration in advancing gravitational-wave physics in preparation for LISA.

The third day will focus on the intersection of the fundamental physics and waveform communities — in particular, on the interplay between signatures of new physics and unmodelled physical effects. A central theme will be the identification and disentanglement of genuine GR effects (such as environmental contributions) from beyond-GR phenomena, raising the important question of biases introduced by waveform mismodelling versus those arising from alternative theories.

The workshop is limited to 80 participants.

Working Group Chairs, Fundamental Physics

Enrico Barausse (SISSA), Béatrice Bonga (Radboud University), Richard Brito (Instituto Superior Técnico), and Elisa Maggio (Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics)

Working Group Chairs, Waveform

Marta Colleoni (University of the Balearic Islands), Tanja Hinderer (Utrecht University), Chris Kavanagh (University College Dublin), Adam Pound (University of Southampton)

Local Organizers

Enrico Barausse, Rohit Chandramouli, Rahul Srinivasan, Chantal Laure Pitte, Jaumila Gonzalez 

Web development

Jaumila Gonzalez

Administrative contact 

Jaumila Gonzalez [jgonzale@sissa.it]