LEGEND 2025
Machine Learning for Evolutionary Genomics Data
December 8th-12th
Centre Paul Langevin, Aussois, French Alps

About

Evolutionary genomics and population genetics investigate patterns of genetic diversity between species or between populations within a species and play a fundamental role in many aspects, from theoretical facets of evolution to practical ones, such as conservation genetics and biomedical sciences.

Methodologies have always been a strong interest of the community, from the development of mathematical models to the design of statistical inference tools, leading to numerous biological discoveries. These developments helped to adapt very quickly to the continuous influx of data, which has not only dramatically increased in quantity but also keeps changing in terms of quality and type.

Among the methodological frameworks, machine learning has emerged as a promising way of analysing large and complex datasets. The application of AI, and particularly deep learning, to evolutionary genomics is still in its infancy while showing promising initial results. It is currently applied to a variety of tasks, such as the inference of demographic history, ancestry, natural selection, phylogeny, species delimitation and diversification.

However, machine learning methods in evolutionary genomics and population genetics face unique challenges, including identifying appropriate assumptions about the evolutionary process and how to simulate it, and identifying the best ways to handle sequences, sequence alignments, phylogenetic trees, or additional information, such as geographical maps, temporal labels and environmental covariates. Overcoming these challenges requires a collaborative effort. The goal of this conference is to foster this effort by allowing interested researchers to meet and share their work.

The previous editon was held in Heraklion in 2024 (see the presentation videos).

 

Key dates

• Registration opens: June 16th 
• Abstract submission opens (oral presentations and posters): August 25th 2025
• Abstract submission deadline for oral presentations: September 22nd 2025 AoE
• Deadline for applying to Funding Award (limited number; all registration fees, including food and accomodation, waived): September 22nd 2025 AoE   
• Abstract submission deadline for posters: October 1st 2025 AoE
  (if your oral presentation is rejected we will automatically consider your submission for a poster, no need for a separate submission)

• Decision : October 6th 2025
• Registration Deadline: October 17th 2025 AoE (or upon reaching 80 registrations)
• Conference: December 8th - 12th

Even if the conference is booked before the registration deadline, we will be saving one registration slot for speakers of accepted oral presentations.

If you are planning to attend whether or not you are selected for a presentation, we invite you to register as soon as possible. 

Practical information

The registration fees are 580€.
They cover:

• Housing and all meals from the evening of December 8th until the morning of December 12th (4 nights),
• Transportation by bus between Aussois and Lyon airport (LYS) or Modane train station,
• Participation to the conference.
• The conference itself will start in the morning of December 9th, and close on the evening of December 11th.

We offer a limited number of free registrations to help include authors of accepted oral presentations and posters who could not attend otherwise. If you would like to apply, please do it here before the abstract submission deadline.

The registration website is here.

 

Organizers

Franz Baumdicker, Universität Tübingen
Bastien Boussau, CNRS, Université Lyon 1
Laurent Jacob, CNRS, Sorbonne Université 
Flora Jay, CNRS, Université Paris Saclay
Alexandros Stamatakis, ICS-FORTH, Greece