XIVth STICS Seminar 2026

The aim of the seminar is to bring together designers, developers and users of the STICS crop model - and associated tools - to present the latest technical and scientific advances around the model, illustrated by relevant case studies. The seminar will also provide an opportunity to discuss strategies for deploying and developing the model to meet environmental challenges and support the agro-ecological transition under the pressure of climate change.

 All communication proposals are welcome; if possible, thematic sessions will be organised around several topics :

• New formalisms, parameterisation of new species and development of tools around the STICS model
• Climate change: Using the model as a tool to explore adaptation and/or mitigation strategies
• Agroecology: Assessing ecosystem services and supporting the agroecological transition using the model
• From seed to harvested organ, from variety choice to crop sequence design, from a practice to its effect on biogeochemical cycles: the model as a tool to understand systems
• STICS & friends: interfacing the model with databases and coupling it with other models
• Free proposals

The seminar will be held from 17 to 19 March 2026 at the Ibis Style in Louvain-La-Neuve, with participants expected to arrive on the evening of 16 March 2026. It is organised by Gembloux Agro-Bio Tech, a faculty of the university of Liège.

Full details about how the seminar will be organised will be presented on a dedicated website - https://www.stics2026.uliege.be/ - which will be accessible from 15 July. Registration will open on that date. Communication proposals (oral or poster) will be assessed by a scientific committee and will have to comply with the template available for download from mid-July.

All requests and questions can be sent to the dedicated email address: stics2026@uliege.be .

Please feel free to circulate this save the date to your networks,

The STICS Project team.