Social Simulation Conference 2025

Social simulation in a socio-technical context: embracing societies’ complexities.

Important Info

This page contains information on:

Instructions for presentations

Please upload your presentation no later than the day before your scheduled session using the following link:
👉 surfdrive.surf.nl/files/index.php/s/jP6fYnAvM42HE2Z

  • The filename should begin with your paper number or ID and may also include your name.
  • Accepted formats: PDF or PPTX.

Alternatively, you may bring your presentation on a USB stick.

During the break before your session, please check your slides on the room’s computer. A team member (wearing a TU Delft shirt) will be available to help you if needed.

âť— You cannot present using your own laptop.

⏱️ Presentation Timing

  • Long talks: 20-minute slot
    → The presentation should be no longer than 15 minutes, leaving 5 minutes for discussion.
  • Short talks: 15-minute slot
    → The presentation should be no longer than 10 minutes, leaving 5 minutes for discussion.

🧠 Presentation Guidelines

When preparing your slides, keep in mind that the goal is to help the audience understand the main ideas of your work. Interested listeners can refer to your paper for further details. You are not expected to explain everything in depth during the talk. For this reason, we recommend limiting your presentation to a maximum of 15 slides for long talks and 10 slides for short talks.

Instructions for Posters

We are excited to host your contributions during the poster session at SSC 2025! Please review the following guidelines to ensure a smooth and successful experience

Poster Format

Orientation: Portrait | Size: A1 format.

Larger sizes or landscape orientation cannot be accommodated due to space limitations.

Poster Setup

  • Posters can be hung starting Tuesday, August 26, during breaks when no sessions are scheduled. Please do not hang your poster during the workshop day on Monday – the space may be needed for the workshops.
  • Display areas are in Rooms C, D, and E of the ECHO building.
  • Magnets will be provided â€“ please do not use tape.
  • If you need help, the registration desk is happy to assist.

During the Poster Session

On Thursday 28 August from 13:00 to 15:00, you’ll have the opportunity to stand by your poster and engage with conference participants. Posters will remain on display for the entire week.

Printing Options

You may bring your printed poster or use the on-site printing service at TU Delft:

  • Location: Faculty of Architecture, Julianalaan 134, 2628 BZ Delft
  • Opening Hours: August 18–29, 09:00–15:00
  • How to Print: Email your file to BK-prints@tudelft.nl and specify you’re from the conference and when you would like to pick it up. If you send it before 9 am, you can pick it up the same day during opening hours. Alternatively you can bring it on a USB stick and order it on site.
  • Costs: 13 euro for 190 grams photo satin paper; 7 euro for 120 grams paper
  • Payment: PIN or cash accepted

Instructions for session chairs

Keeping time

It is the responsibility of the session chairs to keep to the time and allow all speakers to present and discuss their work. All sessions have enough time for their allocated papers, but it is often tight given the high number of submissions.

Long papers get 20 minutes (including discussion), and short talks get 15 minutes (including discussion). Please take this responsibility seriously, so that the conference runs smoothly and there is enough time for breaks so people can exchange.

Social safety

At SSC2025 we find social safety of all participants fundamental. This means diversity is embraced and we strive towards being inclusive to all conference participants as well as all other staff that is on site.

The role of session chairs in relation to diversity and inclusion is important. We ask you to create an atmosphere where it is safe to discuss research ideas, findings and implications, where soft voices are heard.

Specific recommendations

  • Be well in time in the room to meet the researchers presenting in your session, to comfort them and check that they are alright and to check all presenters are there and all presentations are on the local computer.
  • Please wait a brief moment before giving the question to someone raising the hand first. Allow all people to come up with a question.
  • Please notice ‘new hands’ and give them preference over people asking many questions
  • Please steer the discussion in a way so that it creates the atmosphere for a constructive debate. It can be sharp, but always constructive to the presenter and anyone that may be part of the audience.
  • Don’t hesitate to address these items explicitly in your role as session chair.

In case of doubt you can reach out the diversity and inclusion team, visible in the conference with yellow badges.

Practicalities in the room

  • Please read the instructions for presenters as it contains relevant information for your role too.
  • There will be a student assistant in each conference room to support with the practicalities. Further support on standby, a phone call away.
  • The rooms are equipped with computers; no other laptops should be used. The student assistants have a USB disk with them in case files need to be transferred. Please make sure this is all done before the session starts.
  • Some of the sessions are broadcasted to online participants: the keynote sessions and the sessions in room C and D (room D is not being broadcast on Wednesday). For these sessions, the screen needs to remain shared through MS Teams, the student assistant will be able to help with this.
  • Online participants will not be able to ask questions other than posing them in chat. Student assistants will monitor this.

Online participation

The online component of the conference will be organized as follows:

  • The keynote sessions will be broadcast.
  • Two parallel session rooms (rooms C and D) will be broadcast each day, allowing full-day online access. On Wednesday, however, only one room will be available online (only room C). 

We will use Microsoft Teams as the online platform. A total of three Teams-links will be provided to (online) participants, shortly before the conference starts, and will remain valid for the entire week.

  • A link for all four keynote sessions
  • A link for parallel sessions in room ECHO C
  • A link for parallel sessions in room ECHO D (not available on Wednesday)

Please note: Sessions will be broadcast-only. A Q&A function will be available for online participants and will be monitored periodically.

Registration

Detailed information on registration for the conference is now available.

Registration Link: registration will be done through WildApricot, ESSA’s membership management system, which can be found here.

Early Bird discount is available up to 20 June 2025. This date is later then earlier communicated; because reviews are a little delayed, we pushed the early bird discount back a week as well.

Registration fees

  • PhD candidates: 330 euro (before 20 June), 430 euro (after 20 June), 530 euro (on site). This rate includes an optional year of membership for ESSA. PhD candidates that are already ESSA members (and paid their membership) can get a ticket for 30 euros less.
  • Other academics: 550 euro (before 20 June), 650 euro (after 20 June), 750 (on site). This rate includes an optional year of membership for ESSA. Academics that are already ESSA members (and paid their membership) can get a ticket for 50 euros less.
  • Industry/non academics: 700 euro (before 20 June), 800 euro (after 20 June), 900 (on site).
  • Online participation: 150 euro (before 20 June), 200 euro (after 20 June). This rate includes an optional year of membership for ESSA. Online participants that are already ESSA members (and paid their membership) can get a ticket for 50 euros less.

What is included in these fees?

  • These fees include the welcome reception and the conference dinner, and the lunches and coffee breaks during the conference.
  • Although online participation is offered, we only offer limited participation to be able to offer the highest quality conference. This means online participants will not be able to ask questions or present papers. We expect only a selection of the sessions to be broadcasted.

Cancellation policy

In case you would like to cancel your registration, please send an email to the SSC2025 organizers ssc2025@tudelft.nl and to Timo Szczepanska timo.szczepanska@uit.no.

Cancelling up to Sunday 17 August 2025 (one week before the conference starts) you receive the funds back minus the PayPal fees we have incurred. After this date, but before the conference started, we will also charge for food and drinks (which constitutes about 80% of the fee), because we are not able to cancel those anymore. From Monday 25th of August, when the conference starts onwards, no cancellation is possible.

Availability of grants for attending SSC 2025

The Social Simulation Conference is a key opportunity for our community to collaborate and exchange knowledge. Unfortunately, early-career researchers often lack funding for conference participation. To ensure broader access, the TU Delft Climate Action Program has made funding available. Thanks to this support, we are offering financial assistance to help members of the CaterFly community attend SSC 2025.

CaterFly is a group of early-stage researchers that work at the intersection of agent-based modelling and behavioral science. CaterFlyers meet every third Friday of the month to exchange insights and learn from each other. To sign up, you can subscribe to our mailing list.

Active CaterFly members were eligible to apply for one of the four grants:

  • 2 Minor Grants (€200 each) – Supporting extended stays for pre-conference workshops.
    Already allocated
  • 2 Major Grants (€400 each) – Covering (nearly) full conference fees.
    Already allocated


All CaterFly grants have now been allocated. Thank you to everyone who applied! We look forward to welcoming you at SSC 2025.

To apply, send a short motivation to lynn.de.jager@rivm.nl by May 23, 2025. (Applications for CaterFly grants are now closed)

Not seeing members-only registration options?

As you can see above, ESSA members have reduced conference fee options. Please note the following:

1. You must log in (button below) to your ESSA Wild Apricot account with your username and password in order to see members-only options. You know you are logged in because your username is visible at the top right of the screen.

2. Your membership payment for 2025 must also have been received!

Paying for SSC2025

You can pay with PayPal when registering through the registration page. If you cannot pay using PayPal, or do not want to, you can pay by direct bank transfer to the ESSA’s account using the details below:

Account holder: European Social Simulation Association
Name of the bank: ZĂĽrcher Kantonalbank (Zuercher Kantonalbank if you cannot enter accented characters)
Address: c/o Berther Moeri Neuber Schindler, Schipfe 32, 8001 Zurich, Switzerland
IBAN: CH36 0070 0130 0088 8652 0
BIC: ZKBKCHZZ80A

Please use the invoice number and your surname as a reference number. Note that payments via bank transfer require the information in this system to be updated manually, which might be a lengthy process. Therefore, you might receive a reminder even after your invoice was successfully paid. We apologise for this in advance and continue to work towards updating the system manually as as frequently as possible.

Submission

Submission is now closed. The link to submission is OpenReview.net. Submissions closed April 25th, 2025.

The new conference platform in use this year is OpenReview.net. To upload a paper to the conference or act as a reviewer, you need to have an account on the platform. Instructions can be found here. Be aware that new accounts are moderated. If you use an institutional affiliation of an entity recognized by the platform, this will be automatic (after confirming the registration link to your email address). If you are not using a recognized institutional affiliation, the moderating can take up to two weeks to handle your case. This includes using e.g. gmail.com as your email account. See also https://docs.openreview.net/getting-started/frequently-asked-questions/why-does-it-take-two-weeks-to-moderate-my-profile.

Call for Paper & Poster Contributions

SSC 2025 seeks high-quality submissions addressing original research in the domain of social simulation. All work must be original, i.e. must not have appeared in conference proceedings, books or journals, and must not be under review for other archival conferences, books or journals. All accepted papers will be considered for publication in the proceedings (Springer), unless the author(s) choose(s) otherwise. For formatting, see below.

  • Long paper (10-12 pages, excluding references – long oral presentations, will be included in the post-proceedings unless opted out)
  • Short paper (6-9 pages, excluding references – short oral presentations, will be included in the post-proceedings unless opted out)
  • Extended abstract (3-4 pages, excluding references – short oral presentations, will not be included in the post-proceedings)
  • Poster abstract (300-500 words, will not be included in the post-proceedings)
  • ESSA@Work Contributions
    • Submit as paper or extended abstract via the normal conference link. During submission, indicate on the website that you wish to submit your paper to the track called “ESSA@work”.
    • Note: you can only submit to one track. If you submit to ESSA@Work, that submission will not be considered for the rest of the conference tracks or publication.
    • After submission, complete the short ESSA@work application form which includes a few questions to help us understand how best to identify and match you with modelling experts. Please complete this form also by 25th of April 2025. Note that submissions to the conference flagged for ESSA@work track, but without a corresponding ESSA@work application form will not be considered.
    • For questions, email the work group at essaatworkgroup@gmail.com.

Poster abstract, Extended Abstract, Long Paper and Short paper — submission deadline: 25th of April, 2025.

Poster Abstract, Extended Abstract, Long Paper and Short paper  — Notification of Acceptance: expected 13th of June 2025.

Poster Abstract, Extended Abstract, Long Paper and Short paper  — Final Version Submission: 7th of July 2025.

Please note that only complete papers can be considered for acceptance.

Submission Info

All submissions have to be formatted using the Springer templates for conference proceedings:

Latex template        Word template

Please follow the Conference Proceedings guidelines.

Submissions will be handled through OpenReview.net.

Call for Tracks & Workshops

The deadline for special tracks has closed on January 28th 2025. Please refer to the Conference Program for an overview of special tracks.

The deadline for workshops has closed on January 28th 2025. Please refer to the Conference Program for an overview of workshops.