Industry Day
Bridge between Research and Application
The Industry Day of SE2026 serves as a platform for exchanging ideas, knowledge and experiences between academia and industry. It is targeted at experts from both companies and research facilities, as well as interested members from the Open Source Community. Anyone who is interested in the current trends and challenges faced in modern software engineering is welcome to join.
The goals of the Industry Day are to further the exchange of knowledge between the research world and the practical world, to foster cooperation and to offer valuable insights to its attendees about the current happenings, trends and challenges faced in modern software engineering.
The Industry Day takes place on 26th February 2026 in the Wankdorf Stadium.
Focus Topic: Software Engineering for Digital Sovereignty
In times of geopolitical uncertainty, frequent cyberattacks, and economic challenges, digital resilience has become an essential technical and organizational design goal for software systems. In this context, digital sovereignty plays a vital role in Europe. It fosters independence, strengthens competitiveness, and enhances innovation capacity.
Achieving and maintaining digital sovereignty is an ongoing process of research and development. Software engineering plays a decisive role in designing resilient software systems and ensuring digital sovereignty. It enables the development of solutions tailored to the specific needs of organizations and promotes independence from external providers.
Software engineering can make key contributions to digital sovereignty, e.g., through the development of independent solutions, the use and advancement of open-source software (OSS), the establishment of sovereign edge and cloud systems, and the control of data, processes, services, and technology. Moreover, independence from standardized solutions and the development of software engineering expertise foster innovation and contribute to the advancement of the digital landscape. These efforts help to reduce technological dependencies (vendor lock-in), strengthen cybersecurity, support successful digital transformation, and building key competencies.
In light of this importance, the Industry Day of SE2026 is dedicated to the topic of digital sovereignty and explores how software engineering can support its achievement and preservation. Experts from research and development will present and discuss practice-oriented and proven solutions from various perspectives.