Register now!
You can now register for the Solid Symposium at City St George's University, Clerkenwell Campus, London, 30th April - 1st May 2026.
The fourth edition of the Solid Symposium will take place in London in Spring 2026. The event follows successful symposia in Nuremberg (2023), Leuven (2024), and Leiden (2025). It will be hosted by City St George's University (Clerkenwell Campus), from April 30th to May 1st, 2026, with speakers including the ODI's President and co-founder, Sir Tim Berners-Lee.
The Open Data Institute (ODI) became the organisational steward of Solid in October 2024. “Solid returns the web to its roots by giving everyone direct control over their own data,” says Sir Tim, “The ODI brings more than a decade of experience in responsible data innovation, and now we're not just building better software - we're correcting our global digital infrastructure to encourage collaboration, stimulate creativity, and champion compassion. This is returning us to my original hope for the web.”
For the symposium, the ODI is partnering with the University of Strathclyde, working to empower individuals and enable collaboration with Solid.
The Symposium brings together individuals from science, business, the public sector and academia to discuss and learn about the latest developments in Solid and related technologies in the Linked Web.
The event provides a platform to discuss practical applications of Solid, share best practices, and exchange ideas for future innovations.
Developer tournament
Running the week of the symposium, the ODI is organising an innovation tournament that will engage 200 participants in creating prototype applications for Solid across sectors, including healthcare, government services, and social good initiatives.
Solid enables people to store their data in personal online storage that they control. Rather than having information scattered across multiple platforms, users keep everything in one place and decide which applications can access what information. It's like carrying data in a rucksack (backpack) with separate pockets. Applications can only access the pockets that users allow them to open, while the rest remain private.
Solid was developed by Sir Tim Berners-Lee and his team at MIT in collaboration with the Qatar Computing Research Institute, Oxford University and several other academic research centres around the world.
Building on real-world implementations
Inrupt, the company co-founded by Sir Tim, has been working with leading enterprises and governments around the world to explore Solid for a variety of use cases. For example, VITO, a Belgian research organisation, integrated Solid into its healthcare platform to enable patients to safely share their health data across medical providers, wellness companies and public health researchers. Other projects include the Maxwell Clinic in the USA, which built a new type of patient-centred electronic health record system to enable cross-clinic sharing in support of its "integrated medicine” philosophy, Everbetter. The Dutch Data Vault also uses Solid as the basis for a personalised media experience that eliminates 3rd-party cookie tracking.
Pilots with the BBC, the Bezos Earth Fund, NatWest Bank, and Visa have shown how Solid can support innovative, data-driven services that keep consumers in control across domains like media, sustainability, banking and commerce.
In the US, Solid is deployed by Graphmetrix in the construction industry for systems, projects and supply chain management. Grassroots initiatives using Solid include Code for PDX, which provides a digital wallet to support individuals who are homeless or at risk of homelessness. It assists caseworkers with processing and providing the necessary documents to complete the housing assistance application process. Muze, a Dutch development company, has built servers (e.g. Nextcloud Solid, PHP Solid Server) and is working on projects with libraries (storing books and giving reading tips) and energy (storing personal power usage and sharing this data with communities).
Global community and local implementation
The Solid Symposium will bring together contributors from around the world working on applications that address local challenges using global infrastructure standards. This approach enables communities and governments to develop services that reflect their values and unique local circumstances.
Sponsorship
The Solid Symposium is a not-for-profit event. The event relies on fees and sponsorship to run and sustain the event. Learn how you can become a sponsor.
Supporting the broader vision
The symposium and tournament are part of a broader programme of work that aims to establish Solid as essential infrastructure for the digital economy, train the next generation of developers, create governance frameworks that prioritise individual empowerment, and demonstrate real impact through compelling use cases.
You can register your interest in participating in the innovation tournament, which the ODI will run 27-29 April, during the week of the symposium.
