ESSA Summer School 2026: Large-Scale Agent-Based Modelling

The ESSA Summer School 2026 will take place from Monday 17 to Friday 21 August 2026 at the James Hutton Institute, Aberdeen. Led by Gary Polhill, this one-week intensive course offers an in-depth exploration of large-scale agent-based modelling (ABM), connecting theories of complex systems with practical model design, programming, and experimentation in NetLogo.

Participants will learn how agent-based models can represent heterogeneous actors, dynamic environments, and emergent socio-ecological patterns. The course combines conceptual theory, coding exercises, and group projects to help participants understand the purpose, design, and implementation of ABMs for large-scale socio-environmental systems.

Key themes include:

• Complex systems thinking and agent-based theory
• Translating conceptual systems into computational models
• Programming ABMs in NetLogo and managing large-scale model structures
• Setting up experiments, analysing results, and communicating model findings

The summer school is designed for PhD students, researchers, and practitioners interested in modelling socio-ecological systems, environmental policy, behavioural dynamics, and other complex adaptive systems.

* An early-career researcher is someone who has no more than seven years (full time) in academia since their PhD. was awarded.

The summer school will include guest lectures from leading researchers in agent-based modelling, providing participants with insights into cutting-edge applications and examples of what agent-based models can achieve in empirical and applied research contexts.

Professor Tatiana Filatova (TU Delft)

We have invited Professor Tatiana Filatova, Professor of Computational Economics at TU Delft. Her research focuses on feedbacks between policy interventions and aggregated outcomes of individual decisions in the context of sustainability and climate change. She and her team develop and use spatial agent-based models and combine them with empirical evidence (including social survey and panel data) to study behavioural change, socio-environmental risks, and adaptation pathways. A major strand of her recent work links household and firm adaptation under climate-driven flood risks to larger-scale damage assessment and climate policy modelling, making her particularly well-placed to discuss how ABM can support evidence-informed decision-making at scale.

Professor Filatova has also been involved in advancing the idea of Reusable Building Blocks for agent-based models, including work on community platforms and methods intended to improve transparency, comparability, and reusability of model components.

Professor Alison Heppenstall (University of Glasgow)

We have invited Professor Alison Heppenstall, Professor of Geocomputation at the University of Glasgow. Her work sits at the intersection of spatial modelling and computational social science, with extensive experience in spatial agent-based models and microsimulation, alongside methodological interests in uncertainty quantification, data assimilation, reinforcement learning, and other AI/ML approaches. She also has a strong interest in high-performance and exascale computing for social-science applications, and an ongoing agenda around building urban digital twins using individual-based modelling.

Venue:
The summer school will be held at the James Hutton Institute in Aberdeen, UK — a leading institute for interdisciplinary research in environment, food, and society.
Website: https://www.hutton.ac.uk

Accommodation:
Participants are responsible for arranging their own accommodation in Aberdeen. A wide range of hotels and short-term rentals are available across the city.

In addition, participants may wish to consider more affordable student accommodation provided by Robert Gordon University (RGU), subject to availability. These options are typically used by summer-school participants and offer good value for money. Further information can be found at:
https://www.rgu.ac.uk/life-at-rgu/accommodation/our-accommodation 

Getting to Aberdeen:

• By Train: Aberdeen railway station is well connected to Edinburgh, Glasgow, and London via ScotRail and LNER services.
• By Air: Aberdeen International Airport (ABZ) is approximately 20 minutes from the city by taxi or bus.
• By Bus: Long-distance coach services connect Aberdeen to major UK cities.

Getting to the James Hutton Institute:

By Taxi:
The James Hutton Institute
Craigiebuckler
Aberdeen AB15 8QH
United Kingdom

By Bus:
From Aberdeen railway station:

• Bus 11A (approximately every 40 minutes)
• Bus 5 or Bus 6 (approximately every 15 minutes; requires a longer walk)
• Bus 15 (approximately every 40 minutes)

From Aberdeen Airport:

• Bus 727, then transfer to Bus 11A (approximately every 40 minutes)

From Aberdeen long-distance bus station (Union Square):

• Bus 15 (approximately every 40 minutes)

Contact:
For updates or enquiries, please contact the organisers at:
abm.school@hutton.ac.uk