Sustainability of Very Large Databases
Topic
Database systems with their capability of safely storing large amounts of data form a backbone of modern society. They are highly efficient, versatile, and scalable. For decades, database systems have been built on the premise of ever increasing compute and storage resources, which have been made available by advancements in hardware development. Physical limitations are rapidly bringing hardware efficiency improvements to a halt. At the same time, the AI boom is demanding enormous amounts of data and increases in compute capacity. In the search for marginal profit, industry has mostly given up on former goals of carbon neutrality in a global arms race on AI infrastructure. In this pivotal moment, research is needed to clear up the clouds hiding the true economic, ecological, and societal costs of current IT trends to open alternative paths for sustainable data management.
In this Summer School, we will discuss the ecological impact of both database systems and the research community, as well as ways to improve it. Experts will present recent findings on how to measure ecological impacts, the role of the database system in sustainability, and how to improve efficiency in database systems.
Overview
The goal of the VLDB Summer School is to bring together early-stage research students and international experts in Database Management Systems for a multi-day event. The Summer School has two roles: On the one hand, it will educate on state of the art topics in Sustainability of Very Large Databases. On the other hand, the Summer School is a networking event, with many opportunities for students to exchange experience with each other and to discuss and interact in a friendly, collegial, setting with the expert speakers at the event.
The Summer School will take place in person, between the 10th and 13th of August 2026, at the University of Wrocław. It will consist of tutorials and research talks, panels, and interactive sessions covering state-of-the-art research projects and future challenges, as well as poster sessions. In the poster sessions all participants will have a chance to showcase their Phd/Postdoc research topic and results (or their Master’s thesis topic, in case they are still in the Master’s degree), and get feedback from the experts present at the event.
The VLDB Summer School is committed to ensuring an inclusive and diverse environment with zero tolerance for discrimination, harassment, or any other form of misconduct. To support Database education and research internationally, we will also provide discounted participation fees (see next section on Costs), thanks to the generous support of the VLDB SPEND Committee.
Confirmed Speakers
The list of confirmed speakers includes (in alphabetical order):
- Antoine Amarilli, INRIA Lille
- Oana Balmau, McGill University
- Carsten Binnig, Technical University of Darmstadt
- Khuzaima Daudjee, University of Waterloo
- Michal Friedman, ETH Zurich
- Srinivasan Keshav, University of Cambridge
- Wolfgang Lehner, Dresden University of Technology
- Viktor Leis, Technical University of Munich
- …
Important Dates
- Applications: open
- Registration deadline: 5th of June 2026 (midnight CEST)
- Notification of acceptance: 12th of June 2026
- Payment due: 28th of June 2026
Costs
The Summer School has two types of participation fees: Full (€500) and Reduced (€150).
The participation fee covers the social event, coffee breaks, and lunches on all days of the school, as well as dinners on every day except the final one.
There is only a limited supply of Reduced Fee registrations available for students studying in Eastern Europe or in non-High-Income Country (according to the World Bank classification). Self-financed students from High-Income Countries may apply for the Reduced Fee as well, but we reserve the right to “convert” the applications to Full Fee.
In addition to the participation fee, the selected participants are expected to pay for their lodging and travel expenses to Wroclaw. The city has many hotels and guesthouses for different budgets; we estimate per-night costs to be in the range of 50€-100€.
Application
To apply, please complete the application form: https://forms.gle/oHAHiJweBd1VeQWcA
Participation is selective, as we aim to admit approximately 40 students. Applicants are required to submit the following:
- an up-to-date CV (optionally including a list of publications),
- a short paragraph outlining their current knowledge and practical experience with Database Management Systems,
- a short paragraph describing their expectations and goals for participating in the Summer School.
Organization
The VLDB Summer School has received financial support from the VLDB SPEND Committee. The persons co-organizing the Summer School are:
- Tilmann Rabl, Professor for Data Engineering Systems, Digital Engineering Fakultät, University of Potsdam, Hasso Plattner Institute
- Sarah Kleest-Meißner, Postdoc, Data & AI, Hasso Plattner Institute
- Piotr Wieczorek, an Assistant Professor at the Institute of Computer Science, University of Wrocław
For any questions, feel free to contact the organizers: vldbssc26-org [at] cs.uni.wroc.pl
Local organization
Location
The summer school takes place at:
Institute of Computer Science, University of Wrocław
Joliot-Curie 15, 50-383 Wrocław, Poland
Past Editions
VLDB Summer School 2025 has been held in Wrocław, Poland
VLDB Summer School 2024 and VLDB Summer School 2023 have been held in Cluj, Romania