The call for proposals for the 2026 Web Archiving Conference (WAC) is now open. The conference, co-organised by the IIPC and KBR, the Royal Library of Belgium, will be held in Brussels on April 21-22, 2026. Pre-conference workshops and the concluding colloquium of the BelgicaWeb research project will be held on April 20.
We invite proposals that explore sustainability in all aspects of web archiving – from tools and workflows to ethics and environmental impact. As the web archiving community grows, we face the challenge of ensuring our work is sustainable: technically, socially, legally, and environmentally. This includes maintaining open-source tools, designing user-friendly systems, reducing energy use, supporting knowledge transfer, ensuring equitable access, and building long-term institutional support.
We welcome contributions that address:
- Access & Research Use – Reproducibility, user experience, enrichment, and academic engagement.
- Tools & Infrastructure – Sustainable tool development, automation, training, and efficient harvesting.
- Collection Development – Ethical curation, inclusive practices, and preserving digital discourse.
- Legal & Ethical Issues – Data protection, privacy, AI regulation, and human rights.
- Policies & Standards – Long-term preservation strategies, trust, and provenance.
- Environmental Impact – Measuring and reducing the carbon footprint of web archiving.
The conference website provides more details about the suggested topics and submission guidelines. The deadline for submitting proposals is by the end of the day on October 15th (AoE/UTC-12), 2025. If you have any questions about the conference or the CfP, email us at events@netpreserve.org.
