Public engagement is one of the holy grails of robotics and European Robotics Week (ERW) was designed to achieve it. Every year, national coordinators across the EU and associated countries within the European robotics community, organise events to bring research and innovation closer to the public, to inspire the young and by this to shape the future of a tech-literate society. In this way, every year, local activities open their doors across Europe to make science accessible to all.
To kick off this year’s celebrations, Bucharest will provide the setting for the launch of ERW 2026. The Launch Event for the 16th edition of European Robotics Week will take place on 30 October – 1 November at Bucharest’s Politechnica University. The association is pleased to be able to organise the launch event in collaboration with Bucharest Promo Robots, Citi Cluster and Robohub.
The launch also coincides with the 17th edition of ROBOCHALLENGE (30 October – 1 November 2026), Europe’s largest international robotics competition, bringing together enthusiastic builders and innovators from over 27 countries under one roof.
In keeping with European Robotics Week’s traditional areas of interest, this year’s event will focus on the social impact of robotics and technology, with a spotlight the role of robotics in education, working life and society at large.
Over two days the Launch Event will include:
- Workshops for schools and children – inspiring young people to take an interest in technology and science.
- Hands-on events for older people – to help them better understand and use digital solutions in their daily lives.
- High-level meetings and debates for invited senior representatives and decision makers from a range of institutions – creating opportunities for collaboration between businesses, researchers and policy makers.
- Meetings with Romanian industrial policy makers – to discuss the direction for promising future innovation.
The event’s broader aim is to bring robotics closer to society as a whole by raising awareness of the potential of robotics and to support collaboration between research, education and industry.