IDA Council

The IDA symposium series is guided by a council and has an advisory board that can be consulted for advice. The council consists of elected members, ex officio members from recent symposium editions, and honorary members. The current composition of the IDA Council is given below.

The purpose of the council is both to ensure continuity and to innovate the symposium series when needed. As such, it is responsible for decisions that have a long-term impact on the symposium and its community. This includes, e.g., the assessment of proposals by future organizers, making the final decision on such proposals, the transfer from one conference to the next, long-term contacts with publishers, etc. In other conferences/symposia the council is also called steering committee.

The council meets at least once a year, i.e., during each IDA symposium. Throughout the year, the council supports organizers of the next symposium edition and discusses long-term strategy.

Current council

Elected members

President
Matthijs van Leeuwen, Leiden University (the Netherlands; June 2026 – May 2030)

Proposals Chair
Elisa Fromont, Université de Rennes (France; June 2026 – May 2030)

Sponsorship Chair
Panagiotis Papapetrou, Stockholm University (Sweden; June 2026 – May 2030)

Advisors
Allan Tucker, Brunel University (United Kingdom; June 2026 – May 2030)
Jaakko Hollmén, Aalto University (Finland; June 2026 – May 2030)

Ex officio members

IDA 2026
Mitra Baratchi, Leiden University (the Netherlands)
Siegfried Nijssen, KU Leuven (Belgium)
Jan van Rijn, Leiden University (the Netherlands)

IDA 2025
Georg Krempl, Utrecht University (the Netherlands)
Kai Puolamäki, University of Helsinki (Finland)

IDA 2024
Ioanna Miliou, Stockholm University (Sweden)
Nico Piatkowski, Fraunhofer IAIS (Germany)

Honorary members

Michael Berthold (Germany)
Xiaohui Liu, Brunel University (United Kingdom)

Council structure and governance

Structure

The IDA Council consists of:

• Elected members: members appointed by the Council in the following roles:
  • President;
  • Proposals Chair;
  • Publication Chair;
  • Communication Chair;
  • Sponsorship Chair; and
  • up to two Advisors.
• Ex officio members: two to three chairs from each of the previous three editions of the IDA symposium, ideally including the General Chair and at least one Program Chair.
• Honorary members: members appointed by the Council.

Terms of service

• Elected members serve fixed terms of four years. They may serve consecutive terms but must be re-elected or re-appointed at the conclusion of each term.
• Ex officio members serve for three years.
• Honorary members are appointed for an indefinite period in recognition of their contributions to the IDA community. Their role is ceremonial and advisory; they do not participate in Council decisions or voting.

Membership normally ends upon completion of a term. A member may resign at any time.

Selection of elected members

Elected members are selected through a nomination and selection process. The Council may solicit nominations from the IDA community. Selection should consider:

• prior service to the IDA community;
• representation across research areas relevant to IDA;
• geographic diversity; and
• diversity of career stage, institution type, and background.

New elected members require approval by a majority vote of the Council.