Researchers affiliated with the National AI Research Lab (NAIRL) recorded another major milestone at the International Conference on Learning Representations (ICLR 2026), held from April 23 to 27 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, with a total of 37 accepted papers.
The scope of participation tells its own story. A total of 25 Principal Investigators (PIs) from across the NAIRL network and over 50 first-author student researchers contributed to the program, demonstrating both the breadth and depth of Korea’s AI research capacity on the international stage.
The contributions across participating institutions were distributed broadly. KAIST recorded the largest single-institution output with 20 papers, with 11 PIs anchoring the effort and forming the core of this year’s results. Yonsei University followed with 8 papers led by 6 PIs, while Korea University presented 6 papers from 5 PIs. POSTECH contributed 3 papers from 3 PIs, completing the consortium’s collective showing.
This outcome reflects the ‘One Team’ framework that the four leading universities have built together over time. Researchers from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), Yonsei University, Korea University, and the Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH) collaborated across institutional boundaries, addressing a wide research agenda spanning the frontier of AI.
A NAIRL representative noted, “The Global Open Innovation Ecosystem we are building rests on the steady accumulation of research results like these,” adding, “We extend our sincere appreciation to every professor and student researcher who contributed to this collective achievement.”
