Research & Open Science
Our Work
The Active Inference Institute conducts and supports open-science research on the theoretical advancement, cognitive modelling, and practical applications of the Free Energy Principle and Active Inference.
Current Programmes & Fellowships
Research Fellowships
A pathway for experienced contributors developing research, software, or educational resources, with a defined project and regular public progress reports.
Fellowship details & application →RxInfer.jl & BIASlab Partnership
A formal partnership with BIASlab at TU Eindhoven, bridging academic message-passing inference research with the Institute's open-science mission.
RxInfer.jl →Active Inference Ontology
A controlled vocabulary for Active Inference and Free Energy Principle concepts, with structured source data, versioned exports, and a browsable reference.
Explore the ontology →Prepare & Measure
Core infrastructure for tracking the proposal (Preparation) and ongoing activity cycles (Measurement) of Institute-engaging research projects.
Prepare a project → Report progress →Selected Publications
Selected work by Institute contributors and the wider ecosystem, including earlier Active Inference Lab research. Titles link to individual source records, grouped by publication type.
Sources checked . Years identify the cited editions; additional repository links offer reading copies where available.
Journal Articles & Proceedings
- Federated inference and belief sharing
- Shared Protentions in Multi-Agent Active Inference
- A Variational Synthesis of Evolutionary and Developmental Dynamics
- A single-pheromone model accounts for empirical patterns of ant colony foraging previously modeled using two pheromones
- Active Blockference: cadCAD with Active Inference for Cognitive Systems Modeling
- Thinking like a State : Embodied intelligence in the deep history of our collective mind
- Active Inferants: An Active Inference Framework for Ant Colony Behavior
Manuscripts, Preprints & Institute Reports
These records provide public versions of the work. A repository deposit or venue label alone does not establish independent peer review.
- The Active Inference Institute & Active Inference Ecosystem
- Distributed Science - The Scientific Process as Multi-Scale Active Inference
- The Active Inference Institute and Active Inference Ecosystem
- Generalized Notation Notation for Active Inference Models
- An Active Inference Ontology for Decentralized Science: from Situated Sensemaking to the Epistemic Commons
- The Free Energy Principle & Active Inference: a Systematic Literature Analysis
- Active Inference & Behavior Engineering for Teams
Symposium Record
Open-Source Repositories
Explore public research code, educational resources, and project documentation at github.com/ActiveInferenceInstitute. Check individual repositories for licences, data, and reproducibility instructions.
ActiveInferenceInstitute
The Institute's main GitHub organisation hosting simulation code, course materials, research tools, and the codebase for this website.
Browse repos →RxInfer.jl
A Julia package for scalable Bayesian inference through reactive message passing — developed by BIASlab at TU Eindhoven in partnership with the Institute.
Documentation →Generalized Notation Notation
Notation and tools for specifying, checking, rendering, and executing state-space models for Active Inference.
Model notation & tooling →Active Inferants Research Code
The ant-colony foraging simulation code accompanying Friedman and colleagues' 2021 article, separate from this site's educational demonstrations.
Article companion code →Research Community & Directions
The Institute supports connections between foundational research, cognitive modelling, and applications. Explore community events and propose collaborative work through the programme links above.
- Applied Active Inference Symposium — Visit the symposium project page for editions and programme updates.
- IWAI 2026 — The 7th International Workshop on Active Inference, held 14–16 October 2026 in Madrid, focused on foundations. See the organisers' programme and workshop information.
- Collaborative Projects — Use Project Preparation to describe research, software, educational, or applied work and request support.