So many summer schools, not enough summer
I feel like there has never been a better time to find ancillary/enrichment PL school. For a while there were only a handful of these summer schools. And the ones I knew of were great. Looking at you OPLSS. But it just feels like over the last decade or so we’ve had a whole bunch more spring up. I got lucky this year and just happened to be going to FLoC for FoPSS. But there are jillions.
With a little googling, I pulled together a list. ‘Programming languages’ is flexible here; formal methods, verification, compilers, PL theory, types, and functional and logic programming and fellow travellers. My filter criteria was ‘how interested would I be to go to this and how much would I get out of it that relates to my research area’. I asked Claude to look back for historic dates when apps opened. This is mostly retrospective, but if past precedent has any relation to future stuff, then maybe this will also tell you when to start paying attention in 2027 and beyond.
“Summer school” is used loosely. The list includes spring and winter schools when they serve the same research-level purpose.
As I said, I also use “PL” broadly: beyond the aforementioned, stuff like synthesis, rewriting, analysis, logic, proof theory, category theory, and other areas belong when the connection runs through how programs are expressed, implemented, analyzed, or proved correct.
I can personally speak to PLMW, OPLSS, ICLP DC, SPLV, FoPSS, and NASSLLI. All were great. I know that I know colleagues whose word I would take as gospel who can recommend PLISS, MGS, and the Dutch one.
Calendar
These are month-sized reminders, not promises. Some school names link to a note below; the rest go to the official site.
Direct schools
| School | Held | Start watching | Admission or reg. | Funding, housing, or payment |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PLMW (conf.-attached; normally 1 day) | throughout the year | preceding autumn, then Feb. and May | conf. reg. | funded participation: Nov. for POPL; April–June for others |
| Midlands Graduate School (MGS) | early April | Jan. | March | — |
| SETSS | April–May | Jan.–Feb. | varies; no dependable cutoff | — |
| PLISS | late May recently; sometimes Sept. | early Dec. for a May school | Jan. | support is part of the same app |
| SSFT | late May | Dec.–Feb. | March–April | support may be tied to the app |
| FLOLAC | June–Aug. | Jan. for special tracks; May for the course | very brief June–July windows | — |
| OPLSS | June–early July | Jan. | selective admission: March–April | housing and payment: May |
| Utrecht Advanced Functional Programming | early July when held | March | June | no 2026 edition so far |
| SAT/SMT/AR Summer School (conf.-attached) | June–Aug. | April | May, or central conf. reg. | — |
| ECOOP Academy (conf.-attached; multiday) | late June–early July in 2026 | early spring | conf. reg. | conf. early rate; May in 2026 |
| ICLP Doctoral Consortium and Summer School (conf.-attached; 1–2 days) | July–Sept. | early spring | DC submissions: April–May | conf. support varies |
| SPLV | late July–early Aug. | March | ordinary reg.: June–July | support and housing: April–May; early rate: ~June |
| Marktoberdorf | early–mid-Aug. | early April | selective app: early–mid-May | payment: ~June |
| VTSA | July–Sept. | April–May | selective app: May–July; accepted-applicant reg. later | housing blocks: June–July |
| International School on Rewriting (ISR) | July–Sept. recently | Nov., then April | early reg.: May–June | travel support may close in May |
| Proof Society School | Sept. recently | spring | reg.: July | grants: June–July |
| Proof and Computation | Sept. | May | selective app: late May–mid-June | — |
| ICTAC Postgraduate School (conf.-attached; 2 days in 2026) | early Nov. in 2026 | midyear | conf. reg. | — |
| ETMF (conf.-attached; recently 1 day) | early Dec. recently | Sept.–Oct. | conf. reg. | conf. early rate; Nov. in 2025 |
| FoPSS | Feb., July, or Oct. recently; mobile in Europe | Nov., then April | edition-specific | scholarships and early rates are edition-specific |
Related or special-topic schools
| School | Held | Start watching | Admission or reg. | Funding, housing, or payment |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Indian School on Logic and its Applications (ISLA) (general logic) | May–June | Feb. of even years | May | no consistent separate cutoff |
| NASSLLI (logic, language, and information) | June | Nov. for course proposals; Feb. for attendance | attendee reg.: April–May | grants: Feb.–March; early rate: ~April |
| ACACES (architecture and embedded compilation) | mid-July | late March | apps: May; final reg.: June | grants with the May app; payment in June |
| Security Testing & Verification (software security, testing, and verification) | July or early Sept. | May | selective cutoff not reliably published | early rate: July–Aug. |
| ESSLLI (logic, language, and information) | late July–mid-Aug. | Jan.–Feb. | final reg.: July | support: March–April; early rate: May–June |
| FOSAD (security analysis and design) | late Aug. | June | app: July | scholarships and discounted fees are tied to the app |
| DARE (distributed systems; programming models, verification, testing, and debugging) | late Aug.–Sept. | mid-April | apps: May–June | no separate support cutoff listed |
| International Tbilisi Summer School in Logic and Language (broader logic and language) | Sept. | May–June | varies | waivers and co-location routes vary |
| ANU Logic Summer School (general logic) | Dec. | Sept. | varies | check grants in Oct. |
Programs to check each year
Both recur, but their topics change; check the year’s program to see whether it belongs here.
| Program | Held | Start watching | Admission or reg. |
|---|---|---|---|
| Estonian Winter School in Computer Science (EWSCS) | early March | early Jan. | Feb. |
| ACM India Summer and Winter Schools | summer and winter programs | Jan.–March for summer; Aug.–Oct. for winter | edition-specific |
Emerging schools
| School | Held | Start watching | Admission or reg. | Funding, housing, or payment |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dutch Winter School on Logic and Verification | Jan. | Oct. | Dec.–Jan. | hotel block: ~Nov. |
| Lipari Summer School on Abstract Interpretation | late Aug.–early Sept. | March–April | early rate: June; final reg.: July | payment: July |
PLMW
The Programming Languages Mentoring Workshop has editions at POPL, PLDI, ICFP, and SPLASH. It is normally a one-day workshop for senior undergraduates and early graduate students, combining introductory PL research talks with advice about graduate school and research careers. Ordinary attendance comes through conference registration; funded participation is a separate app. In 2026 those support deadlines fell in November for POPL, April for PLDI, and June for ICFP.
FLOLAC
FLOLAC alternates emphasis: even years tend toward PL and type theory, while odd years tend toward automated verification and model checking. Its registration behaves partly like a National Taiwan University course rather than an ordinary international school, and the external-student window may last only 1–2 days. Set a January reminder for special tracks and a May reminder for the ordinary course timeline.
ICLP DC and Summer School
The ICLP DC and Summer School is a conference-attached, submission-based opportunity for doctoral students in logic programming. Recent meetings have lasted 1–2 days. Its April–May dates are DC submission deadlines, not ordinary school registration deadlines.
SPLV
SPLV rotates among Scottish universities. Scholarships, travel support, early registration, and subsidised housing may all close before ordinary registration. Apply in April for money or cheap housing; ordinary registration is a later process.
VTSA
The Verification Technology, Systems and Applications school is mobile, so “summer” is more reliable than a particular month. Its selective app, accepted-applicant registration, and housing blocks are separate processes. In particular, a later registration opening for accepted applicants is not the opening of selective apps.
International School on Rewriting
ISR moves among hosts and months. Its subject matter—term and graph rewriting, theorem proving, semantics, and protocol verification—is squarely within this calendar. Announcements can appear in November; early registration and associated travel-support deadlines tend to follow in May or June.
ICTAC Postgraduate School
The ICTAC Postgraduate School is a short conference satellite; the 2026 school ran in early Nov. It offered three intensive courses on formal methods for mission-critical software and was aimed at PhD students and young researchers. Attendance used conference registration; no independent app was listed.
FoPSS
FoPSS is one mobile, 1-week European school per edition. The official history shows hosts in Portugal, the UK, Poland, Italy, and Denmark, with a different theme each time. Recent editions fell in Feb., July, and Oct.; check the central ETAPS page and TYPES announcements in Nov. and again in April.
Dutch Winter School on Logic and Verification
The Dutch Winter School on Logic and Verification covered concurrency semantics, coalgebra, Agda and dependent types, session types, and concurrent separation logic. Its January 2026 program suggests watching from October, with hotel and early-registration deadlines arriving before the school’s final registration cutoff.
Remember that the money, cheap housing, and selective-admission deadlines are often weeks or months earlier than ordinary registration.