GGI 2026: Algebraic groups, geometry, invariants and related topics

Between 29th June and 24th July 2026, GGI will host around 40 researchers at the University of Essex. to promote long-term interaction and formation of new collaboration networks between researchers across algebra and geometry. While the official web of the programme is at the Newton Institute, we keep this website for day-to-day administration and information to participants.

Locations

  • Offices: a number of offices have been reserved in 4SW (floor 6). You should receive your office details by e-mail.
  • Discussion rooms: 4SW.6.18 and 4SW.6.28.
  • Seminar room: EBS 2.65. 11am on non-workshop days.
  • Morning tea: from 10.30 in EBS 2.65 on non-workshop days
  • Afternoon tea: from 3PM in 4SW.6.18.

Week-by-Week programme

Please, check the individual weeks to find out about the seminars scheduled and the social activities programmed.

Food and campus outlets

Most participants are hosted in The Copse, in en-suite bedrooms in shared flats with access to a kitchen. Please, let Jesus or Alastair know if something is not right with your accommodation. In addition to that, there are several options for food.

Local campus options: there are several campus options for food. The info for the university-run ones can be found here and it will be updated closer to the start of the programme. In addition to those, we have The Greenhouse, a beautiful café run by Essex’s Student Union and the SU Bar, which has some affordable prices for drinks, serves pizza and runs some events in the evenings. You can also find food at the Mission Cafe in the nearby Innovation Centre. If you want a more high-end option, the Park Brasserie at Wivenhoe House Hotel.

Supermarkets: Apart from the basic Student Union The Store on campus, a large Tesco is on walking distance from campus (10 minutes).

Wivenhoe: walking by the riverside path (45 minutes) one can reach this picturesque village, which has three local pubs (the Greyhound, the Black Buoy and Rose and Crown). Alternatively, one can reach them by bus (51, 74, 85) from Boundary Road on campus (15 minutes). Wivenhoe’s riverside is nice on a sunny day.

Colchester city centre: there are a lot of options downtown, with several cafes in the pedestrian area in the centre of Colchester, around Sir Isaac’s Walk, Lion Walk, or on and off the High Street. These include Mirra (middle-eastern), The George (British food), Roxi (Mediterranean), Slug & Lettuce (lively bar also serving food), Moto Pizza (bottomless pizza, booking online advised) or chains like Wagamama. There’s also a couple of options in Queen Street, including Kimchi House (Korean), Miseria e Nobilta’ (Italian, phone-booking advised), Chez Afrique (African) and a number of take-aways.

Organisers (please contact Essex-based organisers for organisational matters)

About the programme

 This Satellite Programme will bring together researchers representing three main themes:

  • Group-aided study of moduli problems – When a moduli space is known to exist for a particular class of objects, it may nevertheless be difficult to extract precise information about the objects represented in the space, such as their global structure or singularities. A motivating example in this theme is the K-moduli of smooth Fano varieties, whose description is unknown even in dimension 3.
  • Structure, actions and invariants of reductive groups and their generalisations – Ever since the famous Classification of Finite Simple Groups, actions of these groups and closely-related reductive groups have been of central importance. Recent advances within this theme include extensions of reductive-group results to pseudoreductive groups and other related classes; and generalisations of results from geometric invariant theory to the non-reductive setting which are yet to be fully exploited.
  • Algorithms for groups, geometry and invariant theory – Many problems in the theory of group actions turn out to be hard or undecidable, and yet effective algorithms can often be devised to attack important cases. Topics falling under this theme include: enumeration problems in permutation groups; subgroup classification problems in finite groups; invariant calculations for finite and reductive group actions; and computational methods in geometric invariant theory.