Founded in 2007 by research groups at Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Université de Namur, and Tilburg University—later expanded to include INRIA and the Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research—CPDP has grown into a globally significant platform. The non-profit now draws support from 20 academic centres of excellence spanning the EU, the US, and beyond. Operating from Brussels, CPDP has established itself as a leading multidisciplinary conference that brings together researchers, policymakers, civil society organisations, industry representatives, and legal experts to examine emerging questions in privacy and data protection.
CPDP 2027
The governance structures shaping the digital world remain fragmented and confront mounting obstacles. The pace at which technologies reshape daily life outstrips both the capacity and, in many cases, the political will to establish regulatory frameworks that safeguard privacy and fundamental rights.
The 2027 conference will centre on the theme "What We Owe the Future," prompting participants to examine this tension and consider what obligations the present generation bears toward those who will inhabit the world being shaped today. The programme will ask which foundational principles must remain constant, which protections cannot be compromised even under pressure to weaken them, and what responsibilities fall to those stewarding current decisions.
The year 2027 coincides with CPDP's twentieth anniversary. Over two decades, the annual conferences have positioned themselves at the centre of efforts to understand and strengthen governance approaches in a rapidly evolving digital landscape. Through its community of academics, regulators, policymakers, civil society actors, industry participants, and legal professionals, CPDP has illuminated critical issues, examined practices and rules, and created space for dialogue and knowledge-sharing across borders. The milestone being marked is not the conference as an event, but rather twenty years of sustaining a global community through a period of profound transformation.
Recognising that those whose lives will extend far into the coming decades should participate in designing that future, CPDP 2027 will introduce CPDP 20: The Next Generation. This initiative brings together early-career researchers from multiple disciplines to co-shape the conference agenda and surface its most urgent questions. The team will map connections across research fields and examine emerging issues, applying fresh knowledge and perspectives to developments whose consequences will demand responses from policymakers, governance bodies, and other actors.
