From the Standard Model of particle physics to concordance cosmology, many of the most compelling ideas about how the universe works now point toward a rich and elusive dark sector. The 21st Patras Workshop on Axions, WIMPs and WISPs, hosted by The University of Western Australia at its Crawley campus on the banks of the Swan River in Perth, will be held from 9–13 November 2026, and will gather leading experts and emerging researchers to probe this frontier. Continuing a distinguished series that began at CERN in 2005, the workshop will focus on innovative theoretical developments, laboratory and astrophysical searches for dark matter and dark energy, and state-of-the-art efforts to uncover new weakly interacting particles and constrain their properties. This edition will highlight the growing Australian and Asia–Pacific contributions to dark sector physics, drawing on UWA’s strong ecosystem in precision measurement, quantum technologies and astroparticle physics.

The workshop will delve into the physics of axions, WIMPs and WISPs in all their facets: direct and indirect detection strategies, novel detector concepts and readout schemes, astrophysical and cosmological probes, and the latest theoretical frameworks that knit these approaches together. By bringing together diverse communities, from quantum sensing and precision metrology to gravitational waves, cosmology and particle theory, the Patras Workshop in Perth aims to spark new ideas, forge fresh collaborations and accelerate progress toward unveiling the dark sector.

Local organizing comittee:

Michael E Tobar(Chair, The University of Western Australia, Perth, Australia)
Ben McAllister (Co-Chair & Ombudsperson, Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne, Australia)
Ciaran O'Hare (Co-Chair, The University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia)
Yevgeny Stadnik (Co-Chair, The University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia)

Linda Barbour (Conference Secretariat, The University of Western Australia, Perth, Australia)

Jackie Bondell (Outreach events, University of Melbourne, Australia)

Virginia Escudero (Non-academic events)

International organizing committee:

Michael E Tobar(Chair, The University of Western Australia, Perth, Australia)
Athanasios Argiriou (University of Patras)
Laura Baudis (University of Zurich),
Dmitry Budker (Helmholtz Institute and Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz),
Giovanni Cantatore (University and INFN Trieste), 
Javier de Miguel (Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias and University of La Laguna), 
Horst Fischer (University of Freiburg), 
Joerg Jaeckel (University of Heidelberg), 
Marin Karuza (University of Rijeka and INFN Trieste), 
Axel Lindner (DESY), 
Ben McAllister (Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne, Australia)
Ciaran O'Hare (The University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia)
Silvia Scorza (Laboratoire de Physique Subatomique et de Cosmologie, Grenoble)
Marc Schumann (University of Freiburg), 
Yevgeny Stadnik (The University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia)
Arne Wickenbrock (Helmholtz Institute and Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz), 
Konstantin Zioutas (University of Patras)