Relational Foundation Models

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Overview

Relational foundation models aim to transfer learning across databases, where prediction depends on both table contents and relationships between tables. Common approaches include relational transformers pretrained on synthetic or real databases, in-context learning from labeled examples, and schema-aware row encoders combined with graph neural networks or fine-tuning. Benchmarks such as RelBench test prediction and transfer across databases, including how many examples models need and how well they handle large or sparse contexts. A central tension is whether pretraining truly teaches models to use cross-table structure: task scarcity, support-set leakage, and context limits can undermine transfer and make evaluation unreliable.

Latest papers

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17 papers7 papers in the last four weeks, against 1 the four weeks before. 0.0% of all new papers.

  1. Speedrunning Relational Foundation Model Pretraining

    Oct 20, 2026Gabriel Wedson Mendonça de Souza Veloso, Luan Borges Teodoro Reis Sena, Denis Oliveira Correa +1Relational Foundation ModelsRelational Deep Learning

    Kunumi Institute, Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil · Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil

  2. Path to Prior-Data Fitted Relational Models via Learned Latent Multi-table Representations

    Oct 16, 2026Mohammad Sadeq Abolhasani, Viswanath GanapathyRelational Foundation ModelsSynthetic Data Pretraining

    SAP Labs

  3. RT-J: Large-Scale Pretraining of Relational Transformers for Context-Efficient Predictions

    Oct 13, 2026Rishabh Ranjan, Vignesh Kothapalli, Harshvardhan Agarwal +5Relational ICLRelational Foundation Models

    Stanford University · SAP

  4. When Does Synthetic Relational Data Teach Models to Use Relations? Tracing Predictive Structure from Pretraining Data to Model Behavior

    Oct 2, 2026Shivam Dubey, Mohamed Bouadi, Nassim Bouarour +3Relational Foundation ModelsRelational Reasoning

    Lexsi Labs

  5. STEER: Reducing Inference Cost in Relational Foundation Models through Semantically Informed Sampling

    Oct 1, 2026Abdalla Mohamed, Ashraf AboulnagaRelational Foundation ModelsEfficient Inference

    University of Texas at Arlington

  6. Support-Set Target Leakage in Relational Foundation Models during In-Context Learning: Model Dependence and Evaluation Reliability

    Sep 29, 2026Roshan Reddy Upendra, Alexandre Dorais, Joe Meyer +6Relational Foundation ModelsData Leakage

    SAP Palo Alto, CA, USA · SAP Montreal, Canada · SAP Seattle, WA, USA

  7. Support-Set Target Leakage in Relational Foundation Models during In-Context Learning: Impact, Detection, and Mitigation

    Sep 28, 2026Roshan Reddy Upendra, Alexandre Dorais, Joe Meyer +5Relational Foundation ModelsData Leakage

    SAP

  8. Context Window Failures in Relational Foundation Models

    Aug 31, 2026Denis Oliveira Correa, Francisco Galuppo AzevedoRelational Foundation ModelsGraph Foundation Models

    Kunumi Institute, Brazil · Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil.

  9. PluRel-to-RDB-PFN: Schema-Guided Synthetic Relational Pretraining

    Jul 31, 2026Mohammad Sadeq Abolhasani, Viswanath GanapathyRelational Foundation ModelsSynthetic Data Pretraining

    SAP Labs, LLC., Palo Alto 94304, United States.

  10. Parameter-Free Encoders Remain Viable for RDB Foundation Models

    Jul 6, 2026Linjie Xu, David WipfRelational Foundation ModelsTabular Foundation Models

    University of Hong Kong, Shanghai X-Lab.

  11. Universal Encoders for Modular Relational Deep Learning

    Jun 19, 2026Jakub Peleška, Gustav ŠírRelational Foundation ModelsTabular Foundation Models

    Czech Technical University in Prague, Karlovo náměstí 13, Prague, 121 35, Czechia

  12. OpenRFM: Dissecting Relational In-Context Learning

    Jun 3, 2026Zhikai Chen, Junyu Yin, Jialiang Gu +5Relational Foundation ModelsSynthetic Data Pretraining

    Michigan State University · George Mason University · Georgia Institute of Technology +1

  13. Towards Foundation Models for Relational Databases with Language Models and Graph Neural Networks

    May 15, 2026Jingcheng Wu, Ratan Bahadur Thapa, Mojtaba Nayyeri +4Relational Foundation ModelsTabular Foundation Models

    University of Stuttgart, Stuttgart, Germany · Web and Internet Science Research Group, University of Southampton, Southampton, United Kingdom

  14. KumoRFM-2: Scaling Foundation Models for Relational Learning

    Apr 14, 2026Valter Hudovernik, Federico López, Vid Kocijan +4Relational ICLRelational Foundation Models

  15. Task Scarcity and Label Leakage in Relational Transfer Learning

    Mar 31, 2026Francisco Galuppo Azevedo, Clarissa Lima Loures, Denis Oliveira CorreaTransfer LearningRelational Foundation Models

    Kunumi Institute, Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil · Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil

  16. Relational In-Context Learning via Synthetic Pre-training with Structural Prior

    Mar 4, 2026Yanbo Wang, Jiaxuan You, Chuan Shi +1Relational ICLRelational Foundation Models

    Institute for Artificial Intelligence, Peking University · University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign · Institute of Computing Technology, Beijing University of Post and Telecommunication +1

  17. PluRel: Synthetic Data unlocks Scaling Laws for Relational Foundation Models

    Feb 3, 2026Vignesh Kothapalli, Rishabh Ranjan, Valter Hudovernik +4Relational Foundation ModelsSynthetic Data Pretraining

    1Stanford University · 2Kumo AI · 3SAP Labs LLC