Transfer Learning

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Overview

Transfer learning asks how a model trained on one task or domain can help with another, reducing the need for target-specific data and computation. Common approaches include pretraining followed by fine-tuning or parameter-efficient adapters, feature alignment for domain shifts, and knowledge transfer through distillation, model merging, or shared representations. Evaluations span zero-shot and few-shot transfer, cross-domain benchmarks in vision and language, and adaptation in settings such as clinical data, robotics, and scientific modeling. A central tension is that transferred knowledge can improve accuracy and sample efficiency or cause negative transfer; predicting when it will help, and separating reusable knowledge from dataset or architecture effects, remains difficult.

Latest papers

CardsList

422 papers62 papers in the last four weeks, up 29% on the four weeks before. 0.4% of all new papers.

  1. Repurposing a Speech Classifier for Guided Diffusion-Based Speech Generation

    Jun 18, 2026Rostislav Makarov, Timo GerkmannDiffusion Model GuidanceAudio Diffusion Models

    University of Hamburg, Germany

  2. Exploring Pre-training Benefits on Phoneme Addition through Fine-tuning in Speech Synthesis

    Jun 18, 2026Masato Murata, Koichi Miyazaki, Tomoki Koriyama +1TTS SynthesisLow-Resource TTS Synthesis

    CyberAgent, Japan · Nagoya University, Japan

  3. Bridging Data Gaps in Structural Fragility Modeling through Transfer Learning: Methodology and Case Studies

    Jun 17, 2026Narges Saeednejad, Jamie Ellen PadgettDomain AdaptationTransfer Learning

    Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Rice University, Houston, TX, USA · Ken Kennedy Institute, Rice University, Houston, TX, USA

  4. Transfer Learning Across Policy Regimes in Adaptive Multi-Agent Systems

    Jun 15, 2026Roberto GarroneCross-Domain Transfer LearningTransfer Learning

    Open University of Cyprus

  5. Towards Data-Efficient Cross-Device Generalization of Grad-Shafranov Equilibria via Transfer Learning Neural Operator

    Jun 13, 2026Jay Phil Yoo, William Howes, Yashika Ghai +3Transfer LearningPDE Operator Learning

    Grainger College of Engineering, Nuclear, Plasma & Radiological Engineering Department, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, USA · Fusion Energy Division, Oak Ridge National Lab, Oak Ridge, TN, USA · National Center for Supercomputing Applications, Urbana, IL, USA +2

  6. Transfer Learning for FHIR Questionnaire Terminology Binding

    Jun 13, 2026Maxim GorshkovTransfer LearningBiomedical IR

    Department of Computer Science · Stanford University

  7. Beyond Backbone Backpropagation: A Decoupled Strategy for Efficient Transfer Learning

    Jun 13, 2026Daniel Vila-Cruz, Laura Morán-Fernández, Verónica Bolón-CanedoEnergy-Efficient MLTransfer Learning

    CITIC, Universidade da Coruña, A Coruña, Spain

  8. GRASP: Gradient-Aligned Sequential Parameter Transfer for Memory-Efficient Multi-Source Learning

    Jun 12, 2026Mary Isabelle Wisell, Nicholas Jacobs, Aayush Manandhar +1Domain-Incremental LearningCross-Domain Transfer Learning

    San Diego State University, San Diego, CA, USA · University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA · University of Maine, Orono, ME, USA

  9. How do Self-Supervised Remote Sensing Vision Models Transfer to Downstream Tasks?

    Jun 11, 2026Julia Romero, Qin Lv, Morteza KarimzadehGeospatial Foundation ModelsVision Foundation Model Adaptation

    University of Colorado Boulder · Boulder, CO, USA

  10. Two-Stage Fine-Tuning of ResNet50 for High-Sensitivity Melanoma Detection on Dermoscopic Images

    Jun 11, 2026Aryan BhagatSkin Lesion ClassificationMedical Image Classification

    MS Computer Science, Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, FL

  11. Loss-Shift Transfer via Bayes Quotients

    Jun 11, 2026Vasileios SevetlidisRepresentation LearningTransfer Learning

    Athena Research Center, Kimmeria Campus, Xanthi, Greece · Democritus University of Thrace, Vas. Sofias Campus, Xanthi, Greece · International Hellenic University, Serres, Greece

  12. Battery detection of XRay images using transfer learning

    Jun 10, 2026Nermeen Abou Baker, David Rohrschneider, Uwe HandmannTransfer LearningObject Detection

    1- Ruhr West University of Applied Sciences - Dept of Computer Science Lutzowstrassse 5, 46236 Bottrop - Germany

  13. UniReason-Med: A Shared Grounded Reasoning Interface for 2D-to-3D Transfer in Medical VQA

    Jun 10, 2026Mengzhuo Chen, Yan Shu, Chi Liu +4Medical VQAVLM Reasoning

    IQuest Research

  14. Enhancing Spectral Embedding through Robust and Flexible Knowledge Transfer in Electronic Health Records

    Jun 10, 2026Feiqing Huang, Zongqi Xia, Rong Ma +1Unsupervised Representation LearningTransfer Learning

    Department of Biostatistics, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health · Department of Neurology, University of Pittsburgh · Department of Data Science, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute +1

  15. An Agency-Transferring Model-Free Policy Enhancement Technique

    Jun 8, 2026Anton Bolychev, Georgiy Malaniya, Sinan Ibrahim +1RL ControlTransfer Learning

    Center for Engineering Systems and Sciences · Central University; Center for Engineering Systems and Sciences; Sirius University of Science and Technology

  16. Muon Learns More Robust and Transferable Features than Adam

    Jun 8, 2026Tianyu Ruan, Fengzhuo Zhang, Shuche Wang +1Representation LearningNeural Network Robustness

    Yale University · University of Chinese Academy of Sciences · Academy of Mathematics and Systems Science, CAS +1

  17. Beyond Humans: Multispecies Animal Face Recognition Using Transfer Learning

    Jun 8, 2026Maria De Marsico, Anil K. Jain, Annalaura MiglinoBiometric IdentificationTransfer Learning

    Department of Computer Science, Sapienza University of Rome, Via Salaria, 113, Rome, 00185, State, Italy. · Department of Computer Science & Engineering, Michigan State University, Michigan State University Engineering Building 428 S. Shaw Lane, East Lansing, MI 48824, Michigan, US. · Department of Computer Science, University of Salerno, Via Giovanni Paolo II, 132, Fisciano (SA), 84084, State, Italy.

  18. Hierarchical Projection for Adaptive Knowledge Transfer

    Jun 7, 2026Samhita Pal, Tian GuHierarchical Bayesian ModelingCross-Domain Transfer Learning

    Vanderbilt University Medical Center · Columbia University

  19. The Cross-Architecture Substrate: A Domain-Transcendent, Calibration-Surviving Geometric Invariant of Modern Vision Encoders

    Jun 5, 2026Yousef RadwanTask Transferability EstimationCross-Domain Transfer Learning

    KAUST

  20. ForensicConcept: Transferable Forensic Concepts for AIGI Detection

    Jun 5, 2026Menyanshu Zhou, Ziyin Zhou, Ke Sun +4Explainable Deepfake DetectionConcept-Based Explanations

    Key Laboratory of Multimedia Trusted Perception and Efficient Computing, Ministry of Education of China, School of Informatics, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361005, P.R.China · Sino-Russian Research Center for Digital Economy

  21. Transfer learning for causal forest

    Jun 5, 2026Bérénice-Alexia Jocteur, Véronique Maume-Deschamps, Pierre RibereauCausal Effect EstimationConditional Average Treatment Effect Estimation

    ICJ, PSPM · Universit´e Lyon 1, Centrale Lyon, INSA Lyon · Universit´e Jean Monnet, CNRS, ICJ UMR5208, 69622 Villeurbanne, France. +1

  22. Architecture Shapes Transfer Specificity in Implicit Neural Representations

    Jun 5, 2026D Yang EngNeural PDE SolversImplicit Neural Representations

  23. Harnessing Source Heterogeneity for Cluster-Structured Transfer Learning

    Jun 3, 2026Xiaohui Yin, Jun Jin, Shane J. Sacco +2Cross-Domain Transfer LearningTransfer Learning

    Department of Statistics, University of Connecticut · Department of Public Health Sciences, Henry Ford Health · Center for Population Health, University of Connecticut Health Center

  24. Are Common Substructures Transferable? Riemannian Graph Foundation Model with Neural Vector Bundles

    Jun 2, 2026Li Sun, Zhenhao Huang, Yiding Wang +3GNN ExpressivityGeometric Representation Learning

    Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, Beijing, China · North China Electric Power University, Beijing, China · University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK +1

  25. Too Much of a Good Thing: When sim2real Efforts Impede Policy Learning (And What to Do About It)

    May 30, 2026Kyle Morgenstein, Bharath Masetty, Stephen Welch +1Robot Policy LearningRobotics Simulation

    Apptronik · University of Texas at Austin

  26. Task diversity produces systematic transfer but inhibits continual reinforcement learning

    May 30, 2026Purab Seth, Neil Shah, Ishaan Sinha +4Transfer LearningReinforcement Learning

    Harvard College · University of Washington · Kempner Institute for the Study of Natural and Artificial Intelligence, Harvard University +1

  27. Learning Transfers: Kan Extensions of Topological Invariants of Learned Representations

    May 30, 2026Luciano MelodiaNeural Representation GeometryTask Transferability Estimation

    Chair for Theoretical Computer Science Friedrich-Alexander Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg Martensstraße 3, 91058 Erlangen, Germany

  28. Graph Transfer Learning via Shared Latent Geometry: Theory and Applications

    May 30, 2026Tong Wu, Andrew Campbell, Anna ScaglioneZero-Shot LearningGraph Transfer Learning

    University of Central Florida, USA · Cornell University, USA

  29. Semi-Supervised Noise Adaptation: Transferring Knowledge from Noise Domain

    May 30, 2026Yuan Yao, Jin Song, Huixia Li +3Domain AdaptationTransfer Learning

    Teleinfo, CAICT · Guangdong Laboratory of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Economy (SZ) · Nanjing University of Posts and Telecommunications +4

  30. Hedging on the Frontier: Learning New Tasks with Few Samples

    May 29, 2026Tobias Wegel, Federico Di Gennaro, Geelon So +1Few-Shot LearningTransfer Learning

    Department of Computer Science, ETH Zurich · Department of Computer Science and Engineering, UC San Diego