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BPS Annual Meeting - Call for Symposium and Workshop proposals  

The British Pharmacological Society's Meetings Committee is seeking symposium proposals for Pharmacology 2026, which will be held from Tuesday 8th to Thursday 10th December 2026 at the Manchester Central Convention Complex.   

The deadline for proposals is Wednesday 4 February 2026, 3pm.   

 Although all proposals will be given full consideration, this year we would particularly welcome proposals in the following areas,:    

• DNA & RNA aptamers/ oligonucleotide therapies

• Photopharmacology/ Medical Chemistry

• Pharmacogenomics 

• Nanomedicine

• Disease in Focus 

• CAR-T and TCR-T cells

• Regenerative therapies 

We also encourage submission of proposals that build on this year’s Prize Lectures, which will be announced in December 2025.  

All proposals will be considered by the BPS Meetings Committee, who will pay particular attention to the following:  

• Content that would have broad appeal across the BPS membership, attract non-members to attend, and encourage exhibitors to the conference.  

• Inclusion of talks that present a broad overview across the drug discovery pathway (i.e. pre-clinical, clinical and industrial perspectives)  

• Inclusion of both high-profile prominent speakers and outstanding early career researchers  

• Submission of sponsors who have agreed to support speaker costs.  

Please read through the following guidelines before beginning the submission process.  If you have any queries, contact meetings@bps.ac.uk.  

Format for symposia   

Each symposium session is 105 minutes in total, with up to 4 speakers. An example of how you may wish to structure your session is below, however, you may allocate more time to a specific speaker and less to others, if this fits better with your session.  

Format for Workshops

 Workshops may be less structured than symposia, should be no more than 105 minutes in duration and should have no more than five contributors, to include Instructors, Leaders and/or Facilitators. All contributors are expected to fully participate in the workshop..    

  
Selecting speakers/ Participants   
While we seek to secure high profile speakers within each symposium, the British Pharmacological Society (BPS) is mindful of its responsibilities to promote equality of opportunity and asks submitters to adopt a broad understanding of diversity, examples of which may include demographic differences, and professional background.  As part of the application process, we will ask you to outline how you have considered Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) in creating your proposal.   

The Society aspires to achieve a 60:40 gender balance in symposia and workshop submissions (no more than 60% of either gender) which we ask applicants to consider in preparing their programme.  We also ask that you include at least one early career researcher (ECR) in your session.  If you are unable to select an ECR, please highlight this in your submission and the Society’s meetings committee can try to source a speaker for you if your session is selected.   

While it is not recommended that you formally invite speakers for your session until after it has been selected, we do recommend that you informally check their availability.  If you are uncertain, you can suggest a speaker and also a back-up in the form.   

Expenses  

As a charity, the Society has expense policies in place for participants in our events.  Speakers and chairs for accepted sessions will be given registration for the day of your session. Session organisers will be encouraged to seek sponsorship for the symposium, if accepted (see below). Where efforts have been made to secure sponsorship but have been unsuccessful, speakers may apply to a limited British Pharmacological speaker bursary fund.   

Any exceptions to the above should be discussed in advance of submitting your proposal by contacting meetings@bps.ac.uk.  

Sponsorship of sessions  

The amount to which the Society can financially support a symposium or workshop is limited, and therefore the Society strongly encourages applicants to pro-actively seek sponsorship to offset the costs of hosting the annual meeting.  The Meetings Team have a sponsorship package available to sponsors of symposia/workshops and can discuss with you if you are intending on approaching potential sponsors. The team may also be able to assist you in identifying potential sponsors that you could approach.  Please contact, meetings@bps.ac.uk for additional information.  

Where an applicant has secured sponsorship or additional support, this may be used to cover the travel and accommodation expenses for speakers or chairs.  

Submission process  

To submit a session, you will need to complete an online form.  Please see the form requirements below before you begin your submission. 

 We are not able to accept submissions as word documents or via e-mail.   

 When you click the link below, you will be asked for the following:   

• Your details as the submitter  

• Session details including title and a short description for marketing the session.  

• Key words relating to the session and if your session relates to any of the “Hot Topics” or the Society’s affinity groups
  -  Cardiovascular & Respiratory Pharmacology   
  - Drug Discovery, Development & Evaluation   
  - Education and Skills   
  - Integrated Systems Pharmacology   
  - Molecular & Cellular Pharmacology   
  - Neuropharmacology   
  - Toxicology   

• The full name, email, organisation and talk title for each speaker/ participant.   

• Details of why this session is important, any identified sponsors and publication opportunities.   

• Statement of how you have considered Equality, Diversity and Inclusion in your application and met the Society’s aim of creating a diverse faculty.  If you are having difficulties in meeting these aims you may request for assistance with this   

 All the above are required to complete the form. Therefore, please ensure you are familiar with all the details before beginning the process.  

 What happens after you submit?  

After submission, your application will be assessed by a panel of reviewers, who will review all the submissions taking into account the key criteria set out above.  Following the review process, the Meetings Committee will discuss the outcomes of the review and make recommendations for the meeting programme with the aim of covering all essential areas of pharmacology and showcasing high-profile, ground-breaking work.  

Symposia/ workshop organisers will be informed in March if their session has been successful and on what day it has been allocated a slot.  If successful, you will be given a week to accept the slot that has been allocated to you.  Please note that as the programme is organised by themes or with specific audiences in mind each day, swaps are not possible. We recommend asking your speakers to keep all three days pencilled in their diaries if possible.    

Following acceptance of the time allocated to you, the meetings team will be in touch to help you further in making any edits to your session, to help formally invite your speakers/ contributors and to work closely with you in the months leading up to the conference.  It is expected that symposia organisers will take a pro-active approach in raising awareness of the symposium, and the conference as a whole, across their individual networks (particularly non-BPS members) to encourage attendance.  

Click here to submit your session   

Finally, thank you in advance for submitting your work to the event.  It is through the submissions of members and affiliates of the Society that we are able to make the annual conference a success.  If you need any support in your submission, please contact meetings@bps.ac.uk.