We're delighted to announce that the Society for Molecular Biology & Evolution is now accepting proposals for symposium topics for the 2021 Annual Meeting.  SMBE 2021 is taking place virtually 4-8 July (3-7 July in the Unites States). The deadline for symposia applications is 2 April 2021 (23:59 GMT).

Please visit HERE to access information and the submission portal.

Proposals will be reviewed by the committee with around 20-30 topics selected for inclusion within the scientific programme.

Format for SMBE 2021:  SMBE 2021 will run across three geographical hubs. We hope in this way to make the conference as accessible as possible across our global community. All presentations will be pre-recorded and discussion rooms will be available for all participants to interact live online with speakers. There will also be designated poster space and live interactive poster sessions.

Proposals should span the range of interests of SMBE members, including exciting new scientific developments, and should represent the geographic and gender diversity of our membership. 

Symposium Proposal Guidelines

Please review the following guidelines before submitting a Symposium Proposal:

• Individuals can only be listed as an organiser for one symposium proposal, although organisers can be listed as an invited speaker on another proposal.

• Each symposium will include one invited speaker plus a number of contributed speakers.

• All invited speakers included within a symposium should have verbally agreed to be involved before the proposal is submitted.

• An individual can only give one talk at the SMBE meeting, so in the event that a speaker is invited to two successful symposium applications the organisers should consider a back up.

• Symposium organisers should provide a description of the symposium (250 words max) that will be made public if selected.

• The symposium organisers will also provide a description of how their proposal brings forward SMBE’s objective of equity and diversity, as well as any additional information for the committee to make an informed review (250 words max).

• The symposia proposals selected for inclusion within the SMBE 2021 scientific programme will be listed on the abstract submission portal (opens on 23 April 2021). Abstract submitters will be asked to select the symposia in which your abstract most closely fits.

• Symposia organisers will be responsible for selecting contributed talks from the pool of abstracts submitted and will be required to work to the deadlines outlined by the conference organisers (dates given above). 

• Symposia organisers will be required to moderate their symposia and associated discussion sessions to ensure the conference is a safe and respectful environment for participants at all times. Moderator training will be made available to symposia organisers.