Symposium Proposal Submission & Guidelines

We are organizing a global scientific program for the upcoming 16th International Congress of Parasitology (ICOPA 2026) to be held in Montreal, Canada, from 16-21 August 2026, and welcome proposals for Parallel Symposium sessions. Our goal is to create a dynamic and stimulating program of broad topics related to parasitology research.

Instructions

• All symposium proposals must be submitted through the congress website. Proposals submitted by email will not be considered.
• Proposals must be received by the announced deadline. Proposals received after the deadline will not be considered.
• Accepted symposia are part of the scientific program and may not contain commercial promotional content. If you would like to organize a symposium that does not fulfil these requirements, do not submit your proposal here. Instead, please enquire if your proposed symposium can be accommodated as “Satellite event” in one of the lunch or coffee breaks. For more information, click here.

Guidelines for Submission

• All proposals must be submitted in English by the deadline through the online portal via the button above (the button will be available when the submission opens).
• Each submitter can submit 1 session proposal.
• Symposium format: The standard format is 4 speakers, 30-min presentations each, plus separate or combined Q&A session(s).
• Title of Symposium: Up to 25 words.
• Brief Symposium Description: Up to 250 words. Please clearly state the purpose of the symposium and make sure to include a brief description of state-of-the-art, if relevant, lacks/deficiencies in the field, and why this symposium is timely and relevant. If your proposal is accepted, the brief symposium description will show up in the online program for reference to the congress attendees. 
• Comment Section: If you have any other comments or ideas that you wish to share with us regarding your proposal, please use the comment field below the session description box.
• Proposal submitter (full name, title, and affiliation). Before submitting the proposal, the proposer should ensure that all proposed chairs and speakers have agreed to present as suggested, should the symposium be accepted.
• Chair/s (full name, title, and affiliation).
• Speakers (full name, title, and affiliation of presenters, and tentative title of presentations). The proposer and chair(s) of the symposium can be also its speakers.
• The time allocated to each symposium is 120 min. 
• Symposium topic: Select the symposium topic per the list of topics.
• Please try to consider age and gender balance and geographic variety of speakers/chairs in your proposal (with a maximum of two speakers/chairs from the same nationality).
• Please note that once you click on the “Submit” button, you will no longer be able to edit your proposal. If you would like to correct something in your already submitted proposal, please contact the Congress Organizers.
• All proposals submitted via the online portal will be reviewed by the Local Organizing and Scientific Program Committees and the final program will be approved by the ICOPA Chairs.
• Proposal submitters will be contacted by the ICOPA 2026 Organizers at the Notification time to receive information on the status of their proposal. Please note that in some cases, the Local Organizing Committee may combine different proposals into one session or may select other speakers for the proposed presentation topics. In case of a higher number of submissions, we may not be able to accept all proposals. We thank you in advance for your understanding.

Thank you for your contribution to the ICOPA 2026 Congress! May you have any questions, please contact the Congress Organizers at icopa@kenes.com.