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Call for abstracts

The congress programme is built from an open call. Researchers and practitioners are equally welcome — we are as interested in what you did on a village ground as in what you measured in a laboratory.

To be confirmedThe call for abstracts is not open yet. The guidance below is the submission standard it will run to. Subscribe to updates to hear when it opens.

What we are looking for

Submissions should say something useful to someone trying to get more people active. That can be research, but it can equally be a programme that worked, a programme that failed instructively, a policy that shifted participation, or a method for doing more with less.

Reviewers weigh relevance to the congress theme, clarity, and whether a delegate from a different country could act on what you present. Novelty matters less than transferability.

Submission requirements

  • Abstracts must be submitted in English through the congress submission system.
  • Maximum 350 words for the body, excluding title, authors and affiliations.
  • Structure research abstracts as: background, methods, results, conclusions and practical implications.
  • Structure practice abstracts as: context, what was done, who was reached, what changed, and what others can take from it.
  • State your preferred format — oral presentation, workshop, poster or elevator pitch. The Programme Committee may propose an alternative.
  • Name a presenting author. The presenting author must be a registered delegate for the abstract to appear in the programme.
  • Up to two abstracts may be submitted as presenting author.
  • All abstracts are peer reviewed against relevance to the congress theme, clarity, and usefulness to practitioners.

Review and notification

Every abstract is peer reviewed by at least two members of the review panel against published criteria. Authors are notified of the outcome by email, along with the format and session allocated. The Programme Committee may accept an abstract in a different format from the one requested — a strong workshop proposal may be offered a poster slot, or a strong paper may be invited to pitch.

Accepted abstracts appear in the congress programme only once the presenting author has registered and paid.

Tracks

Submit to one of eight tracks

Choose the track that best fits your submission. Reviewers may move an abstract to a better-fitting track.

  • Access, equity and inclusion

    Reaching people excluded from sport by gender, disability, income, geography, age or migration status.

  • Sport for All policy and governance

    National policy frameworks, funding models, cross-ministerial work, and measuring what a system actually delivers.

  • Active schools and youth

    Physical literacy, quality physical education, school-to-community pathways and keeping adolescents active.

  • Health, ageing and non-communicable disease

    Physical activity as public health: prevention, prescription, older adults, and health-system partnerships.

  • Traditional sports and games

    Safeguarding and reviving indigenous games, and their place in contemporary participation programmes.

  • Community, volunteers and workforce

    Volunteer development, coach and leader education, and building delivery capacity without large budgets.

  • Sport, climate and the outdoors

    Delivering participation in heat and drought, water-scarce settings, and environmentally responsible events.

  • Digital tools and data

    Low-bandwidth digital delivery, participation data, monitoring, and evaluation in resource-constrained settings.

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