Conferences

Thank you for your interest in submitting a conference concept. Keystone Symposia is a not-for-profit organization managed and directed by the scientific community. Keystone Symposia develops and administers international symposia of the highest quality on topics of interest to researchers in biology, medical science and agriculture with the goal of facilitating interdisciplinary information exchange for the benefit of society.

The Keystone Symposia conference portfolio is developed by our Scientific Advisory Board (SAB), which is composed of 100+ scientists with wide expertise in molecular and cellular biology. The SAB meets in person twice a year in January and June to identify and review conference topics two years in advance (e.g., our topics for the 2027 season will be identified during the January 2025 meeting).

At the January meeting, the SAB reviews concepts and identifies new topics and potential organizers to develop the future conference portfolio. The Keystone Symposia staff then contact the proposed organizers and ask them to submit a conference proposal based on SAB recommendations by mid-May.

At the June meeting, the SAB peer-reviews all of the proposals to evaluate scientific merit, balanced representation, and other factors, and recommend revisions to the organizers. The SAB also uses the June meeting to evaluate the overall programmatic balance of the portfolio and has the option of "fast-tracking" additional topics into the portfolio to fill any gaps. The final portfolio consists of approximately 50-55 meetings.

We are always delighted to receive new ideas for conferences to be included in our portfolio.

Keystone Symposia welcomes conference concepts for consideration by our SAB. The submission should include information for the primary contact person, a list of the suggested organizers, a tentative conference title, and five short statements that indicate why the meeting is important, why it is timely, important concepts to be included, placement recommendation (e.g. North American versus global placement), and industry perspectives (if relevant). Please see the following link for an example of a conference concept (Conference concept example).

Concepts can be submitted at any time of the year through the below submission form. However, the optimal time to submit a concept is before September (i.e. prior to online review by our SAB in September/October). If the topic is selected by the SAB at their January meeting, the Chief Scientific Officer (CSO) will contact you in February or March and invite you to submit a detailed conference proposal for review by the SAB in June.

For questions regarding the scientific content of your program, please contact:

Terry Sheppard, Ph.D.
Chief Scientific Officer
E-mail: terrys@keystonesymposia.org

For administrative questions, please contact:

Jenny Hindorff
Program Development
E-mail: jennyh@keystonesymposia.org