As part of the Society's committment to being as transparent as practicable, this blog series is used to post regular summaries of the various Trustee, Council and Committee meetings highlighting the key discussions and decisions.
From: Dr Bernard Corfe, Honorary Programmes Officer:
The Society’s Science Committee met recently to continue both its short and long-term planning for the Society’s scientific conference programme. This paper details those plans, and explains how we are meeting the need for a more flexible approach to conference planning, whilst remaining as proactive as practicable - and how the Society continues to learn and gain in new experiences.
The underlying principle in planning is to ensure the Society continues to provide the highest quality platforms for the dissemination of nutritional science and that conferences remain accessible to as many delegates as possible. The Science Committee is determined to deliver, for all delegates and at all conferences, an enriching experience. This includes not only access to the symposia, but also opportunities to present emerging research, network with other delegates, and holding peer-to-peer discussions. A learned society exists first and foremost to bring people together within a discipline - despite the challenges of achieving this resulting from COVID-19, the Society remains firmly committed to meeting this key objective.
Set out below you will find the very latest information on the 2020 and 2021 conference programme. We have had to move some meetings to an online only format, but will continue to build on our outstanding success with Nutrition Society Live and Nutrition Futures to ensure an engaging and fulfilling experience. Where conferences are planned to occur face-to-face, we will ensure that the meetings remain digitally accessible (hybrid meetings) for speakers and delegates who are unable to travel. Hybrid meetings allow for people to attend a physical conference, whilst also ensuring the ‘live streaming’ of as many of the plenary sessions, symposia and posters as possible. We recognise that live streaming also has the potential to offer a global audience access to our meetings, and could even become de facto for all future Society conferences - much work though needs to be undertaken to ensure the highest possible quality can be achieved in the delivery of such a new model.
At the moment potential venues are being reviewed for all our planned 2021 meetings, identifying locations which can support our ‘hybrid’ meeting plans.
Mindful of the dynamic challenges of the pandemic, all meetings have a contingency plan for switching to online-only. We commit to supporting members by making clear well in advance the “live vs. online” decision, registration and abstract submission dates. Please bear in mind that any form or size of conference planning at the moment remains subject to short notice changes, the majority of which are outside the control of the Society. Notwithstanding these difficulties, the Science Committee, supported by the Society’s staff, continue to maintain a proactive, vigilant handle on the programme as a whole and to deliver engaging, lively, state of the art and safe meetings.
Spring Conference, Edinburgh Early April 2021
Theme: Gut Microbiome and Health
Update: This two-day conference will take place in Edinburgh, and will be hosted online by the Scottish Section of the Society.
Registration is now open
Irish Section Meeting 2021
Theme: Nutrition Health and Ageing - Translating Science To Practice’.
Update: This conference will take place online on 22-24 June 2021, and will see for the first time the Irish Postgraduate Conference merging with the Irish Section Meeting.
Abstracts submissions open
Registration is now open
Summer Conference 2021
Theme: Nutrition in a changing world
Update: This conference, organised by a Scientific organising team from the University of Southampton, will take place on 5-8 July 2021. The venue and full scientific programme will be announced in January 2021. The ‘go-no-go’ decision date for this is likely to be in April 2021.
Deadline for Abstracts: Likely to be early May 2021
Registration Date: Registration will open in early 2021, but with a refund plan in place should the format of the meeting need to change to online and a lower delegate fee be established in April 2021.
Fee: Not yet confirmed
Nutrition Futures 2021
Update: This annual student conference will take place at Imperial College London, 7–8 September 2021. As per the comments for the summer conference, planning will be for a hybrid event, with contingency plans developed for online only. The ‘go-no-go’ decision will be made in June 2021.
Deadline for Abstracts: Likely to be July 2021
Registration Date: Likely to be April 2021
Fee: Not yet confirmed.
Winter Conference 2021
Theme: Obesity and the brain
Update: The Winter Conference in 2021 will take at the Royal Society on 7-8 December 2021. The programme has been developed by Drs Wendy Hall and Ruan Elliot and will be announced after January 2021.
Deadline for Abstracts: Early October 2021
Registration Date: Registration will open on 1 September 2021
Fee: Yet to be confirmed.