Share Your Expertise and Outcomes
ASPB’s goal is to present the best new and most significant research in plant biology.
Presenting to a global audience of academics, field experts, students, and others helps raise your professional visibility and gives your work the exposure and recognition it deserves.
Submission Categories
Community-Proposed Plenary Symposium Proposal
Opens: August 17, 2026 Closes: September 14, 2026
Develop a 2-hour plenary scientific symposia. As the proposal submitter, you will be fully responsible for:
- Serving as (or assigning) a session chair to serve as primary point of contact for the program committee.
- Designing a plenary symposium that includes four (4) 25-minute talks that includes time for questions. Session chairs can be speakers at their Plenary Symposium.
- Plenary Symposia are offered in a large venue with no other meeting activities scheduled. These are the best opportunity to bring significant research to the entire plant biology community.
- The Program Committee will use the below scoring rubic to evaluate proposals.
- Plenary Symposia speakers receive financial support from ASPB to help support travel costs.
Scoring Rubric
Submissions will be evaluated on the following rubric and you will be expected to submit a brief statement (max 100 words) on each of these areas:
- Scientific Quality (scale of 1 to 5)
- Novelty (scale of 1 to 5)
- Interest to wide range of Plant Biology attendees (scale of 1 to 5)
- Cohesiveness of session (scale of 1 to 5)
- Balance of gender/career-stage/ethnicity/under-resourced researchers (scale of 1 to 5)
- (Under-resourced researchers includes first generation in family to attendee university, veterans, indigenous or rural participants)
Community-Proposed Concurrent Symposium Proposal
Opens: September 11, 2026 Closes: October 31, 2026
Develop a 1 hour 30-minute concurrent scientific symposia. As the proposal submitter, you will be fully responsible for:
- Serving as (or assigning) a session chair to serve as primary point of contact for the program committee.
- Designing a concurrent symposium that includes four (4) 20-minute talks that includes time for questions.
- Recruiting four (4) speakers to participate in the symposium. The session chair can be one of the 4 speakers.
- Multiple Concurrent Symposia are scheduled in different rooms at the same time and are an excellent opportunity to reach a more specific audience.
- Please see the rubric to view how proposals will be scored by the Program Committee.
- Limited financial support is available to defray travel costs.
Scoring Rubric
Submissions will be evaluated on the following rubric and you will be expected to submit a brief statement (max 100 words) on each of these areas:
- Scientific Quality (scale of 1 to 5)
- Novelty (scale of 1 to 5)
- Interest to wide range of Plant Biology attendees (scale of 1 to 5)
- Cohesiveness of session (scale of 1 to 5)
- Balance of gender/career-stage/ethnicity/under-resourced researchers (scale of 1 to 5)
- (Under-resourced researchers includes first generation in family to attendee university, veterans, indigenous or rural participants)
Workshop Proposal
Opens: September 11, 2026 Closes: October 31, 2026
Interactive workshops provide hands-on learning opportunities with clear learning objectives. As the proposal submitter, you will be responsible for designing the workshop. Workshop topics range from sharing novel techniques to career development to mental health and everything in between. Workshops should be designed to be 60 minutes long.
Scoring Rubric
- Expertise of presenters (scale of 1 to 5)
- Activities allow practice of skills (scale of 1 to 5)
- Schedule of workshop provides adequate time for presentations and activities )(scale of 1 to 5)
- Balance of gender/career-stage/under-resourced speakers(scale of 1 to 5
- (Under-resourced researchers include first generation in family to attend a university, veteran, indigenous, or rural participants
Open-Format Sessions
Opens: September 11, 2026 Closes: October 31, 2026
Have an idea for a session that doesn’t fit the traditional conference format? We want to hear it!
Open-Format Sessions are an opportunity to bring creative, interactive, and unexpected ideas to the Plant Biology program. Propose the format that works best for your idea. This could be a panel discussion, roundtable, interactive activity, or something entirely new.
We’re especially interested in ideas that encourage participation, spark conversation, build connections, or explore topics in a fresh way. Sessions should be designed to be 1 hour long.
There is no scoring rubric for these sessions, so please be creative!
Independent Abstract Proposal
Opens: September 11, 2026 Closes: January 8, 2027
All members of the plant biology community are invited to submit an abstract on their topic of expertise. Abstracts will be reviewed by the Program Committee and, if selected, placed in a concurrent symposium developed by the Program Committee. Abstracts not selected for a concurrent symposium talk or received after the deadline will be offered the chance to present a poster.
Scoring Rubric
- Background clearly explained (scale of 1 to 5)
- Results clearly explained (scale of 1 to 5)
- Impact/Importance of findings clearly explained (scale of 1 to 5)
- Maturity (complete story) of work (scale of 1 to 5)
Inviting Speakers
Please be sure all proposed speakers are aware they are being included in your plenary proposal before starting the proposal. In the speaker section, once you click ‘Invite (Speaker Name)‘ (see image 1 below), the speaker will receive an email from noreply@gocadmium.com (see image 2 below) instructing them to log in to complete their demographic information.
Note: The speakers will be asked to complete the non-mandatory questions found on the speaker profile page of the submission.
Submission Details: What to Know
- Oral presentations must be delivered in-person at Plant Biology 2027 in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
- All in-person speakers and poster presenters must register for Plant Biology 2027 and pay the appropriate registration fee.
- A maximum of one (1) poster can be presented in person; but you can submit up to two (2) additional posters for virtual access only.
- You can submit up to two (2) abstract proposals, but only one (1) may be selected for oral presentation.
- The ASPB Program Committee reviews all independent abstracts.
- ASPB Members and non-members may submit proposals.
Scoring Rubrics
Rankings will be based on total score as well as discussion among Program Committee members. The Program Committee has a wide variety of experience, both academic and industrial, at many career stages. Each committee member may have slightly different rationales for scoring, and these differences strengthen the evaluation. Each Program Committee member will aim for consistency in their rankings.