Symposia Submission Criteria for Entomology 2026

Submissions should align with the meeting theme, Connect Your Science, Expand Your Net. The Program Committee especially encourages proposals that foster innovative dialogue, highlight pressing challenges to the future of entomology, and explore opportunities to address those challenges through new ideas, techniques, technologies, and collaborations—both within the entomology community and across other disciplines.

We are particularly interested in symposia that emphasize the cross-disciplinary and collaborative nature of modern insect science and that move beyond traditional formats. Organizers are encouraged to design sessions that extend engagement beyond the Annual Meeting itself. Possible avenues include co-authoring journal articles, developing future meetings or collaborations, preparing grant proposals, hosting webinars, or producing white papers.

We are also interested in symposia that aim to reinforce the need to have the strongest ESA community for the future such that our Society and insect science is strong for the future.  Symposia that aim to build understanding on how to give back to ESA are desired, highlighting how and the process to actively participate, recognizing that each one of us has something to give back, larger or small relative to time, energy and intellect.

Strong symposium proposals will also demonstrate inclusivity and diversity, including representation across entomological subfields, speaker geography, career paths (research, education, industry, extension, government, etc.), career stages (undergraduate, graduate, early-career, mid-career, established), and demographic backgrounds. 

Please note that the Program Symposium selection process is highly competitive, as the number of submissions exceeds available slots each year. Organizers are encouraged to be creative, collaborative, and forward-focused, and to provide a comprehensive proposal that clearly connects to the meeting theme. A well-considered speaker lineup—with as many confirmed speakers as possible—will further strengthen your proposal and increase the likelihood of its acceptance.

If you would like feedback on your idea prior to submission, please contact the Program Committee.

The Formal and Informal Teaching (FIT) Pilot Section* seeks symposia submissions that showcase best practices in outreach and education, present research on these practices, and/or provide professional development and learning opportunities to students, early career professionals, and members exploring these fields. High-quality submissions not selected as Section Symposia may be recommended as Member Symposia.

The following are highly encouraged in submissions:

• Incorporating the 2025 ESA meeting’s theme “Bridging Generations with Innovation, Legacy, and Passion” to create innovations or address challenges in outreach, science communication, and education.
• Incorporating audience participation through panels, breakout groups, associated poster sessions, and other creative mechanisms.
• Featuring speakers from diverse perspectives explaining how participants contribute to diversity in terms of gender, career stage, underrepresented groups in science, background, and/or geographic region. 
• Including speakers who are current members of FIT or should become members based on their positions. 
• Including tentative presentation titles along with 2-3 sentences explaining the objectives of the presentation (full abstracts are not expected). 
• Including an indication of speaker confirmation (clarify which speakers are confirmed to attend, or invited).

*The Formal and Informal Teaching (FIT) Pilot Section FIT seeks to support the development of educational practices of our ESA members with a focus on teaching with insects including the methods used in the preparation of science professionals, curriculum development, PK-12th grade learner and teacher engagement, outreach engagement practices, and extension education practices. FIT also serves members interested in promoting public engagement by promoting the use of best science communication and inclusive engagement practices. Learn more about FIT.

To be selected as a MUVE Symposium, submission should:

• As much as possible, include objectives, purpose, and reflection of this year’s ESA Annual Meeting theme, "Bridging Generations with Innovation, Legacy, and Passion."
• Relate broad aspects in medical, urban, and veterinary entomology, with particular emphasis on cross disciplinary approaches.
• Focus on novel, timely, and cutting-edge topics, such as artificial intelligence tools for arthropod surveillance, machine learning tools, and interpretation/analysis of mega data.
• Include speakers from diverse backgrounds (e.g., under-represented populations, variety of stages in career, diverse taxa within MUVE umbrella, diversity of approaches).
• Reflect the general interest among MUVE members and include a combination of basic or applied research advances, policy, extension, or teaching topics.
• Have at least one organizer who is a member of the MUVE Section (note: any MUVE member can submit a symposium).

Chances of acceptance increase with: 

• Probable speaker list with tentative titles.
• Statement of diversity and inclusivity of the speakers and topics.
• Rationale/potential interest to broader MUVE audience.
• Statement of timeliness of topic and why the topic is cutting-edge.
• Uniqueness (lack of potential overlap with other symposia) - organizers are encouraged to seek out others thinking of proposing similar symposia and collaborate.

Inclusion of the suggested additional information is not necessary for acceptance, but will make a particular symposium submission more competitive.

The PBT Governing Council will use the guidelines described below to rank symposia submissions. PBT Section symposia submissions should seek to maximize inclusion of the following criteria.

• Relationship to the annual meeting’s theme, “Bridging Generations with Innovation, Legacy, and Passion.” 
• Symposia focused on machine learning, artificial intelligence, and uses of ChatGPT (or similar user-friendly AI clients) for both advanced and routine research applications.
• At least one organizer is a member of the PBT Section.
• Anticipated magnitude and breath of impact. Symposia that are transdisciplinary (e.g., spanning collaborations across Sections) and offer solutions to complex problem are strongly encouraged and will be prioritized. 
• The rationale, goal and objective of the symposia should be clearly stated in the proposal.
• Relevance of scientific and technical content to PBT members, and ESA members at large. 
• The proposal should also highlight and foster collaboration and diversity of speakers from diverse backgrounds and geographic regions (including gender, ethnicity, career stage, and organization/affiliation), reflecting the diversity of our members.
• Involvement of early career professionals and students as organizers and or presenters is encouraged to highlight the collaborative nature of modern insect science across generations.
• Timeliness of the topic relative to major research and societal trends.
• Confirmed list of speakers (not required for submission but will be weighted higher than concept-only submissions without any speaker confirmation).

The P-IE Governing Council will use the following guidelines to evaluate submissions for P-IE Section Symposia. High-ranking symposia not selected as Section Symposia may be recommended as Member Symposia.

• Relating symposia submissions to the meeting’s theme, “Entomology 2025: Bridging Generations with Innovation, Legacy, and Passion”, is encouraged.
• We encourage organizers to be innovative, creative, and thoughtful in proposing sessions that are engaging and visionary. Proposals that cover a diversity of topics, such as concepts, disciplines, ecosystems, taxa and others are highly encouraged.
• In addition to research topics, we also encourage formal and informal education methods and related topics that contribute to the mission of P-IE and the theme of the annual meetings. Such symposia may be proposed jointly with the FIT section. 
• Proposals should explain how the symposium meets the selection criteria of the P-IE Section. Submissions for joint symposia across multiple sections are welcome. 
• Proposals are strongly encouraged that include collaborations and feature speakers from a variety of backgrounds and geographic regions (including gender, ethnicity, career stage, and organization/affiliation), reflecting the diversity of our members. Submitters should indicate how they have made an effort to ensure their proposal is inclusive and representative of the diversity of scientists that work on plant-insect ecosystems.
• Proposals should clearly define symposia objective(s), statement of purpose, speakers, and presentation topics.
• Symposia proposals must provide an indication of speaker confirmation, and not just an ‘idea list.’ Priority will be given to proposals with a greater proportion of confirmed speakers. 
• At least one organizer must be a member of the P-IE Section at the time of submission.

The SysEB Governing Council will use the following guidelines to evaluate section symposia submissions. High-quality symposia not selected as Section Symposia may be recommended as Member Symposia.

• SysEB Section Symposia submissions should focus on broad topics and subjects across the diverse interests of SysEB Section membership. As such, submissions should include a detailed explanation of how their proposal will appeal to the broad interests of the Section. Submissions proposing taxon-focused topics may be submitted for consideration for Section Symposia but are typically better suited as Member Symposia. Taxon-focused submissions should include justification as to why they are limited to a particular taxonomic group and how this choice broadly benefits SysEB Section members.
• Proposals should reflect the diversity of SysEB Section membership. Proposals should indicate explicitly how the symposium is inclusive and representative of the Section (these may include diversity with respect to gender, career stage, underrepresented groups in science, background, and/or geographic region).
• Symposia proposals should indicate speaker confirmation (e.g., whether the speaker has been invited, confirmed, or just an “idea” of who may present).
• One organizer should be a current member of SysEB.
• Submissions on topics that are multidisciplinary in scope or are integrative/innovative in their approaches are encouraged (e.g., insect biodiversity declines, invasive species, new technology).
• Symposia that incorporate the meeting theme “Bridging Generations with Innovation, Legacy, and Passion” are encouraged.

This program welcomes a wide range of topics and subject areas. Proposals may take a more focused approach than those in the categories above, as long as they are thoughtfully developed and reflect subjects of interest to the ESA community.

Strong symposium proposals will also demonstrate inclusivity and diversity, including representation across entomological subfields, speaker geography, career paths (research, education, industry, extension, government, etc.), career stages (undergraduate, graduate, early-career, mid-career, established), and demographic backgrounds. A well-considered speaker lineup—with as many confirmed speakers as possible—will further strengthen your proposal.

Workshops are designed as interactive educational sessions for attendees. While submissions on a wide range of topics are welcome, the Program Committee particularly encourages proposals on innovative technologies (e.g., machine learning, AI), grantsmanship, manuscript review, and strategies for writing peer-reviewed papers. All workshops should be structured to actively engage participants.

Please also consider the topic of building the strongest ESA community and an interactive workshop to help members learn about how to contribute to the Society, and discipline, in any way – small or large.

It is important to note that all accepted workshops are open to all attendees and cannot be offered as add-on registration options. Additionally, the Program Committee is unable to provide funding to cover associated costs, such as supplies, food, or other expenses.