We encourage work that introduces new ideas and conceptualisations, research and understandings to the field. Please read the following guidelines carefully before submitting your abstract.

• User Profile: You must create an online user profile for the submitting and presenting author before submission.
• Registration Fee: You don’t need to pay the participant registration fee yet to submit an abstract.
• Submission Confirmation: A confirmation email will be sent to the abstract submitter and all co-authors. Ensure emails from eswi2027@conftool.pro are not filtered as spam.
• Deadline: The deadline for abstract submission is 23 April 18:00 CEST.
• Modifications: Modifications can be made until the submission deadline.

• Language: All abstracts must be written in English.
• Accuracy: It is the author's responsibility to submit a correct abstract. Any errors in spelling, grammar, or scientific fact in the abstract text will be reproduced as typed by the author in the publication.
• Spell Check: Abstract titles will be subject to a spell check if the abstract is selected for presentation.
• Compliance Check: A check-box asking if you have read and comply with the submission policy will be provided as a necessary step before submitting. Failure to answer yes will result in automatic rejection.

The European Scientific Working Group on Influenza (ESWI) invites researchers, clinicians, public health professionals and policymakers to submit abstracts for the 11th ESWI Conference. The conference brings together the international community working on influenza, RSV, COVID-19, hMPV and other acute respiratory virus infections, from clinical and fundamental virology to interventions, policy and practice. As a science-driven conference, ESWI specifically welcomes abstracts on clinical and basic science.

The themes and topics below show the breadth of the conference; the examples under each are not exhaustive. If your work does not obviously fit a topic, please submit it anyway: the Scientific Programme Committee can assign such abstracts on acute respiratory virus infections to sessions after review.

Submissions are welcome under the following themes:

Virology and Evolution

1. Molecular Virology: viral structure, replication, virus exit and host-cell interactions, including host factors, cell biology of infection, and structural and computational biology 
2. Virus Evolution: genetic and antigenic drift and shift, reassortment, recombination, phylodynamics

Pathogenesis and Immunity 

3. Pathogenesis: disease mechanisms, host susceptibility, comorbidities
4. Innate and Adaptive Immunity: correlates of protection, immune imprinting, immune responses across age and risk groups
5. Mucosal Immunity: mucosal and local immune responses, correlates of protection at the respiratory mucosa, intranasal and mucosal vaccines; transmission

Clinical and Translational Studies

6. Clinical Manifestations, Diagnostics and Management: ARVI diagnosis, next-generation virus detection, hospitalisation outcomes

7. High-Risk Groups and Special Populations: including but not limited to: infants, older adults, pregnant women, immunocompromised people, people with obesity and other non-communicable diseases, indigenous populations; how risk groups differ across pathogens and what this means for vaccination decisions.

8. Extra-Respiratory Complications and Long-Term Effects: extra-respiratory complications, post-acute infection syndromes (PAIS) and other post-viral conditions, gender specific PAIS

9. Experimental and Clinical Studies of Human Infection: controlled human infection models, organoid and tissue models, expansion of challenge models, and new analyses of existing challenge-study data

Epidemiology, Data and Modelling

10. Epidemiology, Surveillance and Modelling: burden of disease, disease and genomic surveillance, mathematical modelling, serological inference, and forecasting

11. Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning and Data Science: new methodologies, data integration, insights from large data sets, challenges of AI, ethical considerations

Prevention, Therapeutics and Interventions

12. Vaccine Effectiveness and Future Vaccination Strategies: next-generation, universal and combination vaccines, real-world effectiveness, randomised trials and safety, vaccine strain selection

13. Antivirals, Monoclonal Antibodies and Therapeutics: new antivirals, new monoclonal antibodies, challenges for existing antivirals, combination therapies, clinical trial readouts, resistance and escape mutants, health security

14. Vaccine Uptake: pathways for improving vaccination coverage; barriers and vaccine hesitancy from clinical, sociological and psychological perspectives

Preparedness and One Health

15. Zoonotic Threats and Pandemic Preparedness: H5N1 and other zoonotic influenza viruses (H3, H5, H7, H9…, influenza D virus) and zoonotic coronaviruses in domestic animals and wildlife, spillover risk, cross-species transmission and surveillance, outbreak response and international collaboration

Submissions that do not meet the following abstract structure and formatting requirements will not be considered.

Abstracts under all topics must be structured and formatted as follows:

• Background: Indicate the purpose and objective of the research, the hypothesis that was tested, or a description of the problem being analyzed or evaluated.
• Methods: Describe the setting/location for the study, study design, study population, data collection, and methods of analysis used.
• Results: Present as clearly and detailed as possible the findings/outcome of the study, with specific results in summarized form.
• Conclusions: Briefly discuss the data and main outcome of the study.

Required Content and Word Limits

• The text body is limited to 450 words.
• Titles are limited to 30 words.
• A maximum of three tables (10 words per row) and three graphs/images (50 words each) can be included (uploaded separately in JPG, GIF, or PNG, ideally 600 dpi).

• Key Words: Please provide up to three key words about your abstract.
• Font: A standard font, e.g., Arial, should be used when formatting the text to prevent special characters from being lost in the online form.
• Social media: ESWI may wish to report on your contribution to the 11th ESWI Conference via social media. You are invited to provide a message of maximum 250 characters that summarises the main content of your work. ESWI will add the hashtag #ESWI2027. PPlease also provide the platform and social media handle of the submitting author. This section will help us promote successful concept note driven sessions, and your social media description is not included in the word count.

• Abstracts should not include libelous or defamatory content.
• Material presented in abstracts must not violate any copyright laws.
• If figures/graphics/images are taken from sources not copyrighted by the author, the author is solely responsible for securing the written rights from the copyright holder for worldwide print and web publication. All reproduction costs must be borne by the author.

An abstract previously published or presented can only be submitted if:

• There are new methods, new findings, substantially updated information, or other valid reasons for submitting.
• The author must indicate the details of the previous publication/presentation and the reasons for resubmitting.
• Failure to Disclose: If the author neglects to provide these details, and evidence of previous publication is found, the abstract will be rejected.

• The conference organizers regard plagiarism as serious professional misconduct.
• All abstracts are screened for plagiarism. When identified, the abstract and any other abstracts submitted by the same author will be rejected.

All submitted abstracts will undergo a peer-review process carried out by an international reviewing committee. Each abstract will be reviewed by at least two reviewers.

• Selection: Final selection is done by the Scientific Program Committee. The highest-scoring abstracts will be accepted for oral presentation. The remaining accepted submissions will be displayed as posters.
• Notification: Notification of acceptance or rejection will be sent to the submitting (corresponding) author, who is responsible for informing all co-authors, and all co-authors in copy.
• Instructions: Authors whose abstracts are accepted will receive instructions for presentation.
• To receive these important communications, please ensure that emails from eswi2027@conftool.pro are not considered as spam by your email provider.

• The number of submissions is not limited.
• Each presenting author may present only one abstract at the conference.
• If an author has more than one accepted abstract, a co-author must be named as the presenting author for the additional abstracts.

• All oral and poster presentations will be done live in Valencia; pre-recorded presentations will not be accepted.
• Registration Deadline: The presenting author must register and pay for the conference by 6 June 2027 at the latest.
• Costs: All costs (registration, travel, accommodation) are the responsibility of the presenter.

• By submitting an abstract, presenters agree to be available for the entire duration of the conference.
• Requests to change allocated time slots cannot be guaranteed and will be considered case-by-case.
• The conference organizer reserves the right to change presentation dates and times.

In the case of the 11th ESWI Conference, as with most scientific/medical conferences, all conference abstracts are released to delegates and media under a strict embargo policy. All regular delegates, presenters and media are asked to respect this policy.

• Oral presentations
  Information about the oral abstracts may not be published or presented before the start of the session at the 11th ESWI Conference in which the abstract is being presented.
• Poster presentations
  Information about the poster abstracts may not be published or presented before 08:00 CEST on 27 September 2027.

Your accepted abstract (oral and poster presentations) will appear in its full form in the PDF abstract book and on the virtual conference platform.

All oral and poster presentations will be done live in Valencia, pre-recorded presentations will not be accepted.

• Purpose: Late breaker abstracts must present data gathered after the regular deadline that is of unquestioned immediate significance and demonstrate novel findings.
• Rejection: Abstracts that do not comply with this rule, or that are simply too late for the regular deadline, will be automatically rejected.
• Topics: The topic groups are the same as those listed in Section 2.
• Submission dates:
  • Submissions open: 17 May 2027
  • Deadline: 16 July 2027 18:00 CEST

Any questions regarding the abstract submission should be addressed to the Programme Director: annick.mannaerts@eswi.org.