VLIZ Marine Science Day: save the date & call for abstracts

Photo: VLIZ - Reynaert Stefanie

The VLIZ Marine Science Day 2017 will again – for the 17th time – highlight the diversity, quality and relevance of marine and coastal sciences in Flanders with a selection of oral pitch presentations. In the afternoon, an extensive poster session, demo sessions and the events ‘Meet the Company’ and ‘Speed date networking’ are programmed.

We hope to stimulate all scientists to present their research in an exciting way and to communicate this fascinating science – and its importance to society – to a wider and multidisciplinary public of marine scientists!

We challenge all marine and coastal scientists to submit an abstract. You can apply for either an oral presentation or a demo session. Companies can register to present their organisation in the ‘Meet the Company’ event.

How to apply for an oral presentation
Following this link, you can submit your abstract. The final deadline to do so is set on 15 January 2017. Please note that we make a distinction between pre-doc and post-doc entries, you can specify this on the online form.

A jury, composed of VLIZ staff and members of the VLIZ Scientific Committee, will read all the applications carefully and will make a selection of 25 abstracts (20 pre-doc and 5 post-doc) to be presented in a 5 minutes plenary pitch presentation on the VLIZ Marine Science Day 2017.

To increase the probability that your abstract is selected for an oral presentation, write it in a language that is easy to understand and sounds fascinating for the evaluators. If your research is in progress or ended, this increases your score. Abstracts on planned future research are generally less likeable to be selected for an oral presentation, But no worries, abstracts that are not selected for an oral presentation, will automatically be accepted to participate in the poster competition.

On the VLIZ Marine Science Day 2017, the public as well as a professional jury (NEW!) will judge the oral and poster presentations. The winners will be awarded a prize at the closing session of the event.

How to apply for a demo session
A demo session is the most suited way of sharing new data and information tools or products with the participants during the afternoon poster and demo session. There is no competition for demo sessions. Following this link, you can submit your abstract. The deadline to do so in set on 15 January 2017. Tick the box “I want to apply for a demo session”.

In addition to your demo booth, you will be given the opportunity to briefly and plenary introduce your demo session in a one minute plenary elevator pitch.

How to apply for ‘Meet the Company’
If your company wants to take part in ‘Meet the Company’, please contact tina.mertens@vliz.be mentioning your interest in this event. We will contact you to discuss the possibilities.

Please note that the mentioned date - 15 January 2017 - is the final deadline. There will be no extension of this deadline. Late applications will not be considered.
 
What should your abstract look like
The form to submit your abstract is divided in separate fields:

• Abstract title: give your abstract an appealing title that arouses curiosity and encourages to read the full abstract.
• Abstract text: write an abstract on your work, containing no more than 650 words. Only plain, bold and italic text is allowed, as well as subscript and superscript. All other layout will not be exported. Images are not allowed. Please note that this abstract must be camera-ready, i.e. VLIZ does not foresee any editing, the author is fully responsible for the contents and language.
• Keywords: well thought out keywords make sure your abstract is easily detected by interested readers.
• Authors: for each author, the full name and affiliation must be submitted. The order in which you submit, is the order in which they will be published in the book of abstracts.
• The abstract book - published in the series VLIZ Special Collections - will not be printed, but will made available before the event as a pdf, via the event website (www.vliz.be/vmsd) and the VLIZ website.

Registrations for attending the VLIZ Marine Science Day 2017 2017 will be open mid December.
 
The website www.vliz.be/vmsd will be updated on a regular basis. The final programme will follow in February 2017.
 
Feel free to distribute this invitation as widely as possible in your research unit and beyond.

Should you have any questions on this call for abstracts or the VLIZ Marine Science Day 2017, please don’t hesitate to contact info@vliz.be.