April 7, 2026
SORTEE Conference 2026: Content submissions are now open!
Virtual & world-wide! 13-14 October 2026
The 2026 SORTEE conference will run continuously from 13th October 07:00 UTC to 14th October 10:00 UTC to cover all time zones.
Content submissions are now OPEN.
➡️ Submit via the link.
Deadline: 7th June 2026.
We accept the following types of proposals:
Unconferences: Facilitated discussions on how to make ecology, evolutionary biology, and related disciplines more open, reliable, and transparent. The goal of an unconference is to generate understanding and ideas around a topic.
Hackathons: Group projects with well-defined goals (papers, techniques, software, protocols, organizations, etc.). The goal of a hackathon is to bring people together to produce a concrete deliverable.
Workshops: Facilitators will teach tools to implement open, reliable, and transparent practices. The goal of a workshop is for attendees to learn an open science practice.
You are also welcome to submit a proposal and facilitate your session in a language other than English. We will organise live translation during the conference to support this.
We strongly encourage proposals for all contribution types from people at a wide range of career stages and from members of under-represented groups. We welcome proposals from small teams, as well as individuals. We encourage teams to include diverse perspectives, for instance with facilitators from different countries and balanced in terms of gender and career stage. Facilitation by early career researchers (students or early career postdocs) is warmly encouraged.
Please feel free to contact us via conference@sortee.org if you would like guidance as you prepare your proposals.
The conference is FREE for SORTEE members (become a member), and the cost for non-SORTEE members ranges from $0 to $60. To join the SORTEE mailing list and receive conference updates, click here. We send a maximum of 8 emails a year.
Accessibility
SORTEE conferences are held online via Zoom. To attend a SORTEE conference, you will need a computer with a reliable internet connection in a quiet space, preferably with a webcam. The online Zoom format was chosen to make the conference accessible to more people, since travel can be expensive or impossible for some. Registration is free for SORTEE members and membership itself may be free depending on your status (join at https://www.sortee.org/join).
Joining from Europe, Africa, the Americas, Oceania or Asia? SORTEE conferences run for over 24 hours to accommodate all time zones, so there will be interesting sessions in yours.
Afraid you won’t understand and won’t be able to participate in English? The conference is fully transcribed, allowing you to read automatic transcripts in real time. At the 2025 SORTEE conference, it was even possible to translate the transcript into your own language instantly. We encourage everyone to participate, regardless of your English proficiency or social confidence. If participants want to contribute or ask a question, they have to raise their hand on Zoom (session facilitators will give them the floor in turn) or write in the chat (all chat comments are addressed and read aloud by the session facilitator). SORTEE has chosen not to record sessions (except for the plenary talk), as recordings can sometimes discourage people from speaking freely.
If you have any questions or suggestions regarding accessibility and diversity at SORTEE conferences, or if you face any barriers to attending, please contact us at conference@sortee.org or complete this anonymous accessibility form. Responses are shared only with the SORTEE conference committee and board of directors.
About SORTEE conferences
A SORTEE conference is an online forum featuring many interactive sessions, all about making research in fields related to ecology and evolutionary biology more open, transparent and reliable. At a SORTEE conference, participants:
- Discuss current research practices / tools or develop new ones during unconferences;
- Launch collaborative projects with clear goals — such as data analysis, paper or protocol writing, software development, or advocacy — during hackathons;
- Learn about practical tools and practices during workshops and introductions to open science;
- Get inspired during plenary talks.
Participants connect with a strong community of researchers from around the world and across career stages. Everyone leaves feeling inspired, motivated, and empowered to adopt open science in their own work and to promote it within their wider communities.
Take a look at the SORTEE 2025 conference blog posts to get a clearer idea of what a SORTEE conference is all about. You can also find summaries of past conferences at https://www.sortee.org/past.