ABSTRACT SUBMISSIONS

Abstract Submission

Grand Challenges Stream
for 2026 National Congress

As a new addition to Congress, the introduction of a Grand Challenge stream seeks to unite the pure and applied scientists around six defining themes for the coming decade. The new stream is designed to dovetail with established RACI Divisions, enabling topical cross-over with Division sessions. During the registration process, presenters will be offered the option to tick a box if they would also like their talk considered for a session (if they have not registered directly for the session). This will allow conference organisers to ensure the seven streams are populated with both new scientific ideas and application/implementation methods. Further to this, Hackathons (brainstorming meetings) will be available during evening libations, prompting cross-pollination of ideas between traditionally siloed pure and applied science disciplines: these Hackathons can carry sponsorship opportunities.

  • This stream will target both chemical and environmental engineers, focussing on the basis for identifying and remediating contaminants in natural waterways and the environments they support. Further, the stream can extend to the role of climate change in affecting the distribution of water across ecosystems, enabling disciplinary participation from ecology and climatic (computational) modelling.

  • Explores Earth's geological and environmental history through an interdisciplinary lens not limited to geology, geochemistry, geobiology, geophysics, organic geochemistry and palaeontology. It focuses on the role of advanced analytical technologies, critical minerals, geonomics, biomarker geochemistry and computational modelling to understand past life, extinction events, and geological processes. The session also aims to provide insights into future climate and environmental challenges by examining past extinction events and their connection to climate change.

  • This stream primarily targets chemical and electrical engineers in its focus on decarbonization of conventional energy sources, growth and support for renewable energy generation, and – critically – the enabling pathways for the production and utilisation (combustion) of alternative fuels, particularly for chemical vectors of energy storage and transmission.

  • This stream focusses on advanced production methods for emergent materials, including the use of additive manufacturing, novel catalysts and reactions, and frontier purification technologies. The role of advanced pharmaceutical manufacturing is of particular interest in the session, as the complexity and individualisation of pharmaceuticals continues to increase.

  • This stream aims to explore the role of chemistry and machine learning (AI) in novel technologies to enable personalised health monitoring and disease detection, alongside agricultural science and technology to enable resilient food production and distribution. The impact of improved agriculture on climate change, food scarcity, and human health provide tremendous opportunities to deploy innovative chemistry.

  • This stream focusses on the advanced dimensions of modelling that would not traditionally be found in RACI Divisions (e.g., DFT in Physical Chemistry). Within this, the stream aims to explore the physics and chemistry behind emergent quantum computers, alongside the advanced methods for data compression/prediction (machine learning, ensemble learning) and simulation (computational fluid dynamics and molecular dynamics) that benefit from such computational breakthroughs. 

  • This stream targets both novel technologies to capture carbon (drawing heavily on absorption and adsorption in chemical engineering) alongside emergent utilisation (reaction engineering) and storage/monitoring (reservoir engineering and geoscience). Across all three domains, the stream will seek to unite the development of novel chemistries (e.g., new adsorption materials) and processes (e.g., direct air capture).

ABSTRACT CATEGORIES / DIVISIONS

Analytical & Environmental Chemistry Division

Carbon Chemistry Division

Chemical Education Division

Green and Sustainable Chemistry Division

Electrochemistry Division

Health, Safety & Environment Division

Industrial Chemistry Division

Inorganic Chemistry Division

Materials Chemistry Division

Medicinal Chemistry & Chemical Biology Division

Organic Chemistry Division

Physical Chemistry Division

Polymer Chemistry Division

Radiochemistry Division

Supramolecular Chemistry Division

Grand Challenges

PRESENTATION TYPES

  • Oral Presentation

  • Poster Presentation

BEFORE YOU START

  • Ensure you use one of the following browsers: INTERNET EXPLORER (v11 or newer) MOZILLA FIREFOX (v44 or newer) SAFARI (v5 or newer).

  • Mac Users: if you have trouble submitting your abstract, try submitting from a PC. If you are still have issues, please contact the secretariat.

  • Mozilla Users: the security policy in Mozilla often prevents pasting from your clipboard without using the menu commands. You can still cut and paste your abstract into the submission, but you may have to use the menu command rather than ‘control v’ shortcut.

  • * Ensure your abstract text is less than 300 words as the system will not accept submissions over this limit. The word count does NOT include your title, authoring or cited references.

  • * Have your abstract open on your own computer to enable you to cut and paste it into the submission system.

COMMITTEE REVIEW

The Conference Committee will review all submissions before selecting the presentations which will be included in the conference program.

SUBMISSION STEPS

  1. Select the presentation type and Category/Division it belongs to (should your abstract align with multiple categories/divisions, you will have the option to select additional categories/divisions at a later stage of the submission process).

  2. Provide some keywords to assist in categorisation of your abstract.

  3. Enter the title of your abstract. Please type the title in sentence case (that is lowercase with only the first letter or the first word in capitals) and without any punctuation. A correctly formatted example follows: Title of my presentation for the conference.

  4. Enter the name of all authors and their organisations and indicate the presenting author by ticking the relevant box.

  5. Type or cut and paste the text of your abstract/synopsis into the relevant field. Please ensure the abstract is no more than 300 words. (Does not include title, authoring or cited references)

  6. Preview your abstract, make any changes required and finalise your submission and return to your dashboard.

  7. You will receive an email confirmation that your abstract has been successfully submitted. Please check your email junk file in case it has been captured there.

  8. Should you wish to make any changes to your abstract after you have submitted it, please log onto your online registration dashboard. Click on the “View Submission” then “Preview/edit abstract”.

    ****Please note you will only be able to make changes to your abstract until the submission deadline.

ACCEPTANCE NOTIFICATION

Once the reviewing has been completed the conference organisers will notify abstract presenters of their acceptance. Specific presentation instructions will be included in the notification.