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Congress

SOA26

30 June – 2 July 2026 + Add to calendar Birmingham ICC Birmingham

Showcase your work

Submission deadline: Friday 23 January

 

Abstracts are at the heart of our State of the Art Congress. They showcase the creativity, science, and innovation of the intensive care community, providing a platform for voices from across the multi-professional team.

Whether you are sharing new research, highlighting a quality improvement project, debating the big questions, presenting your early career work, or delivering a concise educational talk, there is a place for you at SOA26.

This year’s abstract programme offers five distinct opportunities to get involved:

  • Research and Practice Abstracts: Oral and ePoster Presentations
    Share research, audits, innovations, and clinical cases with the community
  • The Cauldron: Themed Debate Abstracts
    Explore a big question and bold solutions in intensive care
  • Critical Care Tales: Practice and Innovation Abstracts
    Showcase stories, improvements, and ideas that change practice
  • Rising Star: Early-Career Investigator Award
    Recognising outstanding science in intensive care medicine
  • ABC of ICM: Bite-Sized Educational Abstracts
    Fast, focused talks to strengthen everyday intensive care practice

Open to the whole multi-professional team, everyone has a voice at SOA. We look forward to hearing your ideas, sharing your insights, and celebrating the work that drives intensive care forward.

Click on the relevant abstract category below for information on submission guidelines.

Submit your abstract here

 

Oral and ePoster Presentations

Research and Practice Abstracts: Oral and ePoster Presentations
Sharing research, audits, innovations, and clinical cases with the critical care community

Background
SOA 2026 is your platform to share your work, spark debate, and connect with colleagues across the intensive care community. We welcome submissions covering research, audits, innovations, and clinical cases.

There are two ways your work may be presented:

• ePosters and Rapid-Fire Discussions Accepted abstracts will be displayed on large digital screens during the Congress, with authors invited to give a short 5-minute presentation followed by discussion. Posters will also be available on the online platform during and for six months after the event, giving your work extended visibility.

• Oral Abstract Presentations The 6 highest-scoring abstracts will be selected for a main programme session. Authors will present a 15-minute talk (10 minutes presentation plus 5 minutes for questions) highlighting the most important findings.

This is your opportunity to share your insights nationally and internationally, and to contribute to the growing body of critical care knowledge.

 

ePoster and oral guidelines - SOA26.pdf

 

Cauldron

The Cauldron: Themed Debate Abstracts
Exploring a big question and bold solutions in intensive care

Background
Theme: ICU in 2050 – what’s the difference?

As SOA celebrates its 25th anniversary, we want to look ahead to the next 25 years. What might intensive care medicine look like in 2050, and what changes could define the future of our specialty?

This deliberately broad theme is designed to encourage bold ideas, creative thinking, and fresh perspectives. We want you to challenge assumptions and imagine what intensive care could become, whether through advances in science and technology, changes in workforce and training, shifts in ethics and patient expectations, or entirely new ways of delivering care.

When you think about 2050, one could consider:
• What will be different about the way we deliver intensive care?
• Which challenges will we have overcome, and which new ones might emerge?
• How should we prepare now to shape the ICU of the future?

The top 6 abstracts will be selected for a lively Dragon’s Lair style session at SOA 2026 (8 minutes presentation plus 5 minutes for questions). Authors will present their ideas to a panel of clinicians, followed by rigorous discussion and debate with the audience. This is your chance to step into the future and help shape it.
 

Cauldron guidelines - SOA26.pdf
Critical Care Tales

Critical Care Tales: Practice and Innovation Abstracts
Showcasing stories, improvements, and ideas that change practice

Background
Behind every advance in intensive care are the people, teams, and ideas that bring it to life. Critical Care Tales is your opportunity to share the stories and innovations that are shaping the way we work and the way we care.

We invite submissions from across the multi-professional team - all professions, all grades, and students are welcome. Abstracts might cover:
• Quality improvement projects
• Multi-professional approaches to care
• Innovations in practice and service delivery
• Workforce development and wellbeing
• Controversies in intensive care
• New ideas with the potential to change practice

Abstracts will be reviewed and the top scoring entries invited to present at SOA26. Presentations will be concise and engaging, with time for discussion (8 minutes presentation plus 5 minutes for questions). Work not selected for the oral session will still be featured in digital poster displays and rapid-fire discussions in the exhibition hall, as well as on the online platform during and after the Congress.

This is a chance to celebrate the creativity and dedication of the intensive care community, and to share ideas that may have a ripple effect far beyond your own unit

 

Critical Care Tales guidelines - SOA26.pdf
Rising Star

Rising Star: Early Career Investigator Award
Recognising outstanding science in intensive care medicine

The Intensive Care Society wishes to promote and encourage the presentation of the best critical care science in the UK. The ICS Rising Star is awarded annually to an early career investigator (nurse, AHP or doctor) who has shown excellence in science relevant to intensive care.

A maximum of five submissions will be shortlisted for the Rising Star oral presentation at SOA26 taking place 30 June – 2 July 2026 at the ACC Birmingham. The time allocated for each presentation is 15 minutes (10 minutes presentation, plus 5 minutes Q&A).

Eligibility: This award is only for early career researchers who are within five years of completing a substantial body of research such as completion of an MD or PhD. This opportunity is not available to experienced researchers.
 

Rising Star guidelines - SOA26.pdf Rising Star application form - SOA26.docx
ABC of ICM

ABC of ICM: Bite-Sized Educational Abstracts
Fast, focused talks to strengthen everyday intensive care practice

Background
The ABC of ICM sessions are back and we want to hear from you! This hugely popular series is all about short, engaging talks that deliver practical education to the whole multi-professional intensive care community.

We welcome submissions from anyone across all professions, grades, and backgrounds, who is passionate about sharing their expertise. Topics can cover any aspect of intensive care medicine and should:
• Deliver factual educational content in under 10 minutes
• Use no more than 10 slides
• Include references or further reading where possible

Examples of past sessions include:
• Assessing the Altered Airway
• Animal-Assisted Intervention in ICU
• Renal Transplant Patients in ICU

The top 6 submissions will be invited to present live at SOA 2026 in a rapid-fire session (8- minute presentation plus 5 minutes of questions). Submissions of suitable quality will also be featured on the virtual platform for delegates to access during and after the Congress.

This is your chance to share knowledge in a concise, high-impact way which helps to build the ABCs of intensive care for all.

 

ABC of ICM guidelines - SOA26.pdf