Complexity is often seen as a challenge, but in public health it is a strength. It reflects the richness of human lives, the diversity of systems and perspectives involved, and the need for dialogue across disciplines and sectors. This year’s conference embraces complexity not as something to simplify away, but as a source of deeper understanding and more meaningful solutions.
Public health is not a single science: it is a shared space of encounter. A threshold where health sciences meet biography, where numbers are shaped by narratives, where policy must reckon with ethics, and where data walks hand in hand with stories, symbols, social structures and human beings.
The Swiss Public Health Conference 2026 invites you to this vibrant intersection: to see complexity as a reality which promises to be honored, a source of insight, imagination, and innovation.
This is not a call for final answers. It is a call for better questions: about what we consider knowledge, whose voices we listen to, and how we might build public health initiatives that reflect the richness, vulnerability, and dignity of real human lives.
At the heart of this year’s theme lies a conviction: that the beauty of complexity is not only conceptual but also profoundly practical.
Whether you are a researcher, a practitioner, a policy-maker, a patient advocate, or a thinker from outside the usual walls, your insight matters. Your questions belong here.
Join us in Lucerne, where disciplines meet not to defend their borders, but. to create concrete collaboration wiser, together.
Topics
We invite contributions that align with the conference’s commitment to complexity, interdisciplinarity, and a human-centered vision of public health. We particularly welcome submissions that explore how lived experience, ethical reflection, and narratives shape health, and how scientific knowledge is translated into meaningful, actionable policies.
We also warmly encourage submissions from PhD candidates, including studies that are still in progress, provided they clearly outline their research questions, approach, and anticipated contribution.
We strongly encourage contributions that connect theory with practice, and welcome perspectives from all sectors, including public health professionals, community actors, policy-makers, patient advocates, and others engaged in the everyday realities of health and care.
Submissions may include best practices, lessons learned, or field-based insights that do not follow a traditional scientific format. We want to create space for knowledge that emerges from practice, dialogue, and experience
Submissions may address—though are not limited to—the following areas:
1. Understanding health in context. Exploring how health is shaped by social, cultural, economic, and behavioral dynamics.
Health
behaviors and change processes
Theories, models, and
interventions for influencing behavior in real-world complexity.
Psychosocial
and cultural determinants of health
How values, identity, belief systems, and social dynamics shape health
outcomes.
Lived
experience and patient knowledge
Embodied and narrative understandings of illness, care, and recovery.
2. Producing and translating knowledge
Rethinking how we generate, integrate, and share public health knowledge.
Interdisciplinary
and mixed methods
Integrative designs combining
epidemiology, social sciences, law, economics, and humanities.
Knowledge
translation and implementation
Strategies for turning research into action across diverse practice and policy
contexts.
Quality of
health information
Producing and communicating trustworthy, relevant, and usable knowledge at all
levels.
3. Designing and governing systems
Innovating structures, institutions, and policies that embrace complexity.
Health
policy and law in complex systems
Adaptive and ethical governance approaches that respond to dynamic realities.
Health
economics and resource allocation
Economic evaluation, priority
setting, and decision-making under uncertainty.
Organizational
transformation and interprofessional collaboration
Institutional learning, leadership, and team-based models in complex
environments.
Politics, legislation and
public health
Dealing with current complex political scenarios
4. Acting with and for people
Engaging communities and co-producing solutions.
Co-creation
and participation
Involving patients, service
users, and citizens as partners in innovation.
Health
communication and public trust
Addressing misinformation,
building understanding, and communicating with integrity.
Education
and training for complexity
Pedagogies that prepare professionals to navigate ambiguity, diversity, and
interdisciplinary practice.
We also welcome submissions on any current or emerging topic relevant to public health research, policy, or practice in Switzerland or internationally.
Formats for submission
Contributors can submit their abstract in one of the following formats:
Oral Presentation
10-minute talk + 5-minute discussion. Grouped into thematic parallel sessions.
Workshop
75-minute interactive sessions with 1–3 short contributions and a minimum of 20
minutes discussion. Innovative formats (e.g., Fishbowls, World Cafés,
participatory dialogues) are strongly encouraged.
Poster Presentation
Displayed throughout the conference. Two flash poster sessions will take place
during breaks. Each presenter will give a 2-minute pitch and engage in a
2-minute moderated discussion.
Submission general guidelines
- Abstracts can be submitted in English, German, or French (must match the language of presentation).
- Maximum length: 2,500 characters (including spaces).
- Indicate the preferred format (oral, workshop, poster) and the relevant topic.
- A maximum of two submissions per first author.
- All presenters must register for the conference and pay the applicable fee.
- Submissions may be reassigned to a different format by the scientific committee.
Specific information for abstracts
1) Abstracts for research-based oral presentations and posters
Abstract must be structured using the following headings:
- Objectives: Clearly state the aim or research question of your project or initiative.
- Methods: Describe the study design, approach, population, or methodology applied. For theoretical or conceptual work, briefly outline the framework used.
- Results: Summarize key findings or expected results if the work is in progress.
- Conclusion: Reflect on the main insights, their meaning, or contribution to the field.
- Practice Implications: Specify how the findings may inform public health practice, policy, communication, or education.
Evaluation Criteria
Abstracts will be reviewed by a multidisciplinary committee according to the following criteria:
- Thematic relevance to the conference focus or public health practice
- Originality and clarity of research, concept, or perspective
- Methodological soundness or theoretical depth
- Potential for interdisciplinary or cross-sectoral dialogue
- Applicability or resonance with current challenges in public health
2) Abstracts for oral presentations and posters based on professional, community or experiential perspective
We encourage practitioners, patient advocates, civil society actors, and people with lived experience to share their perspectives and initiatives. If you are not submitting a research-based abstract, you are welcome to write your abstract in a more practice- or experience-based format.
Your abstract should be structured using the following guiding questions:
- Purpose: What issue, challenge, or opportunity are you addressing? Why is it relevant to public health?
- Context or experience: What is your perspective or role? What context (e.g., workplace, organization, community) are you drawing from?
- Approach or action: What did you do, observe, or develop? What kind of intervention, initiative, dialogue, or insight are you sharing?
- Outcomes or learning: What did you learn or achieve? What worked, what didn’t, and why?
- Implications for Public Health: How might your experience, insight, or approach be useful to others? What are the lessons for public health practice, communication, education, or policy?
Evaluation Criteria
Submissions from contributors based on professional, community and experiential perspective will be reviewed with a focus on practical insight, relevance, and contribution to dialogue. The evaluation committee will consider the following criteria:
- Relevance to public health and conference themes
- Clarity of purpose and context
- Insight and reflective value to inform public health thinking and practice
- Potential for engagement or learning among participants from different backgrounds.
- Originality or innovation
3) Abstracts for Workshops (75 minutes)
Workshops offer space for collaborative learning, exchange of perspectives, and co-creation of knowledge across different fields, roles, and experiences. We welcome workshops that are designed to foster active participation and invite contributions from both research and practice.
Workshop abstracts should include:
- Workshop title: Concise and compelling.
- Purpose and objectives: What is the workshop intended to achieve? Which questions or themes will be addressed?
- Format and methodology: Describe how the session will be structured (e.g., introductory talk, group work, facilitated dialogue). Indicate how participants will be engaged.
- Contributors: Name the facilitators and any speakers, with brief affiliations and roles.
- Target audience: Specify who the workshop is intended for (e.g., researchers, practitioners, policy-makers, mixed audiences).
- Expected outcome: Indicate what participants will gain, produce, or reflect upon by the end of the session.
Evaluation criteria
Workshop submissions will be evaluated by a multidisciplinary committee based on the following criteria:
- Clarity and relevance of purpose aligned with the conference focus
- Interactive and inclusive format
- Quality and coherence of structure in format, timing and facilitatio approach
- Expertise and diversity of contributors’ backgrounds and perspectives
- Potential for reflection, co-creation, or transferable learning
- Target group fit (e.g., researchers, practitioners, policy-makers, or mixed groups)
Application
Please note that the user accounts from the preceding Swiss Public Health Conference 2025 were copied. Please use your login details from the last event.
Submission Deadline
The submission deadline for abstracts is 1 February 2026.
Review and Selection
The conference organizing committee will review submitted abstracts. Where possible, qualifying abstracts will be assembled in thematic parallel sessions. For reasons of time and space, not all submissions may be considered.
The conference organizing committee might assign an unaccepted workshop for an oral presentation, and an unaccepted paper for a poster.
The authors will be notified about acceptance and the presentation form by 31. May 2026 at the latest.