The European Space Weather Week (ESWW) 2026 will be held in Florence, Italy from 2nd - 6th November in a hybrid format. The overarching theme for ESWW2026 is ‘Data-driven and physics-based cross-scale Space Weather and Space Climate’.
The ESWW conference is an excellent opportunity for people from all over the world to gather and discuss the most recent insights in Space Weather and Space Climate, and to address the emerging challenges and impacts. Science, observations, data exploitation, data standards and metadata, service development, operational models, engineering and industrial needs are all important aspects of the field that are addressed.
One of the strengths of ESWW is that participants can contribute significantly to its content through Parallel Sessions, Plenary Sessions and Topical Discussion Meetings (TDMs). The ESWW Programme Committee (PC) and the Local Organising Committee (LOC) for ESWW 2026 are pleased to announce the following Call for convening of Plenary, Parallel sessions, as well as Topical Discussion Meetings. Submissions will be accepted through the ESWW website during the following time window:
Opening date - 16th February 2026
Closing date (plenary and parallel) - 20th March 2026
Closing date (TDMs) - 3rd April 2026
The application form is available here.
Plenary sessions at ESWW form a key component of the conference, open to all attendees. They provide an opportunity to share knowledge and the latest advancements with a broad audience within the Space Weather community.
This year, the ESWW will host four plenary sessions. Two plenary sessions will be dedicated to topics proposed by the community. Here, the community is invited to submit proposals to convene. Plenary session proposals are invited covering one or more of the following topics: modelling, data analysis, instrumentation, observations and measurements, end-user needs and applications, and R2O2R. The proposed sessions must fit within the theme of the conference, “Data-driven and physics-based cross-scale Space Weather and Space Climate”. Proposals are sought that are engaging, of a particularly high-standard, relevant to the broader Space Weather and Space Climate community, and designed to stimulate discussion and debate.
The dedicated plenary sessions will feature scene-setting talks, but the main focus will be on a panel discussion. Introductory presentations by panellists will be kept to a minimum. For more details, please refer to the plenary convenor guidelines. The panellists will be selected by the convenors, and panellists will be required to submit an abstract. In due course, a call will open for abstract submissions to these sessions. Convenors will have the option of asking those submitting abstracts to become a panellist, but the default format will be posters.
The other two plenary sessions will feature distinguished presentations proposed by the convenors of parallel sessions, promoting parallel sessions to a broader audience. As such these sessions are not part of this call. Distinguished presentations may include cutting-edge research, impactful applications, or review talks but shall always incorporate sufficient contextual information for the broader audience with a longer duration assigned to permit this. Arrangements for these sessions will be made after the abstract selection process for the parallel sessions is finalised.
You can submit a Pleanry Session following the guidelines in the first section of the common application form.
The following information is required
After the session proposal deadline, the Programme Committee (PC) will review the proposals. Session conveners will be notified in the beginning of April as to whether their proposal has been successful. Afterwards, a call for session abstracts (talks and posters) will be announced and the Guidelines for Conveners will be published. A PC member will be assigned as point-of-contact (PoC) for each session and a dedicated “meld meeting” (between the session conveners and members of the PC) will be held on 11th May to provide information on the process of the abstract reviewing. In preparation of the final programme, convenors will be asked to provide the names of two to four Chairs (moderators). One of these, the Lead Chair (moderator), will already have been provided in the initial proposal. At least one Chair should be a convenor. At least one Chair will be attending in-person, in Florence. At least one Chair will take responsibility to monitor online comments.
This year, ESWW PC decided to implement a new format for parallel sessions incorporating recurring themes whilst allowing for increased input from the community.
Those interested in convening a session at ESWW2026 may submit a proposal to one of the following Topics:
Each topic may include more than one (and shall include at least one) session.
Proposers have the freedom to choose the title for their session. In the session description, the motivation why the proposed session is relevant for this year should be provided in one or two sentences. The proposed session may be a general one or focusing on a specific subject related to a selected Topic.
In case there are no suitable submissions for a given topic, or the specific subjects of selected sessions do not cover the full breadth of the topic, the PC shall consider filling the gaps by reaching out to suitable conveners.
The Program Committee strongly encourages those who have not previously proposed a session to do so. In line with our commitment to diversity and inclusion, we welcome and encourage applications from conveners of all backgrounds, including but not limited to, different career stages, geographical locations, ability, genders, and ethnicities.
Under the Other (OTH) topic, an() open parallel session(s), welcoming submissions on research topics related to Space Weather and Space Climate but not covered by any other focused sessions will be organised by the PC who may nominate conveners.
You can submit a Parallel Session following the guidelines in the first section of the common application form.
The following information is required
After the session proposal deadline, the Programme Committee (PC) will review the proposals. Session conveners will be notified in the beginning of April as to whether their proposal has been successful. Afterwards, a call for session abstracts (talks and posters) will be announced and the Guidelines for Conveners will be published. A PC member will be assigned as point-of-contact (PoC) for each session and a dedicated “meld meeting” (between the session conveners and members of the PC) will be held on 11th May to provide information on the process of the abstract reviewing.
Topical Discussion Meetings (TDMs) are a key component of the European Space Weather Week (ESWW) – a format meant to facilitate engaging debates within the heliospheric, and Space Weather and Space Climate communities. These meetings provide the opportunity for interested participants to address key issues in a community forum style that complements the conference sessions.
We encourage ESWW participants to submit proposals for TDMs for the upcoming ESWW 2026 meeting in Florence, Italy. Potential conveners must describe in dedicated fields of the proposal form the target community, the expected outcome of the meeting, and its potential impact.
Please see the detailed set of TDM preparation Guidelines (Download Guidelines for ESWW TDM) that we expect TDM conveners to follow. These are based on previous experience and will help you plan better your forum for community discussions, debates, and interactivity. They will help enhance the TDM experience at ESWW.
The ESWW PC will carefully review the TDM proposals and select those that will be included in this year’s conference programme. Each submission will be evaluated based on its preparation, topicality, and potential to encourage discussion. Due to the high level of interest, only a selection of the proposed TDMs will take place.
Proposers will be notified of the selection result in early May of 2026.
To ensure the dissemination of the TDMs’ outcomes and inform the community about a discussion they missed, the Conveners of successful TDM proposals will be required to provide a Summary Report, including any actions/outcomes, within two weeks of the TDM taking place at the ESWW. A report template is available here:
You can submit a TDM Session following the guidelines in the first section of the common application form.
We look forward to receiving your submissions and to a successful and engaging ESWW.