A – General

The NeuroFrance 2025 scientific program consists in 36 symposia.

The selection of symposia is based on the following criteria: novelty, interest for a wide audience, quality of the speakers. Gender balance and diversity of career stages among speakers are also required.

Symposia may focus on:

• A theme of general interest to a discipline group.
• A transversal topic interesting a broader audience and several disciplines.
• A methodology or an emerging technique.
• A topic of a club affiliated to the French Neuroscience Society, a GDR, an educational program.
• A specific theme sponsored by, or organized with, a partner (other French or foreign scientific society).

Proposals whose topic has already been presented at the previous meeting of the French Neuroscience Society will not be considered, unless they focus on new scientific aspects (to be justified in the symposium description).

B – SYMPOSIA FORMAT

All symposia have a total duration of 2 hours.

A regular symposium includes:

• A short introduction by the symposium chairperson (5 minutes)
• 4 scientific presentations of 25 minutes each (including questions) given by the speakers or 3 presentations and a roundtable discussion.
• 15 minutes devoted to a young researcher’s presentation selected among the abstracts submitted in January 2025. The symposium chairpersons participate in the final selection of this additional talk.

Special symposia organized by clubs, GDR or other scientific societies may include between 4 and 6 speakers but cannot last more than 2 hours in total.

C – CHOICE OF CHAIRPERSONS AND SPEAKERS

Eligibility

• A symposium chairperson at the 2023 meeting cannot chair a symposium in 2025,
• A speaker at the 2023 meeting cannot be a speaker at the 2025 meeting,
• Members of the Local Organizing Committee can be speakers at NeuroFrance 2025 (unless they were already speakers in 2023)
• The President and Vice-Presidents of the Local Organizing Committee cannot participate in the NeuroFrance 2025 program,
• Members of the Scientific Committee can neither be chairperson nor speaker in a symposium at NeuroFrance 2025,
• A person can only participate in a single session at NeuroFrance 2025,
• A symposium can be chaired by one or two persons. Chairpersons may also be speakers.

To find names of chairpersons or speakers of the previous meeting, check the 2023 program using the search option.

Recommendations for speakers

Gender balance must be respected.

Symposium speakers must belong to different laboratories. The geographic diversity of the participants will be considered.

It may be interesting to involve speakers working abroad. The French Neuroscience Society nevertheless recommends having at least two speakers working in France.

Consent

Proposed symposium speakers must have given their consent for their participation if selected. Their agreement is an engagement to participate if the proposal is selected (see the Agreement section). 
The same person can be proposed in several proposals, but if accepted, this person can only take part in one symposium.

D – PREPARATION OF A PROPOSAL

Language

Symposium proposals must be submitted in English and speakers will give their presentations in English at the meeting.

The description shall:

• Define the objective and the scientific content of the proposed symposium, and the topics (domains) related to it.
• Justify the choice of the participants and their scientific quality.
• Present the innovative and scientific interest in an international research context.
• Explain the chosen format (number of speakers, roundtable…)

The form to be completed for each participant (chairpersons and speakers) is presented at the end of these guidelines. Incomplete proposals will not be considered by the Scientific Committee.

Submit and edit a proposal

All proposals must be submitted online between 4 March and 26 April 2024 (included).

The corresponding chairperson is in charge of all correspondence with the French Neuroscience Society. There is only one corresponding chairperson even if there are two chairpersons for a symposium.
At the end of the submission, the corresponding chairperson receives a proposal number and access code to edit or modify the proposal until the submission deadline. No modifications will be accepted after the deadline. 
A receipt without the access codes is sent to the other participants, giving them the possibility to view the proposal but not to edit it.

Access codes must be used by the corresponding chairperson only.

E – IMPORTANT DATES

Timeline

4 March 2024: Call for symposium proposals opens

26 April 2024: Call for symposium proposals closes

End of May 2024: Symposia selection

July 2024: Program announcement

January 2025 till the meeting: Registration open

January 2025: Abstract submission with the possibility for young researchers to apply for a short presentation in a symposium (abstracts submitted after January 2025 will be selected for poster presentation).

February 2025: selection of additional short presentations by the Scientific committee, in agreement with the symposia chairpersons.

F – FUNDING

The French Neuroscience Society does NOT cover registration fees nor travel / living expenses of symposium chairpersons and speakers working in France. However, the Society has chosen to promote the participation of foreign speakers and young researchers through incentive actions:

• Free registration for all speakers working abroad.
• Assignment of a number of travel grants to student members to attend the meeting
• Reduced registration fees for student and post-doc members.

Symposium organizers are encouraged to seek sources of funding if they wish to directly support the expenses of their speakers. If you submit a proposal, make sure all your partners are aware of these conditions.

H – AGREEMENT

By submitting a proposal, the applicant acknowledges having read and accepted the following conditions:

Regarding funding

See above.

Regarding participation

• The proposal must comply with the ethical rules for scientific research in general, and especially for human and animal research.
• The Scientific Committee will not consider incomplete proposals or proposals involving the participation of ineligible persons (see section « Choice of chairpersons and speakers »).
• Each proposed participant has agreed to the proposal and is committed to participate to the meeting if accepted. Therefore, speakers accept the conditions of participation as defined by the French Neuroscience Society.
• The Scientific Committee may require modifications regarding the speakers or subjects before final acceptance of the proposal.
• The Scientific Committee may reject any change to a proposal once it has been accepted, and reserves the right to reject any proposal that would no longer correspond to the approved proposal. Any change must receive the consent of the Scientific Committee.
• The chairpersons are solely responsible for the content of their symposium proposal.

APPENDIX: DESCRIPTION OF THE SYMPOSIUM PROPOSAL FORMS

List of information necessary to complete the forms:

Description page

Use the drop-down menu to specify if the symposium is proposed by:

• an individual researcher
• a club affiliated to the French Neuroscience Society, GDR or educational program
• another scientific society

Symposium title: <100 characters, including spaces. In English. Do not use abbreviations.

Brief description: < 500 characters, including spaces. In English.

Objectives: interest, timeliness and novelty, choice of participants, format (justify your choice if you wish to add a roundtable at the end of the session): < 1700 characters including spaces. In English.

Topics (domains): use the drop-down menu to select a topic (maximum of two):

• Neurodevelopment
• Neuro-excitability, synapse and glia
• Neurological and psychiatric diseases, experimental therapeutics
• Integrative, sensory and motor neuroscience
• Neuroendocrinology and integrative physiology
• Cognitive, affective and behavioral neuroscience, neuroethology
• Theoretical and computational neuroscience

Chairperson and speaker pages

Title: – / Dr / Prof 
Family (last) name: 
First (given) name and initials: 
Status: PhD student / junior scientist (aged <45) / senior scientist 
Gender identity: Agender / Androgynous / Bigender / Genderfluid / Genderqueer / Gender non-conforming / Identity not listed / Man / Non-binary / Pangender / Prefer not to say / Questioning / Two-spirit / Woman /
Neuroscience society membership (select among list)
Institution 1 (university, center, etc.): 
Institution 2 (continued): 
Institution 3 (continued): 
Street: 
Postal code (when preceding the city): 
City: 
Zip / Postal code (when following the city): 
Country: 
Phone: 
Email address (mandatory): 
Publications (maximum 3):

For speakers only

Presentation title: < 100 characters. In English. Do not use abbreviations.

USEFUL LINKS

Members of the Scientific Committee and the Local Organizing Committee for NeuroFrance 2025.

Scientific programme of the 2023 meeting.