Call for Special Interest Groups (SIGs):

The Jerusalem 2026 Organizing committee is excited to invite you to submit abstracts for SIGs.

What are SIGs and how do they relate to the 2026 ECIM conference?

SIGs are Special Interest Groups, joining together clinicians, researchers, educators and opinion leaders, dedicated to further progress in various topics of interest.

Inspired by the successful experience of SIGs, within the Society for Integrative Oncology and other organizations, we hope to use the 2026 ECIM conference as a platform for the formation of international groups of interest in various other fields of Integrative Medicine (IM).
Therefore, the third day of the ECIM 2026 Conference will be dedicated to presentations of the work of these SIGs to conference participants.

How can I start a special interest group?

* Identify a theme (clinical, research etc.) in IM that is of high interest to the field, and has the potential to attract people who may be interested in collaborating during 2026, with the goal of reaching concrete outcomes, such as: developing clinical guidelines; establishing a research protocol; creating educational modules, etc.

* Define the SIG mission and title. Keep in mind that it may be wiser to choose a concrete rather than a broader theme!

* Suggest a focused project, which the SIG can accomplish during 2026 (e.g., co-authoring an article).

* Suggest two SIG co-chairs and at least 5 additional group members. Suggestions should be made with consideration to diversity, equity, and inclusion regarding gender, nationality, Complementary, IM and conventional disciplines, age, experience, academic activity, etc.

Eureka! I have a perfect SIG, what should I do?

* Submit an abstract of up to 400 words via the SIG submission form

* Abstracts should include background and reasoning for establishing the SIG; goal/expected outcomes; co-chair and core group members names and affiliations; method of work.

* Inquiries regarding SIGs can be sent to [email protected]

Key Dates

And what next?

* The Scientific Committee will review all abstracts and make a selection of SIGs who can present their work at the 2026 conference. At this stage, we will consider and support SIGs who realistically can accomplish their plans during 2026 and have the potential to sustain their engagement as a contributory group throughout 2026 .

* A liaison from the conference Scientific Committee will be assigned to support the selected SIGs

* During 2026 the selected SIGs will meet on a regular basis toward establishing their goal, using a designated working platform (digital/face-to-face), and report to the liaison monthly.

* On the third day of the conference, the selected SIGs will meet in various formats i.e. world Café, panels, presentations, hands-on workshop, to work together face to face, and share with conference participants their work.

* ECIM 2026 will definitely not be the end of these SIGs. We look forward for viability and activity of the groups. We will also encourage SIGs that were not selected for presenting at the conference, to further their important work!

* We are working on collaborating with a peer reviewed journal platform that will publish proceedings of selected SIGs.

We look forward to an outstanding impact of SIGs on Integrative Medicine!

Yours,