March 2nd to May 4th, 2026

Join forces with your research partners, compose a clear project summary and Submit your abstract!

Abstracts must be written in English, with a maximum of 500 words (references excluded) according to the abstract template provided here.

Along with the abstract, participants must also submit:

1. Student card photography or other proof of High Education Enrolment for the academic year of 2025/2026;

2. Recommendation Letter from the researcher in charge of their project;

3. Informed Consent signed by every co-author;

4. Declaration of eventual conflicts of interest;

5. Email and phone number at which they can be contacted.

Candidates must submit every document simultaneously.

May 8th to September 1st, 2026

The abstract will be assessed by at least 2 different members of Jury A, who will score the abstracts from 0–50 points, based on predefined criteria. The final score is the average of the obtained scores.

September 9th, 2026

Only candidates obtaining an average score equal to or higher than 35 points out of 50 are eligible for the competitions.

The 3 best-scored abstracts for each modality of the competition (3 for Basic and 3 for Translational Research) will do an Oral Presentation of their projects, during the Plenary Session of the Innovate Competition.

From the remaining participants, a maximum of 20 will be selected to do a Poster Presentation, which will occur after the Oral Presentations and will be evaluated by the same jury.

October 9 th, 2026

During the Plenary Session of the Innovate Competition, the Oral and Poster Presentations will be evaluated by Jury B.

The Oral and Poster Presentations will be held at the Auditório Manuel Machado Macedo (CEDOC), in an in-person format on October 9th, 2025 — this date may suffer an alteration.

The best presentation in each competition, Basic Research and Translational Research, for each modality receives the Innovate Oral Award or the Innovate Poster Award, as well as a 1st Place Award Certificate.

Additionally, for each category, Basic and Translational Research, from all the Oral and Poster Presentations, Jury B will select one candidate that stands out for their quality to be awarded an Honourable Mention. These candidates will receive an Honourable Mention Certificate.

All participants of the Innovate Competition will be given a Certificate of Participation, after filling out the Satisfaction Survey.

You may find the Rules of Procedure of the Innovate Competition, as well as the models for the documents needed to apply here.

If you have any questions or require more information, please send an email to: competitions@imedconference.org.