Session Proposals

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Proposal Submission Site

Session proposals for the 2026 Annual Meeting are no longer being accepted. The deadline for proposal submission was May 15, 2025 at 11:59 pm (US EDT, UTC -4). The abstract submission site will open for poster abstracts for the 2026 Annual Meeting on August 15, 2025.

The Basics of Preparing a Session Proposal

Step 1: The Idea

Look at previous SOT Programs for inspiration and to avoid previously covered topics.

Step 2: Pick the Session Type

Choose between eight distinct section formats and lengths.

Step 3: Find Your Experts

Don’t be afraid to reach out to someone you don’t know!

Step 4: Prepare the Proposal

Adapt your abstract from relevant ones from literature searches.

Step 5: Get Endorsements

Engage the SOT Component Groups in reviewing your proposal before submission.

Step 6: Submit Your Proposal

Submit your proposal by May 15 at 11:59 pm (US EDT, UTC -4).

The Details of Preparing a Session Proposal

 Step 1: The Idea

If it is interesting to you, it is likely interesting to others!

You should look to previous SOT Programs for inspiration, or this list of previous sessions to see what topics may not need to be covered again.

There are many session formats (more on those next) and session lengths to accommodate a wide variety of ideas and topics. Don't discount yours just because it may be different from what you've seen before. Different is good!

Four individuals stand behind a podium. They are looking at a monitor sitting on the long, skirted table next to the podium.

 Step 2: Pick the Session Type

Continuing Education

195 minutes, 4–6 presenters
45 minutes, 2 presenters

These sessions emphasize quality presentations that cover established knowledge in toxicology, as well as advanced techniques or approaches for those with experience in the field.

These sessions are always on Sunday and are on a different development timeline than other sessions. Visit the “CE Course Planning” web page for more information.

Education-Career Development§

90 minutes, 3–4 presenters

These sessions provide tools and resources to toxicologists that will enhance their professional and scientific development by identifying training needs and employment trends, among other opportunities. Key objectives of these sessions can include teaching and recruiting students to toxicology, enhancing networking and mentoring, and more.

Sample Education-Career Development Proposal Session

Historical Highlights*

90 minutes, 1 or more presenters

These sessions review a historical body of science that has influenced toxicology, including the work of multiple laboratories and the resulting advancement of the science.

This session type can be 165 minutes if the proposer submits a letter justifying why extra time is needed.

Informational§*

90 minutes, 3–4 presenters

These sessions are not based on the outcome of specific scientific research but are sessions that address the professional interests and needs of toxicologists. The goal of these sessions is to provide attendees with tools and resources to ensure that the value of toxicology is widely understood, accepted, and utilized in enhancing human, animal, and environmental health.

This session type can be 165 minutes if the proposer submits a letter justfying why extra time is needed.

Sample Informational Proposal Session

Regional Interest

165 minutes, 4–5 presenters
90 minutes, 3-4 presenters

These sessions focus on topics that examine public health and/or ecological problems of the region in question.

Roundtable§

90 minutes, 2–4 presenters and a moderator

These sessions are moderated discussions on controversial topics, where the presenters provide three- to five-minute statements followed by balanced time for discussions and questions.

Sample Roundtable Proposal Session

Symposium^

165 minutes, 4–5 presenters
90 minutes, 2–3 presenters

These sessions feature cutting-edge science that is exploring new areas, concepts, or data at the forefront of toxicology.

Sample Symposium Proposal for 165-Minute Session

Workshop^

165 minutes, 4–5 presenters
90 minutes, 2–3 presenters

These sessions are informal, interactive presentations that highlight state-of-the-art knowledge in toxicology. These sessions should emphasize a discussion component.

Sample Workshop Proposal for 165-Minute Session
  • ^Designation as an ITS or IAT Session

    A limited number of Symposia and/or Workshops are designated as Innovations in Toxicological Sciences (ITS) or Innovations in Applied Toxicology (IAT). SOT may fund more than the standard number of nonmember speakers (up to four) for a Symposium or Workshop Session if it is accepted to be designated as ITS or IAT.

    ITS-designated sessions introduce new technologies or scientific disciplines to meeting attendees, while IAT-designated sessions introduce innovative approaches in applied research. To apply for the IAT or ITS designation, you must submit a letter (example of an ITS/IAT justification letter) providing a clear justification of how the session fits the nature of these designations and how the topic may influence the science or practice of toxicology. In addition, each letter should explain how the speakers were selected and indicate what efforts were undertaken to identify potential SOT members as speakers (e.g., literature search). Your letter should be sent to David Rossé at SOT Headquarters by May 15 and should include the system-generated control ID# assigned to your proposal on the Proposal Submission Site.

  • §Engagement Session Designation

    Sessions that encourage audience participation, discussion among audience members, polling, and other interactive activities may be designated as an “Engagement Session” during the session proposal process.

    The Engagement Session format debuted at the SOT Annual Meeting in 2025, with sessions on mentoring and public and environmental health protection. The most likely session types to carry the Engagement Session designation are Education-Career Development, Informational Session, and Roundtable Sessions, but the designation may be applied to any session type that has a participation element.

    Sessions carrying the Engagement Session designation will be highlighted in the Annual Meeting Program and on-site signage.

    The decision to designate a Scientific Session proposal as an Engagement Session will be at the discretion of the Scientific Program Committee.

  • *Requesting a Longer Session Time

    This option is available only for Informational Sessions and Historical Highlights Sessions. For an 90-minute Informational Session or Historical Highlights Session to be considered for 165 minutes, the proposal submitter will need to provide a letter when the proposal is submitted with clear justification of why the extended time is warranted. Your letter should be sent to David Rossé at SOT Headquarters by May 15 and should include the system-generated control ID# assigned to your proposal on the Proposal Submission Site.

 Step 3: Find Your Experts

There are many ways to identify speakers for sessions. Remember to think broadly and to seek guidance from others.

Search the Literature

Use key words related to your topic.

Cold Call (or Email)

People are usually flattered to be asked. If they can't do it, they'll likely suggest someone else.

Pursue Diversity

Consider diversity from various angles: employment sector, gender, geographic location, ethnicity, etc.

Unique Perspectives

Look for diverse scientific views, as hearing the same presentation five times is not entertaining.

Presenter and Chair Restrictions

  • An individual can be listed in up to two session proposals with a role as speaker (full scientific presentation, not an Introduction or Panel Discussion participant) limited to one session.
    • Roles are defined as serving as Chair, Co-Chair, or Speaker.
    • This rule applies to sessions reviewed by the Scientific Program Committee (e.g., Symposium, Workshop, Roundtable, Informational, Education-Career Sessions) and not Continuing Education courses, Tiny Tox Talks, Platform, and Poster Sessions.
  • Chairs are responsible for asking speakers in their session proposals if they are involved in any other SOT session proposals.

Presenter Availability

Speakers must be available to be in San Diego, California:

  • Sunday, March 22, 2026 (Continuing Education)
  • Monday, March 23–Wednesday, March 25, 2026 (All Other Sessions)

The final Scientific Session schedule will be announced by October 2025 so that speakers can make travel arrangements.

Speaker Funding

No funding (full funding or meeting registration) is available for SOT member speakers. For nonmember speakers, the funding policy varies depending on the session type. Note that the same nonmember speaker cannot receive full travel funding for two consecutive SOT Annual Meetings.

Full funding for up to 3 nonmember speakers:
  • Symposium (165 minutes)
  • Workshop (165 minutes)
  • Regional Interest (165 minutes)
Full funding for one nonmember speaker:
  • Continuing Education
Full funding for up to 2 nonmember speakers
  • Symposium (90 minutes)
  • Workshop (90 minutes)
  • Education-Career Development
  • Historical Highlights
  • Informational
  • Roundtable
  • Regional Chapter (90 minutes)
Full travel funding includes:
  • Roundtrip economy, non-refundable airfare from speaker home city to Annual Meeting city
  • One night of housing in a SOT block hotel
  • Two days of meals, up to $50 per day, reimbursed following the Annual Meeting
  • Incidentals such as taxi/Uber/Lyft, parking at home city airport, tips
  • Rental cars are not reimbursable

 Step 4: Prepare the Proposal

The purpose of your session should be clear and well-defined in your session description, which is limited to 5,000 characters including spaces. For Continuing Education courses, the topic should have a broad appeal across employment sectors.

Your session description should follow these recommendations:

  • Avoid listing the individual presenter names and their presentation titles in the session description; this information will be captured in the individual presenter section of the Proposal Site. Listing presenter names and their talk titles limits the characters left for the session description.
  • Describe the subject, highlighting the scientific issues, innovations, and/or research to be addressed.
  • Avoid using report or book references, abbreviations, or technical jargon.
  • Combine the science with promotion! Remember that the session description will ultimately be used in the Annual Meeting materials as the “marketing” abstract.
Four individuals stand behind a podium. They are looking at a monitor sitting on the long, skirted table next to the podium.

 Step 5: Get Endorsements

A session proposal must list at least one endorser but may have up to three endorsers (Specialty Section, Special Interest Group, or select SOT Committee).

  • The endorser most aligned with the topic of the session proposal should be designated as the Primary Endorser in the proposal submission.
  • Secondary and Tertiary Endorsers are interchangeable.
  • Special Interest Groups (SIGs) or SOT Committees should not be listed as Primary Endorser for a science-driven proposal; listing a SIG or SOT Committee as Primary Endorser for an Education-Career Development Session is acceptable.

Proposal submitters/Chairs are highly encouraged to submit their proposal to an endorsing group for a pre-review of the proposal.

  • The Scientific Program Committee (SPC) is not involved in any Endorser pre-review process.
  • Due to the wide range in the number of proposals received by each Endorser, the Endorsers do not have uniform pre-review procedures or pre-review deadlines. Submitters must check with the Endorser contact point for information and the deadline associated with the pre-review.
  • Start Early

    The earlier you start this step/process, the better the chance that your proposal will be approved/accepted by the Scientific Program Committee (SPC) or the Continuing Education (CE) Committee. Over the years, the SPC and CE Committee have found that proposals that have undergone the editing and refinement process with potential endorsers before submission receive higher scores and ranks during the review.

    Each endorsing group has unique, internal deadlines that are separate from the established SOT session proposal deadline. The SPC highly encourages this pre-review. Please check with each group individually to ensure that your proposal receives the appropriate feedback before submission.

  • Contacting Endorsers

    Many endorsing groups (SOT Special Interest Groups, Specialty Sections, Committees, and other groups) appreciate early review before the proposals are submitted to the Proposal Site. You should reach out to your desired endorsers directly with enough time before the submission deadline to ensure sufficient time for review and revision; contact the endorsing group(s) to determine the timeline for “pre-proposal” review. Each proposal can have up to three endorsing groups (one primary and two secondary). For a list of contact points for endorser early review (“pre-review”), please review this document.

  • Information for Endorsers
    • Endorsers may endorse an unlimited number of proposals (as Primary Endorser, Secondary Endorser, or Tertiary Endorser).
    • Session proposals can select up to three endorsers; at least one endorser is required.
    • If an endorser is listed as Primary Endorser in a particular proposal, the topic should be clearly aligned with or of great interest to that endorser.
      • If an endorser was instrumental in developing a proposal, that endorser should list themselves as Primary Endorser. Selecting a Secondary and Tertiary Endorser is highly recommended for thorough review of the proposal by other groups.
    • Secondary and Tertiary Endorsements are interchangeable (there is no hierarchy regarding Secondary or Tertiary Endorser listing).

    Financial Obligation: Endorsement of a Scientific Session or CE course does not imply a financial obligation by your group to fund nonmember speakers or provide any type of stipend or honorarium. SOT provides funding for a limited number of nonmember speakers per accepted session type: full funding (meeting registration, round-trip airfare, housing, meals, and ground transportation) or meeting registration–only support. Per SOT policy, no funding (travel or registration) is available for SOT members.

    Pre-proposal (informal) review (before May 15): Many endorsing groups appreciate early review before the proposals are submitted to the submission site. Contact the endorsing group directly to determine their timeline for pre-proposal review which most likely will be several weeks before the May 15 proposal deadline.

    Formal Proposal Peview (after May 15): Endorsing groups are asked to review finalized session and CE proposals and provide scores, ranks, and comments to proposals where they are tapped as endorsers. SOT Headquarters will provide complete directions on using the form to score and provide comments on proposals. Directions will be emailed to the endorsing group officers.

    Specialty Section Guaranteed Acceptance Program: Each year, selected Specialty Sections will be granted with “guaranteed acceptance” on one session type of their choice (Symposium, Workshop, Roundtable, Informational, Regional Interest, etc.). Specialty Section officers will be notified well in advance of their group being tapped for one session proposal for guaranteed acceptance.

    Guaranteed Acceptance by Specialty Section Schedule

 Step 6: Submit Your Proposal

Log In to the Submission Site

Watch Tutorial

Logging in

You do not need to be an SOT member to create a Proposal Submission Site account. For SOT members, your Proposal Submission Site information is separate from your ToXchange and SOT website credentials.

Create a Session

Indicate your preferred session type by selecting the “Add new” button next to that session type. Remember to note the session lengths for sessions that have two length options.

Complete the Session Information Section

Watch Tutorials

Part 1: Session Description and Endorser Selection

Part 2: Chair, Co-Chair, Presenter Entry and Proposal Finalization

Session Title and Session Description Entry

Please review the instructions in Step 4 on this page before completing this section of the proposal submission process. Remember that your title cannot exceed 1,000 characters with spaces, and your description cannot exceed 5,000 characters with spaces.

Providing Endorser Information

Select one Primary Endorser for which the specialty area closely matches the proposal subject area and up to two additional proposal endorsers from the pre-populated list of SOT Review Groups. Remember that there must be a Primary Endorser for any proposal. Proposal endorsers bear no financial responsibility for an accepted session or course.

Choose a Secondary Presentation Type

After selecting your desired presentation type (Symposium, Workshop, etc.), choose a second presentation type as well. The Scientific Program and Continuing Education Committees consider both session types before determining the most appropriate type for each tentatively accepted session.

You also will be asked to declare any perceived or real conflicts of interest during this step.

Designate a Chair and Co-Chair

  • An individual can be listed in up to 2 session proposals with a role as speaker (full scientific presentation, not an Introduction or Panel Discussion participant) limited to one session.
    • Roles are defined as serving as Chair, Co-Chair, or Speaker.
    • This rule applies to sessions reviewed by the Scientific Program Committee (e.g., Symposium, Workshop, Roundtable, Informational, Education-Career Sessions) and not Continuing Education courses, Tiny Tox Talks, Platform, and Poster Sessions.
  • Chairs are responsible for asking speakers in their session proposals if they are involved in any other SOT session proposals.

Enter the Speaker Information

All speakers should be confirmed before submitting your proposal. Session proposals where presenters are listed as TBD have a higher probability of being rejected by the Scientific Program Committee (SPC). Remember that an individual cannot be designated as a presenter in more than two proposals.

Please complete all fields for each presenter and designate each presenter’s SOT membership status. It is very important that the member status be properly selected, as the SPC relies on this information to determine funding. If you are not sure whether a presenter is a member, you can check the online SOT Membership Directory (individuals who are not listed in the directory are not SOT members).

Individual Presentation Descriptions

The description for each talk should provide enough detail that the Scientific Program or Continuing Education Committee members can fully gauge the contribution and role of each presenter.

Funding Request

You have three options: no SOT funding required, SOT full funding requested, and registration only. The same nonmember speaker cannot receive full travel funding for two consecutive SOT Annual Meetings.

  • No SOT Funding Required
    Select this option for all SOT members. This also applies to nonmember presenters who cannot or will not apply for full funding or registration-only support. This generally applies to federal/local jurisdiction employees who cannot accept any level of funding from the Society. It also may be applicable for presenters whose employer will cover their registration fees.
  • SOT Full Funding Requested
    Reserved for up to three nonmembers in a proposed Symposium Session, Workshop Session, Regional Interest Session, or any 165-minute session. You may apply for full funding support for two nonmembers for Roundtable, Historical Highlights, Informational, or Education-Career Development Sessions (90-minute sessions). Full funding for nonmember Continuing Education course presenters is limited to one per course.

    Full travel funding includes:
    • Roundtrip economy, non-refundable airfare from speaker home city to Annual Meeting city
    • One night of housing in a SOT block hotel
    • Two days of meals, up to $50 per day, reimbursed following the Annual Meeting
    • Incidentals such as taxi/Uber/Lyft, parking at home city airport, tips
    • Rental cars are not reimbursable
  • Registration Only
    Select this option for nonmember presenters who will apply for registration-only support. Nonmembers who elect this option will not be eligible to submit reimbursement claims at the end of the meeting.