The Kettil Bruun Society’s 51st Symposium
The 51st KBS Symposium is hosted by Vytautas Magnus University (VMU) in collaboration with the Lithuanian University of Health Sciences, Kaunas IN, and the Kaunas City.
We are thrilled to announce that the Call for Abstracts for the 2026 KBS Conference is now open! The 2026 meeting in Kaunas, Lithuania, taking place from 1 to 5 June, will be a wonderful opportunity for our community to come together, share new insights, and reconnect. We warmly invite all colleagues engaged in alcohol research to take part in the 51st Annual Alcohol Epidemiology Symposium of the Kettil Bruun Society.
We have a special conference planned that combines the modern and the historic to create an unforgettable experience for all participants. You can read more on our website. We hope that we will see as many of you as possible in attendance and we are working hard to make it as easy as possible for you to attend, wherever you come from. Please do not hesitate to contact us with any queries at kbs2026lithuania@gmail.com .
You can already create your account on the symposium website and, if you have remaining funds that you would like to use this year, you may pay the registration fee by bank transfer. We are working to enable credit card payments at the beginning of 2026.
The primary purpose of the annual KBS symposium is to provide a forum for researchers involved in studies on alcohol to exchange ideas about their ongoing research. Therefore, empirical research, theoretical papers and reviews of the literature are welcome. Social and epidemiological studies are interpreted in a broad context as they may include research in a variety of disciplines, such as psychology, sociology, anthropology, criminology, economics, history, public health and other disciplines.
The Symposium focuses on discussion of pre-circulated papers. Papers are presented in 10-minute segments followed by a discussant’s comments and general audience participation. Any person submitting a paper may be asked to be a discussant or chair of a session.
Researchers are invited to submit informative abstracts by 31 January 2026 via the conference website.
Papers can be on any topic broadly related to alcohol epidemiology and alcohol policy, previous conferences have broadly grouped the program into the following topics:
- Theory & conceptual issues (drinking cultures, diagnostic classifications and concepts, history, anthropology and economics, ethical considerations);
- Epidemiology (drinking patterns & drinking consequences);
- Policy (public policies & role of the alcohol industry);
- Behaviour change, interventions & treatment; and
- Methodology (instruments & measurements, modelling & quantitative methods, qualitative and mixed approaches).
We are especially aiming for a strong program of work around the alcohol and First Nations people cutting across all these themes.
The word limit for the abstract is 250 words (maximum 3 keywords). The abstract must always include a sentence (Declaration of Interest) stating whether there exists any relationship that could be viewed as presenting a potential conflict of interest (if so, a full disclosure must be given).
Abstract submission and financial aid application webpages are open now.
- The deadline for submission of abstracts as well as applications for financial aid is 31 January 2026
- Abstract and financial aid decisions will be communicated by late February 2026
- Early bird registration will be available until 1 March 2026
- Early-career scientists who present papers at this year’s conference can apply for the Ole-Jørgen Skog Award. The deadline for sending in your contribution is 3 May 2026.
We kindly encourage you to share this call for abstracts with colleagues who are engaged in alcohol research.
Website: www.kbs2026lithuania.org
Email: kbs2026lithuania@gmail.com
Hashtag: #KBS2026