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ECCB 2026: European Conference on Computational Biology 2026
CICG - The International Conference Center Geneva
Geneva, Switzerland, August 31-September 4, 2026
Conference websitehttps://eccb2026.org/
Submission linkhttps://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=eccb2026
Tutorial/Workshop Submission DeadlineJanuary 5, 2026
Proceedings Submission DeadlineMarch 5, 2026
ELIXIR Communities SubmissionsApril 20, 2026
Highlights/Posters Submission DeadlineApril 20, 2026

The European Conference on Computational Biology (ECCB) is the leading European gathering for scientists working in computational biology, bioinformatics, and data-driven life sciences. Held every two years in a different European city, ECCB provides a unique space for researchers to share ideas, explore new methods, and drive innovation in the field. Note that, in odd-numbered years, ECCB is jointly organized with ISMB (International Conference on Intelligent Systems for Molecular Biology). 

From 31 August to 4 September 2026, Geneva will become a hub for computational biology, welcoming scientists and researchers from across Europe for a week of discovery, collaboration, and exchange. Organized by the SIB Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, this edition is expected to welcome over a thousand experts to explore the latest advancements in genomics, transcriptomics, structural bioinformatics, systems biology, medicine and environmental bioinformatics. 

With a strong focus on discoveries and their applications, ECCB unites bioinformaticians, computational biologists, developers, biocurators, and clinicians to tackle key biological challenges. Whether to present research, exchange ideas, or build new collaborations, ECCB 2026 offers a dynamic and inspiring environment to connect with the global computational biology community.

Submission Guidelines

ECCB 2026 invites proposals for workshops and tutorials, full manuscripts for proceedings publications, and abstracts for highlight talks and posters in the field of computational biology and bioinformatics.

All submissions must align with one of the five scientific areas of ECCB 2026, listed in the "Scientific Areas" section below. The purpose of each submission should be to communicate a scientific result. Please note that advertisement for commercial software packages or products is outside the scope of this conference. ELIXIR Community members are invited to submit their abstracts for talks and posters under the specific ELIXIR Communities track. Proceedings and abstracts must be written and presented in clear and concise English.

Presenting authors must attend the conference in person and are required to register and pay the conference registration fee.

Each presenting author is allowed to submit one contribution per call type (Tutorials & Workshops, Proceedings, Highlight Talks & Posters).

Please note that decision notification will be sent to the corresponding author(s) only, to the email used to sign into the abstract system.

 

Manuscripts for Proceedings

ECCB 2026 invites submissions of full manuscripts (not abstracts) presenting original previously unpublished work in computational biology. We welcome contributions showcasing novel computational techniques or their applications across a wide spectrum of life sciences, from biology and medicine to environmental sciences.

Accepted papers will be presented in person at the ECCB 2026 conference as 15-minute talks followed by 3 minutes for discussions. Authors whose proceedings papers are not selected may be offered the opportunity to present a poster instead. 

Accepted manuscripts will be published as part of an online-only, open access (CC-BY) supplementary issue of the journal Bioinformatics (Oxford University Press). These articles will be fully citable, indexed in Medline and ISI, and available online prior to the conference. See the ECCB2024 supplementary issue for an example of published conference proceedings by Oxford University Press.

Each Submission must include:

  1. Title: Title of your submission.
  2. Abstract: Max 250 words; no tables, images or references. Submissions with abstracts exceeding the maximum number of 250 words will be rejected.
  3. Presenting Author Details: The full name, affiliation, and email address of the presenting author.  The presenting author must register for the conference and deliver the Proceedings talk in person. The presenting author does not necessarily have to be the first author of the manuscript.
  4. Co-Author Details: The full name, affiliation, and email address of all co-authors. Note that all co-authors must agree to the submission.
  5. Keywords: Please select at least three keywords to describe the submission. For example keywords, please visit this webpage.
  6. Scientific Area Selection: Please indicate a primary and a secondary scientific area for your paper, out of the 5 listed in the "Scientific Areas" section. 
  7. Manuscript File: Manuscripts should be submitted as a PDF file or Word document (max 10 MB) using the Bioinformatics journal template (Word | LaTeX) from Oxford University Press (OUP). The manuscript (with embedded figures, tables and references) should not exceed 7 pages (approx. 5000 words) and must contain an abstract whose length does not exceed 250 words. Note that papers should be submitted in their final form according to the layout style required by OUP Bioinformatics journal. Please follow the OUP Instructions for Authors and Instructions on Submitting your Manuscript online. Manuscripts that fail to adhere to this format will not be reviewed.
  8. Supplementary Material (if any): This must be compiled into a single PDF file (max 10 MB). It is the responsibility of the submitter to verify that the PDF is completely viewable/printable by all major operating systems (Linux, MacOS, Windows). Please adjust the content of the supplementary material to the guidelines specified in these instructions for authors. The supplementary material will be published alongside the online version of the conference paper. We do not support supplementary material presented at any other than the publisher’s site. OUP does not edit or typeset supplementary data – it is uploaded online exactly as it is received, so authors must ensure its accuracy before submitting it.
  9. Preprint Information (if applicable): If your manuscript is published as a preprint, please provide the DOI or the URL to your preprint on the preprint server. We encourage the authors to share the prepublication of their manuscripts on preprint servers. Please read carefully the General Policies section in the Instructions for Authors at OUP Bioinformatics and follow their rules in the publication of your preprint. The authors of the manuscripts accepted for publication will be required to update the status of their preprint as specified in the Author Self-Archiving policy page.
  10. Software and Data (if applicable): Any data or code published with the manuscript should be made available in public repositories/websites. If the manuscript includes the description of new software, the authors should link the repository where the code is available. We advise authors to follow the recommended practices in research software development. Authors are required to make data and software that is published with the manuscript or essential to assess the manuscript's contributions available to reviewers at the time point of submission, either through general open access (encouraged) or by providing access to a protected site. Resources that are kept access-restricted during review must, upon acceptance, adhere to the OUP Bioinformatics Author Guidelines and all open access requirements therein.
  11. Poster Option: Please indicate on the form if you wish to present a poster in case your proceedings submission is not selected.

All submissions must be uploaded using the conference submission site by the proceedings deadline: March 5, 2026 at 1 p.m. CET.

Review process  

All submissions will be evaluated by area chairs and co-chairs and external reviewers, based on the following criteria: 

A first selection on impact and suitability for the conference, based on the abstract alone, will be performed by area chairs and co-chairs. At that stage, papers may be moved between areas in order to optimize balance and fit during the review process. Papers may also be rejected at that first stage. A second in-depth assessment will be made by external reviewers, supervised by area chairs and co-chairs. 

The ECCB 2026 Scientific Committee and area chairs will make the final decision based on the following criteria: 

  1. Originality and exclusivity. At the time of submission to ECCB2026 and for the entire review period, the submission must not be under review by any other conference or scientific journal.
  2. Scientific quality and rigor.
  3. Clarity, presentation quality and accessibility to a broad audience
  4. Relevance and interest for the conference.
  5. Impact of the submission in the field. 

After review, a decision will be communicated to all corresponding authors - either conditional acceptance or rejection. Because there is no second round of review, only manuscripts that do not require substantial revisions will be accepted. Authors whose papers have been conditionally accepted will be permitted to address minor edits and corrections in response to reviewers’ comments in a short fixed time interval. Revised manuscripts will then be assessed by the area chairs and co-chairs prior to final acceptance.  

Abstracts for Highlight Talk or Poster

ECCB 2026 invites submissions of abstracts for highlight talks on recently published research articles (published in a scientific journal on March 1, 2025, or later, or accepted for publication by a journal and available online at least as a preprint). Highlight talks are expected to present significant and topical advances in the field of computational biology and bioinformatics. ECCB 2026 also welcomes submissions of posters in all areas relevant to computational biology and bioinformatics. 

Accepted highlight talks will be presented in person at the ECCB 2026 conference as 15-minute talks followed by 3 minutes for discussions. Presenting authors must register and pay the conference fee.

Authors whose highlight talk submissions are not selected may be offered the opportunity to present a poster instead.

Accepted posters will be presented in person at the ECCB 2026 conference. The space for posters will be limited, but we will make every effort to accommodate all appropriate (i.e., scientifically sound and on-topic) poster submissions.

Each Submission must include:

  1. Title: Title of your submission.
  2. Abstract: Max 250 words; no tables, images or references. Abstracts that exceed the maximum number of 250 words will be rejected. The abstract will appear in the online programme.
  3. Presenting Author Details: The full name, affiliation, and email address of the presenting author. The presenting author must register for the conference and deliver the presentation in person. The presenting author does not necessarily have to be the first author of the paper/poster.
  4. Co-Author Details: The full name, affiliation, and email address of all co-authors. Note that all co-authors must agree to the submission.
  5. Keywords: Please select at least three keywords to describe the submission. For example keywords, please visit this webpage.
  6. Scientific Area Selection: Please indicate a primary and a secondary scientific area for your highlight talk or poster, chosen from the 5 listed in the "Scientific Areas" section.
  7. Source of Original Publication: Please include year, journal, volume, pages, and DOI. This is mandatory information only for highlight talk submissions, except for ELIXIR Communities track. This is optional for posters. 
  8. Poster Option: If submitting a highlight talk, please indicate on the form if you wish to present a poster in case the abstract is not selected for a talk.
  9. PDF of the published/accepted paper:  This is mandatory information only for highlight talk submissions, except for ELIXIR Communities track.  This is optional for posters. 

Presenting authors for highlights talks and posters are required to give the presentation themselves and must register and pay the registration fee to attend the conference. 

All submissions must be uploaded using the conference submission site by the abstract deadline: April 20, 2026 at 1 p.m. CET.

 

ELIXIR-Dedicated Track for Highlight Talks or Posters

ELIXIR Communities track highlight talks are expected to showcase the community activities, benefits of being a member, and using ELIXIR resources. A close link to an application needs to be showcased (e.g. consider links to ELIXIR Recommended Interoperability Resources (RIRs), Core Data Resources (CDRs) or others).

ELIXIR Community track eligibility criteria:

  • Abstracts must be submitted by Community co-leads (the presenter can vary).
  • Each ELIXIR Community can submit up to two proposals (submitted by different co-leads).

ELIXIR poster track eligibility criteria:

  • Posters must be submitted by ELIXIR members.
  • Each ELIXIR member can submit up to one poster.

ELIXIR submissions must be uploaded using the conference submission site by the abstract deadline: April 20, 2026  at 1 p.m. CET.

Evaluation of highlight talks 

The abstracts for talks will be evaluated by the ECCB2026 Scientific Committee. The area chairs and co-chairs will rank the submitted abstracts in their scientific area. According to the rankings, the Scientific Committee chairs with the area chairs and co-chairs will decide on the final acceptance for each submission. ELIXIR reviewers will review and evaluate the abstracts submitted to the topic ELIXIR Communities/poster track. 

Criteria 

  1. Relevance and interest for the conference.
  2. Impact of the submission in the field.
  3. Scientific quality and rigor.
  4. Clarity, presentation quality and accessibility to a broad audience 

Tutorials & Workshops

The ECCB 2026 Tutorials & Workshops Committee invites proposals for on-site tutorials and workshops preceding the main conference programme of ECCB 2026. These sessions are intended to complement the scientific programme by providing opportunities for focused, in-depth exploration of timely topics, as well as training in emerging methods and tools relevant to computational biology, bioinformatics, and related disciplines. 

Tutorials serve an educational purpose and aim to build knowledge and provide hands-on training in cutting-edge topics relevant to computational biology and bioinformatics. They offer participants a balanced perspective on a field of research, combining theoretical foundations with practical experience. Topics may include introductions to established areas, emerging research fields, or advanced methods. Tutorials should not focus solely on the presenters’ own research or software, unless balanced with other tools in the same domain. Sessions on widely used bioinformatics tools are welcome. 

Workshops aim to provide an interactive setting for participants to discuss scientific and technical challenges, exchange research ideas, and share practical experiences on focused or emerging topics in computational biology and bioinformatics. Each workshop should offer an engaging perspective on the forefront of a selected research area. Workshops may include talks, short presentations, panel discussions, or other interactive formats that encourage participation and exchange. 

Sessions scheduled for Thursday, September 3rd will be as either: 

Full-Day: 9:00–17:30 (incl. two 15-min coffee breaks and a 1-hour lunch) or Half-Day: 9:00–12:45 or 13:45–17:30 (incl. one 15-min coffee break)

 

Each Submission must include:

  1. Title: Title of your submission, maximum 12 words.
  2. Authors & Affiliations: The full name, affiliation, and email address for any and all organizers/authors. Please include brief bios with relevant experience.
  3. Session Length: Please indicate whether this is planned as a Full-Day or Half-Day Session.
  4. Session Modality: Please indicate whether this is a Tutorial or Workshop.
  5. Proposal Document: To complete your submission, please fill in all required fields in the provided Word document template and upload it in the corresponding field on your application.

 

All submissions must be uploaded using the conference submission site by the tutorial deadline: January 5, 2026  at 1 p.m. CET.

 

Scientific Areas

All submissions must align with one of the following five scientific areas of ECCB 2026:

  • Genomics, Epigenomics, and Genome Editing
  • Transcriptomics and Gene Regulation
  • Proteins and Structural Biology
  • Systems Biology, Multi-Omics Integration and Modeling
  • Biodiversity, Sustainability, and Environmental Bioinformatics

Proceedings and Abstract/Poster Submitters must select both a primary and secondary scientific area when submitting.

Tutorial/Workshop Submitters must only select a primary scientific area when submitting.

Committees

Organizing Committee

  • Marie Dangles, SIB Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics
  • Elsa Dubar, SIB Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics
  • Solange Guye, SIB Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics

Conference Committee Chairs

  • Programme Committee Chair: Christophe Dessimoz, SIB Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics
  • Scientific Committee Chair: Anne-Florence Bitbol, EPFL Lausanne
  • Scientific Committee Chair: Niko Beerenwikel, ETHZ D-BSSE Basel
  • Tutorials & Workshops Chair: Diana Marek, SIB Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics
  • Tutorials & Workshops Chair: Patricia Palagi, SIB Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics

Keynote Speakers

  • Anna-Sapfo Malaspinas, University of Lausanne
  • Stephen Quake, Stanford University
  • Aleksandra Walczak, Ecole Normale Superieure

Venue

The conference will be held at the CICG (the International Conference Center Geneva) in Geneva, Switzerland.

Program activities will begin on Monday, August 31, 2026 and conclude on Friday, September 4, 2026.

Contact

All questions about submissions should be emailed to info@eccb2026.org.

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