Call for abstract | ZHAW Social Work

We invite researchers, scholars, practitioners, and students to submit abstracts for DARE 2026.
Abstract submission deadline is 6 February 2026.
Abstracts are required to have a strong link to the conference’s themes.
We invite the following formats: oral paper presentation, poster presentation, symposium, workshop.
Please submit the Word-Document to dare-conferece@zhaw.ch by February 6, 2026. We will confirm receipt within a few days.
Decisions will be communicated by March 13, 2026 to the e-mail address provided by the authors when registering.

Oral Paper Presentation

Oral presentation of 10 to 15 minutes, with additional 5 minutes for discussion, that is in line with at least one of the conference’s themes.
The oral presentations will be grouped in parallel sessions based on the conference’s themes or other substantive commonalities.
See the guidelines below for the abstract.

One sheet, portrait (vertical) format, not exceeding 90 cm wide by 130 cm high (A0 size)
At least one author should be available to answer questions in defined time slots.
See the guidelines below for the abstract.

Self-organized seminar of three to five papers that is in line with at least one of the conference’s themes.
We plan sessions of 75 to 90 minutes.
You will have to indicate which person will be the symposium chair.
The chair is responsible for submitting one single file which includes the general abstract describing the symposium’s focus and an abstract for each contribution.
Symposia will be accepted or rejected as a whole, not in parts.
Depending on the availability of time slots, and in consultation with the chair, we may add additional oral presentations to a symposium.
See the guidelines below for the abstract.

Workshops are required to be thoroughly interactive with those attending (i.e., discussions, other forms participations).
We plan workshops of 75 to 90 minutes.
Preferences will be given to abstracts with a clear link to the conference themes, thorough interaction. Please note that we expect a considerable number of participants to be academics and not practitioners.
Please note that we have only limited spots for workshops.

The abstract submitted should be of 500 words or less (excluding title, information on authorship and references; however, it is not necessary to include references in the abstract). For a symposium 500 words or less for the general abstract and 500 words or less for each contribution.
Please indicate first name, last name and affiliation of each author and indicate who is presenting.
Abstracts that include planned but uncompleted research should explicitly indicate this.
The following guidelines are advisory.
- If your abstract is based on primary empirical research, we recommend to include the following:
  - Background and purpose: description of the problem, objectives, research question(s) and/or hypotheses;
  - Methods: study design, including sampling, sample, data collection procedures, measures, and approaches to analysis;
  - Findings: specific results in summary form;
  - Conclusions and implications: description of the main outcome(s) of the study and implications for practice, policy or further research.
- If your abstract is not based on primary empirical research, we recommend to include the following:
  - Background and purpose of the presentation;
  - A summary of the main points of the presentation;
  - How the presentation will address one or more of the conference and themes;
  - Conclusions from and implications of your presentation for practice, policy or further research.

Abstracts will only be accepted where at least one named author attends the conference. We do not allow online presentations.

Please submit the Word-Document to dare-conferece@zhaw.ch by February 6, 2026. We will confirm receipt within a few days.

Decisions will be communicated by March 13, 2026 to the e-mail address provided by the authors when registering.