Veterans' Mental Health
Conference 2026

Submissions for this year’s Veterans’ Mental Health Conference (VMHC) will open on 31st October 2025 and will close EOD 14th January 2026.

The 2026 Veterans’ Mental Health Conference (VMHC) will focus on the theme of 'Innovation to improve mental health outcomes’. As such, we encourage submissions to be linked to the theme. We invite submissions from those working in the sector researching the Armed Forces community (including research on serving personnel, veterans and their families). In particular, we welcome submissions from early career researchers (ECRs).

• Poster presentations: A traditional poster to be displayed for the duration of the conference. If your abstract is selected as a poster, you will need to purchase a ticket. However, posters will be eligible to win a prize. There are 3 x £50 vouchers available to win.
• Oral podium presentation: Presentations are to be 15 minutes long, with an additional 5 minutes for questions. If your abstract is selected as an oral presentation, you will be given a complimentary ticket to the Veterans’ Mental Health Conference.

• Authors and Affiliations: Include the names of all lead authors and co-authors, and their respective affiliations. These details will be printed in the final delegate pack as submitted.
• Abstract Title: The full title of your submission. This will be printed in the final conference agenda as submitted and is capped at a 50-word limit.
• Abstract: This should be concise (<250 words) and provide a clear overview of the research or project and its aims and objectives. Presented research should either be recently completed or well-progressed, with results. Abstracts with no or preliminary findings will be considered if the full and final findings will be available by the time of the conference (14th May 2026). Please make this clear when you submit your abstract. All applicants should use the following headings for the body of the abstract:
• Background
• Method
• Results
• Conclusions
• Presentation type: Please indicate whether you would prefer the submitted abstract to be considered for a poster presentation, oral podium presentation or both.
• Funding: Please indicate whether your research or project received funding. If applicable, specify the funding body, and if unfunded, please declare this.
• Are you an ECR: Please indicate if you are an ECR e.g. master's student, PhD student, or recent doctoral graduate (within the last 3 years).