28 – 30 April 2025
Burton upon Trent
St George's Park
Call for submissions
Now’s the time to start thinking about how you might like to contribute. This international conference is a brilliant opportunity to showcase our amazing discipline, where you have the opportunity to share your work on contemporary topics important in the world today. We invite submissions covering challenges and opportunities that demonstrate the impact ergonomics and human factors can make. You could submit a piece of research, an innovative method or technique, or a case study about a piece of work that really made a difference. We can't wait to see what you've been doing!
Theme: Enhancing human performance
One of the main aims of human factors is to help support human performance and enable individuals, teams and organisations be the best they can be. The venue for this conference is St George's Park, the home of England football where the facilities, the coaches and the support personnel all strive to do the same thing, encouraging and training footballers to be the best they can be.
Within the overall theme, this is a superb chance to showcase advances, investigations and case studies in sectors such as sport, healthcare, defence, energy, transport and manufacturing, alongside topics such as AI, climate change, emerging technologies, cybersecurity, safety culture, UX design and behaviour.
Format
In a change from previous years, there will be a mix throughout the event of masterclasses on a range of tools and techniques, together with lectures, keynotes, paper and poster presentations and discussion sessions. There will also be a doctoral consortium for PhD students.
Submissions
Good news! We're initially only looking for short paper submissions of two pages - and there's a template to follow, so you don't even have to worry about how to lay it out! If your paper is accepted through peer-review, you'll be invited to expand your paper to up to eight pages.
Key dates
Submissions open: 1 October 2024
Submissions close: 1 December 2024
Notifications by: end of January 2025
If you haven't made a submission to our conference before, or you have but you want a refresher, we’re running a Zoom Q&A session on 20 September at 12:00 BST. You'll hear top tips about what we're looking for, how to prepare your paper, what format to use, how to submit and what happens next. There will be plenty of time for your questions too. Find out more
Why come along?
The three-day conference will be jam-packed with sessions and events that will help you expand your network, share knowledge and gain insightful CPD hours. From Masterclasses and presentations to keynotes, panel sessions, a doctoral consortium and much more, there's so much to benefit from!
Click on an image below for current details but note that we'll be adding more information as soon as it becomes available.
There will be knowledge sharing on every day of the conference through presentations, panel sessions, Masterclasses and much more.
A range of papers and posters will be presented throughout the conference - a great opportunity to hear about advances, investigations and case studies in sectors such as healthcare, defence, energy, transport and manufacturing, alongside topics such as AI, climate change, UX design and behaviour.
The panel session facilitates sharing of best practice and will allow you to gain different perspectives and insights within a topic.
Two expert-led, interactive Masterclasses will run on each day of the conference too.
Two masterclasses will run on each day of the conference, they will be packed with CPD opportunities in 2.5-hour workshops run by experts in their areas.
There will be plenty of opportunity to expand your network and catch up with friends and colleagues during the breaks and at our organised socials in the evenings.
There's interactive and fun entertainment on Monday evening and our drinks reception, awards celebration and annual dinner takes place on Tuesday evening.
We're keen to make the most of this fantastic venue so 5-a-side walking football on Sunday afternoon is in the pipeline too!
The venue
In keeping with our theme Enhancing Human Performance, we've worked hard to secure a world-class venue at St George's Park, home of England football.
Set on the edge of The National Forest in the Staffordshire countryside, this venue provides state-of-the-art conference faciltities, offering a unique setting for developing high performing teams and leaders.
Meet, motivate and celebrate in a special setting in pursuit of best practice, innovation and performance excellence.
As well as being a home from home for each of the 28 England teams, Hilton at St George’s Park is a popular destination for leisurely breaks and will be a great getaway in the quiet countryside.
But stay connected...
Our session rooms for the event are large and airy and are all fully accessible. There’s plenty of space where you can chat with other delegates or find a quiet corner for a call or a few emails with high speed internet.
And feel refreshed...
Facilities include a health club with gym, heated pool and sauna, and beautiful grounds in which to explore. The bedrooms have all been refurbished to a very high standard so you'll get a comfy night's sleep.
The address is St George's Park, Newborough Road, Needwood, Burton upon Trent, DE13 9PD
If you're travelling by car, it's just 10 minutes from the A38 (Branston junction), 30 minutes from the M6 Toll (Weeford interchange) and 40 minutes from the J24 of the M1. There's plenty of free parking with easy access into the building.
If you're travelling by train, the local rail station is Burton upon Trent (15 mins by taxi). Travel time from Birmingham, London, Manchester and Liverpool is less than 2 hours. Other nearby stations are Lichfield Trent Valley (24 mins by taxi) and Derby (36 mins by taxi).
If you're flying, East Midlands and Birmingham airports are both less than an hour's drive away from the venue.
Tickets
There will be a range of tickets to suit different budgets and time availability and they'll be released from 1 October. We hope you can join us.
FAQs
Got a question? Check the frequently asked questions below or email us.
You start by downloading a submission template. This is a Word document that lays out how you must format your paper. We need all papers to be formatted the same way, firstly because it ensures your paper includes all the necessary content, secondly it makes them much easier to review, and thirdly because accepted papers will be published in a digital book so it will help the reader if the format is consistent.
We’re initially only looking for short paper submissions of two pages. Your references can be in addition.
Once you've written your paper, ask someone else to read it to ensure it makes sense and that there are no typos or grammatical errors (reviewers don't like these!) - and to make sure that it flows well, sets out your work in a coherent way and follows the format exactly. Your paper will be reviewed on the basis of originality, technical merit, readability and relevance to the conference.
When you're happy with your paper, you'll need to upload it as a Word document into our online submission system called Oxford Abstracts (OA). You'll need to set up an account in OA, then follow the instructions on submitting your paper. You'll also need to accompany your submission with a head and shoulders photo of yourself and a short bio, so have those ready. You'll also need to copy the abstract (summary) from your paper into a field in OA.
When all fields have been completed and you've uploaded your paper, your submission will be ready for us to review.
All paper submissions are double-blind peer-reviewed. This means you don't know who the reviewers are and they don't know who you are (as you're instructed not to put authors names or affiliations on this initial submission). Your paper will be allocated to three reviewers (two from our list of reviewers and one from our Programme Committee, all of whom are volunteer members).
They will review your submission independently within Oxford Abstracts (our online submission system), working through a short series of questions with set, graded responses. The questions relate to originality, technical merit, readability and relevance to the conference.
The score for your paper will be aggregated from the three reviews and there is a final review by the Programme Committee after which the decision is made to accept or decline your paper.
The next step is to produce your final paper. Note that you'll be invited to expand on your work up to 8 pages, if you wish. You will also be asked to take note of any reviewer comments that might have been offered. These could include additions or amendments to what you've written.
If you've expanded your paper to 8 pages, get someone to read the paper and check for the same things as for your initial submission - that is makes sense, there are no typos or grammatical errors, and that the content flows and is coherent. It still needs to follow the template exactly.
When you're happy with the final version, go back into Oxford Abstracts and upload it as a Word document.
Your paper will go through a final edit, if necessary, and then will be published in a digital book, Contemporary Ergonomics & Human Factors 2025. It will also be published online on our Google Scholar-optimised website.
After falling delegate attendance at Careers Days over the last few years, we're refocusing our efforts to attract and better support those looking for a career in human factors. So, instead of organising a single day dedicated to human factors careers, we'll be attending more external careers events, talking directly to students at universities, posting more on social media and improving our online careers information.
However, you can still talk to us about your career aspirations at the conference. We'd love to chat to you about options open to you to increase your knowledge, skills and experience and routes you could take to get you from where you are now to where you want to be.
If you've had success by exhibiting at the Careers Day jobs fair before or you're looking to add to your team, or you want to talk to potential new recruits for the first time, you can still book a stand at the conference and chat to delegates about what you do and what opportunities you have.
Interested in being an exhibitor or sponsor at this event?
With a potential to be in front of hundreds of professionals, you'll be able to get your message and branding across to a quality audience, whether you're looking for someone to join your team or you have a service or product to sell. If you need help or have questions, please email us or call on 0330 135 9833. See more details and prices
