SPP-ARC Ignites Innovation Annual Retreat 2025

SPP-ARC hosts an annual retreat in Banff that brings together scientists across Canada from the field of pandemic preparedness. 

This 3-day event provides opportunities for team-building activities and creates synergy among different research efforts within and outside the consortium. For the first time, we are opening the retreat to external collaborators and potential partners interested in sharing their work with an interdisciplinary audience of virologists, immunologists, biochemists and medical chemists.

This year, we have the honor to welcome our keynote speaker:

Dr. Kanta Subbarao

Université Laval

Canada Excellence Research Chair, Principal Investigator - Biology and Control of Zoonotic and Pandemic Respiratory Viruses

Our invited speakers include: 

• Dr. Matthew S. Miller (Executive Director, NexusHealth; Director, M.G. DeGroote Institute for Infectious Disease Research, Co-Director, Canadian Pandemic Preparedness Hub, McMaster University)
• Dr. Selena Sagan (Professor and Co-director of the Prepare for Pandemics through Advanced Research in Evolution (PrePARE) Research Cluster, UBC)
• Dr. Michael Norris (Assistant Professor, Department of Biochemistry, University of Toronto)
• Dr. Volker Gerdts (Director and CEO of the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization (VIDO))
• Dr. Kalyan Das (Canada Excellence Research Chair, Professor, Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry, University of Alberta)

We will also have representatives from the Canadian Institute of Health Research (CIHR), Health Emergency Readiness Canada (HERC) and the Government of Alberta. 

Researchers and trainees across Canada are welcome to attend. 

We look forward to seeing you there!

Submit your abstract

An abstract submission is required to be considered for an oral or poster presentation. Accommodation and meals will be covered for individuals with accepted abstracts; travel costs are not included.