Abstract Submission

Call for abstracts:
12 January 2026

Submit Abstract
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Important Dates:

  • Call for abstracts: 12 January 2026

  • Deadline for submission of abstracts: 31 March 2026

  • Notification of acceptance of abstracts: 6 April 2026

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Call for Papers/Posters

You are invited to submit original contributions for oral and poster presentations related to any of the designated themes. The use of the abstract template is mandatory. Correspondence regarding the abstracts will only be sent to the corresponding author. It is their responsibility to forward the information to all co-authors. Every effort will be made to accommodate the author’s preference for either an oral presentation or a poster, but the organisers reserve the right to make the final decision. At least one of the authors must register for the conference, otherwise the abstract will not be considered by the Scientific Committee.

Themes

  • Ethnobotanical Knowledge and Community Perspectives
  • Commercialisation and Market Dynamics
  • Advancements in Methods and Technologies
  • Taxonomy and Identification
  • Biological Activities and Medicinal Plant Chemistry
  • Conservation, Sustainability, and Climate Resilience
  • Cultivation and Quality Control

Presentation Structure

Both PowerPoint and PDF presentations are accepted on USB sticks. The presentation must be copied to the laptop before the session begins.

Oral Presentations

  • Keynote presentation – 30 minutes
  • Oral presentation – 10 minutes (questions included))

Poster Presentations

  • Poster size – A0 (841 mm x 1189 mm)
  • Orientation – Portrait

Young Scientist Awards

IPUF will be sponsoring awards for the best oral and poster presentations by young scientists with special priority to post-graduate students. The winners will each receive a certificate and prize money. Entry can be indicated on the abstract submission form.

Young scientists are the only persons eligible for this award and such persons must have specifically pointed out that they wish to be considered for the award.


A young scientist will qualify by conforming to at least one of the following conditions at the start of the meeting:

  • Under the age of 30 years at the date of the meeting
  • Three or fewer presentations at prestigious scientific meetings, or
  • Five or fewer years of work in the respective discipline associated with the presentations

The TIA-IPUF Oswald Makunga Innovation Award

Aimed at promoting innovation and industrial application of scientific and traditional knowledge relating to the use of the indigenous plants of South Africa, the Indigenous Plants Use Forum (IPUF) and the Technology Innovation Agency (TIA) will collaboratively present an Innovation Award at the 28th Indigenous Plant Use Forum to be held at the Protea Hotel Karridene Beach, Durban, KwaZulu-Natal.

This Award was, from 2025 onwards, serve as an addition to the existing list of awards that IPUF already awards to recognise the outstanding scientific research efforts of postgraduate students and emerging scholars in the Indigenous Plant Use domain.

Award and Value

The award will be received by 3 delegates at each IPUF conference. These will be:

 

  • Gold (Winner) – R10 000.00
  • Silver (First Runner-Up) – R7 000.00
  • Bronze (Second Runner-Up) – R5 000.00

 

In addition to financial reward, the winner will be guided and mentored by the TIA Indigenous Knowledge System team through an Opportunity Building phase of the TIA Technology Development Fund application development.

 

The overall aim of the Award, therefore, is to identify and recognise the innovative efforts of researchers in the Indigenous Plants Use domain, and to support such innovations towards further technological development and commercialisation.

Naming of the Award:

The award shall be named the TIA-IPUF Oswald Makunga Innovation Award, in honour of the late Professor Hercules Oswald Daluxolo (HOD) Makunga (1932–2013), who is widely regarded as one of South Africa’s first black academic botanists. He was a pioneer in the field, with a lifelong passion for plants and a distinguished career in academia and research. In addition to his academic career as a botanist, his leadership expertise was demonstrated through the roles he played in civil society, community, and local economic development within the local government of the rural town of Alice, Eastern Cape province.

The IPUF-TIA Oswald Makunga Innovation Award, therefore, is purposed at identifying innovative research and development projects that clearly define a problem that requires the application of indigenous plant use in society, present a solution to that problem, and demonstrate commercial potential in the form of a product or service that can be launched into the market from the said scientific research effort.

Abstract Submission

The abstract template can be downloaded by clicking the button below. Abstracts must be submitted electronically through the submission form and abstract text (excluding title, authors, and affiliations) must not exceed 250 words. Please ensure that all mandatory fields are completed, and correct information is submitted. An example of an abstract can be found HERE

Please make a note of the format settings used below:

    • Font family – Palatino Linotype
    • Title – 18 pt – Bold
    • Author names – 10 pt – Bold
    • Affiliations – 8 pt – Regular 
    • Abstract – 11 pt – Regular 
    • Line spacing – 1.15 throughout the whole document
Submit Abstract
Download Template