The annual symposium has become the highlight of BSUFN’s year, showcasing the diversity of food-related research at Brighton and Sussex Universities alongside non-academic and community-based initiatives in East Sussex and beyond.

In recent years, food and related topics have received an increasing profile in the media, in policy debates, and in research and theoretical discourse. Food has become a pressing issue of our time and interacts with other pertinent topics such as politics, economics, sustainability, environment and climate change, health, society and culture, and the food-water-energy nexus.

The 2016 annual symposium will reflect this current agenda. Within the broad theme of ‘Contemporary Food Issues’ the format for contributions to the symposium is open. BSUFN invites the submission of abstracts for presentations, posters, panel sessions, discussions or interactive sessions according to the format you consider to be most appropriate for your topic.

Submissions are invited from researchers, undergraduate and postgraduate students, non-academic organisations, community groups, practitioners, policy-makers, and other interested parties or individuals. Submissions from any disciplinary background are welcomed.

Please submit an abstract of no more than 350 words in length. Along with a brief description of the research and subject area, abstracts should provide contact details of the corresponding individual, others who are collaborating with the symposium presentation, and the format of the presentation or other contribution. Abstracts should be submitted via e-mail to food.network@sussex.ac.uk by 17:00 on Friday the 29^th of April 2016. Applicants will be informed of the outcome of their submission no later than Friday the 6^th of May 2016.

If you would like to become a member of the Brighton and Sussex Universities Food Network, you can register your interest using the online form at www.bsufn.com/join-us/ or by expressing your interest via e-mail to food.network@sussex.ac.uk

The BSUFN Symposium will be from 9:00 until 17:30 on the 16^th of June 2016 and will be held at the University of Brighton Falmer campus. Lunch and refreshments will be provided.

Registration to attend the BSUFN Symposium is free of charge. You can register to attend by going to http://bsufn-contemporary-food-issues-symposium.eventbrite.co.uk

Details for the symposium will be made available online as they are updated. Please check the website for updates at www.bsufn.com/events/symposium-2016/

The Brighton and Sussex Universities Food Network Annual Symposium 2016 is kindly supported by: SPRU (Science Policy Research Unit) and the School of Global Studies, University of Sussex, and COSTALS (Centre of Sport, Tourism and Leisure Studies), University of Brighton.