Interdisciplinary Conference Targets — Sensorimotor, Neuroscience, Exercise Physiology

Created 2026-06-10

Tags conferencestrategyscienceinternalmotor-learningneuroscienceexercise-physiology

Interdisciplinary Conference Targets

Compiled June 2026, following attendance at BRNet 2026 (Padua). Motivation: BRNet’s research culture skews heavily toward clinical pathology and rubber hand / peripersonal space paradigms. This document surveys alternatives that bridge sensorimotor learning, exercise physiology, and neuroscience — especially conferences that are explicitly interdisciplinary and that connect science to emerging educational paradigms and training contexts.

What We Are Looking For

The ideal target conference meets most of these criteria:

Interdisciplinary by design — not a single-discipline meeting where one field dominates
Whole-body / ecological framing — movement considered as an organismic activity, not just isolated limb experiments
Bridges science and practice — education, pedagogy, training, or rehabilitation alongside basic science
Open to non-academic affiliations — no explicit restriction to university-affiliated researchers
Accepts poster and oral abstract submissions — not invitation-only
International reach — accessible to presenters from Canada/Montreal or Europe

Quick Reference

Conference	Cadence	Next Edition	Poster	Talk	Membership Required	Non-Academic Eligible
ICPA	Biennial	2028	Yes	Yes	No	Likely yes (no restriction stated)
NCM Society	Annual	2027 Sevilla	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes (membership open to all researchers)
I-MDRC	Annual	2027 TBD	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes (membership open broadly)
UK Sensorimotor	Annual	~July 2027	Yes	Yes	No	Likely yes (no restriction stated)
IMBES	Annual	2027 TBD	Yes	Yes	No	Likely yes (no restriction stated)
ECSS	Annual	2027 TBD	Yes	Yes	No	Likely yes (no restriction stated)
Progress in Motor Control	~Biennial	2027 TBD	Yes	Select	No	Likely yes (no restriction stated)

On non-academic eligibility: None of these conferences explicitly prohibit submissions from non-academic institutions or independent organizations. The two with membership requirements (NCM Society, I-MDRC) have membership programs open to any researcher — affiliation with Baseworks or a listed independent organization would be standard. The practical barrier is more likely peer-review culture than written policy; a strong abstract with clear methods and original data should stand on its own.

Detailed Entries

ICPA — International Conference on Perception and Action

Hosted by: International Society for Ecological Psychology (ISEP) Cadence: Biennial Next edition: 2028 (2026 edition: Omaha, Nebraska, USA — individual abstracts now closed) Website: https://icpa2026omaha.com (2026 edition) ISEP main site: https://commons.trincoll.edu/isep/

What it is: The primary international meeting for ecological psychology and perception-action research. Grounded in the Gibsonian tradition — treats perception and action as inseparable, studies them in the context of organism–environment relations, affordances, and coordinated movement. Deliberately opposes reductionist / isolated-limb paradigms.

Why it fits: This conference is the conceptual antidote to BRNet. Where BRNet studies body representation as a perceptual object (rubber hand, peripersonal space), ICPA studies how organisms use perception to act in the world. Covers affordances, perceptual learning, coordination dynamics, development, and social interaction. Diverse participants: researchers, clinicians, movement educators.

Submission types: Podium presentations (15 min + 5 min Q&A) and posters (48” × 36” portrait format) Membership required: No Non-academic eligibility: Not explicitly restricted — language refers to “international community investigating perception–action systems” Abstract submission link: Check https://icpa2026omaha.com/schedule for format; next cycle at ISEP site above Action: Monitor ISEP site for 2028 dates and abstract call (typically opens 6–9 months before the conference)

NCM Society — Neural Control of Movement

Hosted by: Society for the Neural Control of Movement Cadence: Annual Next edition: April 26–30, 2027, Sevilla, Spain Website: https://ncm-society.org Abstract submission portal: https://ncm-society.org/submission/ (members only)

What it is: The most rigorous annual meeting for motor neuroscience. Covers motor control from evolutionary, computational, physiological, and behavioral perspectives. Includes translational work in rehabilitation and neural restoration. Strong presence of cerebellar function, deep learning models, and computational approaches alongside behavioral studies.

Why it fits: The highest-caliber venue for motor neuroscience that still meaningfully integrates physiology, biomechanics, and clinical translation. Less emphasis on educational paradigms, but genuinely cross-disciplinary in the scientific sense. Presenting here would place Baseworks work in front of the most technically rigorous motor science audience.

Submission types: Oral presentations and posters; team symposium sessions available Membership required: Yes — only NCM members in good standing may submit. Membership is open to any scientist pursuing research in motor control. Non-academic eligibility: Membership program does not restrict to academic affiliation; independent researchers and organizational affiliations are accepted Abstract limits: 3,000 characters (~500 words) Deadline pattern (based on 2026 cycle): Oral/team submissions ~December; poster submissions ~February 2027 Sevilla deadlines: Not yet announced — check https://ncm-society.org/key-dates/ Abstract submission link: https://ncm-society.org/submission/ Note: No author may present more than one oral abstract per annual meeting. Team submissions with exclusively male speakers are not accepted.

I-MDRC — International Motor Development Research Consortium

Hosted by: I-MDRC (international network, 130+ institutions, 20 countries) Cadence: Annual global assembly + regional working groups year-round Next edition: 2027 (2026: October 29–31, Florianópolis, Santa Catarina, Brazil — submission window closed April 30, 2026) Website: https://www.i-mdrc.com Registration / event page (2026): https://www.even3.com.br/7th-imdrc-brazil-611009/

What it is: A deliberately cross-professional consortium focused on motor development across the lifespan. Includes researchers, clinicians, educators, teachers, therapists, and movement scientists in the same room. Regional working groups (including UK & Ireland) meet throughout the year and provide lower-barrier entry points.

Why it fits: The most practitioner-welcoming of the rigorous motor science conferences. Explicit mandate to bridge research and application. Strong developmental framing — how motor competence is acquired, taught, and supported — which aligns with Baseworks’ interest in systematically undertrained populations. The interdisciplinary mix is structural, not incidental.

Submission types: Posters and oral presentations Membership required: Yes — only I-MDRC members may submit abstracts. Non-members may attend at higher registration cost. Non-academic eligibility: Welcomes “scholars, therapists, psychologists, pediatricians, teachers, movement scientists, families, and patients” — affiliation with an independent movement organization would be accepted 2026 submission window: November 15, 2025 – April 30, 2026 (closed); decisions notified by May 10, 2026 Abstract submission link: Via I-MDRC membership portal at https://www.i-mdrc.com/meetings Action: Apply for membership and watch for 2027 abstract call

UK Sensorimotor Conference

Hosted by: University of Plymouth (UK) Cadence: Annual (July) Next edition: ~July 2027 (2026: July 8, Plymouth — abstract deadline June 8, 2026, now closed) Website: https://www.plymouth.ac.uk/whats-on/uk-sensorimotor-conference-2026 Contact: uksensorimotorconference2026@gmail.com

What it is: A smaller, focused UK conference that integrates basic and clinical sensorimotor science. Covers motor control and learning, neuromuscular and vestibular systems, development and ageing — across computational, neuroimaging, electrophysiological, and robotic approaches. Deliberately inclusive of engineering, neuroscience, physiology, and clinical practice.

Why it fits: Better integrated across disciplines than BRNet, and smaller in scale (which means more dialogue, less siloing). The scope — basic science alongside clinical application, including development and learning — is a closer fit for work that bridges training methodology with sensorimotor neuroscience. More accessible for a first submission to a European venue.

Submission types: Oral and poster; 250-word maximum including references Requirements: Abstract must clearly state scientific context, question/hypothesis, approach, and principal findings Membership required: No Non-academic eligibility: Not explicitly restricted Registration cost (2026): £80 + evening reception Abstract submission link: Watch for 2027 call at Plymouth site above, or via contact email Action: Monitor for 2027 abstract call (likely opens April–May 2027)

IMBES — International Mind, Brain, and Education Society

Hosted by: IMBES Cadence: Annual Next edition: 2027 (2026: abstract deadline April 10, 2026, now closed) Website: https://imbes.org/2026-imbes-conference Submission portal (2026): https://event.fourwaves.com/imbes2026 Contact: imbes2026@imbes.org

What it is: The only major international conference that positions neuroscience and education as co-equal partners rather than treating education as an application domain for neuroscience findings. Cross-cultural, cross-disciplinary, with strong presence of developmental cognitive science, embodied cognition, and learning sciences.

Why it fits: If the goal is to position movement training as a paradigm that connects neuroscience and pedagogy — not just to apply neuroscience to coaching, but to argue that training methodologies themselves generate scientific insight — IMBES is the right intellectual context. Less motor-specific than the other conferences here, but the paradigmatic framing (science develops alongside educational practice) matches Baseworks’ argument structure.

Submission types: Likely oral, poster, and symposium (check Fourwaves portal for 2027 call) Membership required: No Non-academic eligibility: Not explicitly restricted; educators and practitioners are a core constituency Abstract submission link: 2027 call will open on Fourwaves — watch https://imbes.org Action: Subscribe to IMBES mailing list for 2027 call announcement

ECSS — European College of Sport Science

Hosted by: ECSS Cadence: Annual Next edition: 2027 (2026: July 7–10, Lausanne, Switzerland — abstract deadline February 13, 2026, closed) Website: https://sport-science.org Abstract submission link (2026): https://sport-science.org/index.php/submission-2026/abstract-submission

What it is: One of the largest annual sport science conferences in the world. Covers biomechanics and motor control, exercise physiology, sport psychology, and sport medicine across five main discipline streams. The biomechanics/motor control stream is substantive and integrates with physiology in ways that most neuroscience conferences don’t.

Why it fits: The strongest existing venue for the exercise physiology + motor control intersection. If Baseworks work involves physiological data (oxygen kinetics, lactate, HRV, etc.) alongside sensorimotor or cognitive outcomes, this is where that work is most visible. Researchers, coaches, and applied practitioners all attend. Geographically accessible from Europe.

Submission types: Oral, conventional poster, and E-poster; 3,000-character limit (excluding names and affiliations); original, unpublished work only; one abstract maximum per author Membership required: No Non-academic eligibility: Not explicitly restricted; applied practitioners are a core constituency Acceptance notice: ~April; registration payment required by May Abstract submission link: Watch https://sport-science.org for 2027 submission call (typically opens January) Action: Monitor ECSS site from December 2026 for 2027 abstract call

Progress in Motor Control

Hosted by: International Society of Motor Control (ISMC) Cadence: ~Biennial (irregular intervals) Next edition: 2027, date and location TBD (XV edition: June 30 – July 2, 2025, University of Rhode Island — completed) Website: https://i-s-m-c.org / https://web.uri.edu/chs/events/xv-progress-in-motor-control/

What it is: A focused, biennial meeting specifically on motor control — bridging computational, neural, behavioral, and biomechanical approaches. Format is deliberately small and discussion-oriented: all accepted abstracts are presented as posters; select abstracts are chosen for oral presentation. This creates a different culture than large lecture-format conferences.

Why it fits: The discussion-oriented format makes it better for presenting work that challenges dominant paradigms. Less hierarchical than NCM Society. The explicit goal of “progress” — advancing understanding, not just reporting findings — creates space for methodological arguments and new frameworks.

Submission types: All accepted abstracts presented as posters; select chosen for oral presentation Membership required: No (ISMC organizes but open submission) Non-academic eligibility: Not explicitly restricted Deadline pattern: Abstract deadline ~April for a June/July conference Abstract submission link: Watch https://i-s-m-c.org for 2027 call Action: Monitor ISMC site from early 2027

Submission Strategy Notes

On affiliation: Baseworks (or Baseworks Method Research, if a more formal research identity is useful) can be listed as the institutional affiliation in any of these submissions. None have explicit academic-only requirements. The two membership-based conferences (NCM, I-MDRC) have membership programs that are open to independent researchers and practitioners. For NCM specifically, membership requires demonstrating engagement with motor control research — the existing poster and publication record would satisfy this.

On positioning: The BRNet experience confirmed that the most distinctive contribution Baseworks can make to any of these conferences is the training context: body representation and sensorimotor competence studied in healthy populations who are undergoing systematic movement training. This is genuinely underrepresented everywhere. The pitch is not “we applied neuroscience to training” — it is “training is a natural experiment that makes visible what laboratory paradigms cannot.”

On what to submit where:

Strongest fit for ecological/perception-action framing → ICPA (2028)
Strongest fit for rigorous motor neuroscience audience → NCM Society (Sevilla 2027)
Strongest fit for education + paradigm-bridging argument → IMBES (2027)
Strongest fit for exercise physiology integration → ECSS (2027)
Most accessible first submission (smaller, inclusive) → UK Sensorimotor (2027) or I-MDRC (2027)

Action Items

Confirm NCM Society 2027 (Sevilla) oral deadline — watch https://ncm-society.org/key-dates/ from October 2026
Subscribe to IMBES mailing list for 2027 abstract call
Monitor ECSS site from December 2026 for 2027 call
Monitor ISEP / ICPA site for 2028 dates and abstract call
Apply for NCM Society membership if targeting Sevilla 2027
Apply for I-MDRC membership if targeting 2027 assembly
Monitor UK Sensorimotor Conference for 2027 abstract call (~April–May 2027)
Monitor ISMC for Progress in Motor Control 2027 announcement

Organizing Our Own Meeting — Strategic Notes

Added June 2026, following BRNet 2026 and the observation that no existing conference covers the intersection of sensorimotor learning, exercise physiology, neuroscience, and movement pedagogy as a unified question.

The opportunity

No existing meeting is organized around the question of what systematic movement training reveals about sensorimotor plasticity that laboratory paradigms cannot. That gap is not niche — it cuts across body representation research, motor neuroscience, exercise physiology, and educational paradigm-building simultaneously. The scientific argument for a meeting is Baseworks’ argument. Naming that gap and inviting people to work on it together is a legitimate reason to convene, independent of institutional affiliation.

The BRNet experience made this concrete: we were the only presenter working from a healthy populations / systematic training angle. That distinctiveness is the intellectual basis for a meeting.

Entity question: Baseworks, Quebec Inc, or individuals?

This is worth thinking through carefully because the choice affects how the meeting reads to researchers.

Baseworks as organizer Baseworks is the entity whose scientific work motivates the meeting — there is nothing wrong with that being visible. However, “Baseworks” as a headline organizer risks reading as promotional to researchers who don’t yet know the work. It could frame the event as advocacy for a method rather than an open scientific question.

Quebec Inc as organizer The legal entity is the right vehicle for the practical and financial side: signing the venue contract, holding registration fees, managing insurance. Whether it should be the named organizer depends on what the company name communicates. A numbered company communicates nothing; a named company with no public profile may create confusion. The legal entity handles the infrastructure; it doesn’t need to be the public face.

As individuals In academic culture, personal invitations from named researchers carry the most weight. A letter that begins “We are organizing a small working meeting and would like to invite you” reads very differently when it comes from Patrick Oancia and Ksenia [surname], researchers with a publication record and conference presence, than from an organization. For an invitation-only format especially, this is the most credible framing.

Recommendation: a hybrid

The meeting has its own name, centered on the scientific question (not “a Baseworks event”)
The organizing committee is listed as Patrick and Asia as individuals, with institutional affiliations noted
The Quebec Inc entity handles all legal and financial scaffolding behind the scenes
Baseworks is acknowledged as the host institution — the way a university department hosts a conference without being the conference

This separates intellectual ownership (individuals → academic credibility), legal/financial infrastructure (Quebec Inc → practical), and brand (event name → scientific neutrality). As the meeting develops a track record, it can be associated more explicitly with Baseworks if that serves the scientific positioning.

If Baseworks develops a research program identity distinct from the practice method — something like “Baseworks Research” or a named research group — that could also serve as the organizer without the promotional ambiguity.

Format options

Invitation-only working meeting (25–35 people) — the highest-leverage format for our position. No open call for abstracts, no peer review process, no proceedings required. You identify the people doing the most interesting adjacent work and invite them. The intimacy is the feature: Santa Fe Institute workshops, Kavli Institute meetings, and Dagstuhl seminars (computer science) operate this way and are considered more prestigious than large conferences in their fields, not less. Montreal is a genuinely strong location — strong neuroscience ecosystem (MNI, McGill, Concordia, UQAM), international connections, interesting city.

Residency format — more radical and potentially more memorable. 3–4 days where participants don’t just present research but experience the training context directly as part of the meeting structure. A session becomes data collection; researchers who study body representation from a distance encounter it from inside a training context. This is genuinely unprecedented and differentiates the event completely from anything on the conference landscape. The risk is that some researchers would find it unconventional; the upside is that those who attend would talk about it.

Satellite workshop at an existing conference — lowest friction entry point. Propose a half-day or full-day workshop at ICPA 2028 or NCM Society 2027. You organize the speakers and chair the session; the host conference provides the audience and the credibility scaffolding. No venue management, no registration system, no budget to raise. Think of it as a prototype for the larger meeting.

Symposium within an existing conference — even simpler: submit a multi-speaker symposium proposal to ICPA or NCM Society. You curate and chair 4–5 speakers into a coherent session. This builds organizing credibility and relationships without any event infrastructure.

Recommended sequence

2027 — Symposium or workshop within an existing conference Propose a themed session at ICPA 2028 (early 2027 would be the time to start) or NCM Society 2027 (Sevilla). The goal is not just to present but to establish ourselves as conveners of a specific conversation. This builds the relationships and the reputation needed for a standalone event.

2027–2028 — Quiet outreach to 8–10 researchers Not a recruitment ask yet, but a conversation: does the question resonate? Who else is working on this? Which researchers are dissatisfied with existing paradigms in ways that our framing speaks to? The BRNet contact list below is the starting point.

2028–2029 — Invitation-only working meeting in Montreal Two to three days, 25–30 people, organized around one specific question. No proceedings required. Registration fees offset venue costs. Travel support for keynotes if possible. The event name and framing matter more than the format at this stage.

Funding

The main practical obstacle. Realistic sources for a non-academic organizer:

Registration fees — can offset venue and catering significantly at $200–400 CAD per participant
SSHRC Connection Grants (Canada) — Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council funds knowledge mobilization events; non-academic organizations can apply, especially with an academic co-applicant
NSERC PromoScience / Community Grants — supports public engagement with science; less suited to a specialist meeting but worth knowing
Horizon Europe MSCA Networks — if co-organizing with a European partner institution, mobility and networking funding is available
Corporate sponsorship — scientific instrument companies (motion capture, EMG, eye tracking), health technology companies, and wellness-adjacent industry are realistic sponsors; keeps the meeting independent from pharmaceutical/biomedical industry pressures
Academic co-organizer — the fastest path to institutional funding. One sympathetic faculty member at McGill, Concordia, or HES-SO as co-organizer opens access to internal research event funds and grant eligibility. They gain academic credit for organizing; we retain intellectual ownership of the agenda.

Potential contacts and invitees

From BRNet 2026 — direct connections (Asia was present)

These are people we have already met or shared a room with. They are the natural first circle for any invitation.

Name	Institution	Research	Receptivity note
Valeria C. Peviani	Hamburg-Eppendorf	”From Sensation to Structure: Inferring the Body in Space” — ECR Award winner	Highest priority. Conceptual alignment is direct: spatial inference = SPA-D. She won the field’s own ECR pick. Early-career means more open to new frameworks.
Michel Akselrod	HES-SO Valais-Wallis	Proprioception integration in stroke recovery	Direct HES-SO connection (Asia). PRO overlaps explicitly. Different clinical context but shared construct. Worth a follow-up conversation.
Alkistis Saramandi	UCL	Precision-weighted body belief updating in AN (computational psychiatry)	Computational people are receptive to precision-matched behavioral data. The NCA results (D as necessary condition for A and U) speak their language directly.
Michela Bassolino	HES-SO Valais-Wallis	Keynote — tools, mechanisms, new perspectives in body perception	HES-SO connection (Asia). Her keynote framed the assessment gap — she’s explicitly interested in measurement and method. The missing PRO/SPA from existing tools is directly relevant to her stated interest.
Olaf Blanke	EPFL	Keynote — neuropsychiatry of invisible presences	Major figure; harder to access but EPFL is geographically close. Any meeting with Blanke as a keynote immediately signals credibility. A longer-term target.
Jamie Feusner	University of Toronto	Keynote — neural/computational models of body image distortion	Toronto-based — proximity matters for a Montreal event. Computational framing; interested in modeling body representation.
Piotr Litwin	Warsaw	Temporal integration, multisensory correlation detector model	Mechanism-level thinker — generally open to “what happens to this mechanism under systematic training?”
Gabriele Vercelli	Roma La Sapienza	Interoceptive conditioning for AN	Training-based intervention in a clinical setting. Shared methodological orientation with INT component.
Sara Coppi	Karolinska	Body ownership and pain remapping in peripersonal space	Karolinska connection; body ownership framing could be interesting to contrast with training-based changes.
Manja Engel	Utrecht	Feedback-based updating of body size in AN	Updating mechanisms — relevant to the D component.
Nicola Brunello	Bern	Body perception illusions with/without spinal cord injury	Injury contrast may illuminate what trained body representation looks like by comparison.
Francesca Genovese	Turin	Early motor experience and somatosensory coding in cerebral palsy	Developmental framing; early motor experience as a variable.
Anna L. Vlad	Verona	Body schema/rubber hand dissociation in BDD	Dissociation between schema and image — relevant to how training affects each differently.
Deniz Yilmaz	Max Planck School of Cognition	Interoceptive alterations in schizophrenia spectrum	Max Planck network; interoception focus.
Martina Fanghella	Milan	Primary somatosensory cortex and emotion perception in autism	Somatosensory cortex angle; embodied emotion framing.
Maren Born	Lausanne	Embodying an infected virtual face (behavioral + immune)	Lausanne-based; immune-behavior intersection is unusual and interesting.

Potential academic co-organizers / institutional partners

These are not people we have necessarily met but represent the institutional connections most relevant to a co-organized event.

Target	Why relevant
Faculty at McGill Neuro (MNI)	Montreal’s flagship neuroscience institution; a co-organizer here gives the meeting a Montreal anchor and grant eligibility
Faculty at Concordia (Centre for Research in Human Development)	Cross-disciplinary by design; closer to the education + development framing
Faculty at UQAM (Kinanthropologie)	Exercise science + motor control; francophone Montreal research community
HES-SO Valais-Wallis	Asia’s existing connection via Akselrod and Bassolino; Swiss-based; potential Horizon Europe partner
Faculty at EPFL (Blanke lab or adjacent)	If Blanke expresses interest, EPFL is a natural European co-organizer

Action items — own meeting

Decide on event format priority: satellite workshop at existing conference vs. standalone invitation-only meeting
Begin outreach to Valeria Peviani and Alkistis Saramandi as first-circle contacts (highest receptivity, ECR-level → more open to new conversations)
Discuss with Asia: does HES-SO connection (Akselrod or Bassolino) support a co-organizing conversation?
Explore SSHRC Connection Grant eligibility with a potential academic co-applicant
Draft one-paragraph description of the meeting concept (the scientific question, not the format) to use in outreach conversations
Decide on entity structure before any public-facing step: event name, organizer byline, legal/financial vehicle