ICR® 2026 Call for participation

Oral presentations (talks) and posters covering all aspects of the latest refractory research are invited for ICR® 2026. You can submit your application to give an oral presentation (talk) or show a poster at ICR® 2026 at the bottom of this page. You can apply until 31 May 2026.

The topics of ICR® 2026

• Raw materials
• Advances in Monolithic Technology
• Refractories for Iron- and Steelmaking
• Refractories for Non-Ferrous Metallurgy
• Refractories for Non-Metal Industries
• Modelling, Digitalisation and AI
• Education
• Testing and Standardisation
• Basic Refractory Science and Technology Transfer

The process

If you want to apply to give an oral presentation (talk) or show a poster at ICR® 2026, you first need to submit an abstract of 250 words. This abstract serves as your application to be part of ICR® 2026. The deadline for this is 31 May 2026.

You find the button to access our abstract submission system at the bottom of this page. In the abstract submission system, the abstract is treated as a „paper“. Please ignore this and keep submitting. During the submission process, you can choose whether you want to submit an abstract to give an oral presentation (talk) or to show a poster.

The Scientific Committee will then consider your abstract(s) and inform you by 16 June 2026 whether your application to give an oral presentation (talk) or show a poster has been accepted.

Depending on whether you will give an oral presentation (talk) or show a poster, the process will then differ somewhat, as explained here.

I want to give a oral presentation (talk)

Your talk will be 20 minutes long (15 minutes talk followed by 5 minutes of discussion).

If you are invited to give a talk, it is mandatory to publish an accompanying scientific paper, either in the ICR® 2026 conference proceedings book or in a special issue of the "Journal of Ceramic Science and Technology" (JCST). You will be able to choose between the two types of publication after you have been invited to give a talk.

If you wish to publish your paper in the ICR® 2026 conference proceedings book, you will be asked to submit a 4-page PDF. A template will be provided to you.

JCST is an peer-reviewed Open Access journal and provides DOIs. For papers submitted through ICR®, the Article Processing Charge will be 0 € instead of 1.300 €. The normal publishing guidelines for JCST will apply.

The deadline to provide your paper (either for the ICR® conference proceedings book or for JCST) is 15 August 2026.

Once your abstract has been accepted, you will be informed in more detail.

I want to show a poster

There will be a dedicated “poster area” at ICR® 2026 where posters will be shown throughout the whole conference. This “poster area” will be open to all visitors of ICR®. You will need to bring your poster with you to the venue. Posters should be DIN A0 size (portrait format, 841 x 1189 mm).

When showing a poster, it is also mandatory to participate in our “Poster Slam”. With this format you can address a large audience in a short time (max. 2 minutes) and attract them to your work and to your poster in the poster area. No presentations can be shown during the slam. The three pitches that attract the most attention will receive a “Poster Award” at a prizewinning ceremony with prizes of 200 to 500 Euro, sponsored by refractories WORLDFORUM and STEULER-KCH.

Once your abstract has been accepted, you will be informed in more detail.

The scientific committee of ICR® 2026

• Prof. Dr. Olaf Krause, Koblenz University of Applied Sciences (head)
• Dr. Christian Dannert, Forschungsgemeinschaft Feuerfest e. V.
• Dr. Patrick Gehre, TU Bergakademie Freiberg
• Dr. Thorsten Tonnesen, RWTH Aachen University