Organisers of a major veterinary mental health conference have invited researchers to showcase their work at the 2025 event.

Submissions are now open for the biennial Mind Matters Initiative (MMI) symposium, which is due to take place in Birmingham next October.

Next year marks the 10^th anniversary of the MMI programme and chairperson Louise Allum said mental health research had “evolved considerably” in that time.

Progression

She said: “We have been working hard to support its progression to the best of our ability, through funding numerous research grants, subsidising training and holding biennial symposia, among a range of other activities.

“We’ve come a long way in the past 10 years, but there’s still much further to go.

The 2025 event’s theme will be “Advancing veterinary mental health research: learning from the past, considering the present, and looking to the future”.

Collectively learn

Dr Allum said: “It is of vital importance that we can collectively learn from recent endeavours to work out how we can collaborate towards creating a brighter future for the professions.

“It is only through events such as our symposia that we can start to understand where those vital research gaps lie, as well as what actions we need to take next in order to advance our understanding of veterinary mental health.

“Our symposium presents a fantastic opportunity for knowledge exchange in the veterinary mental health research sphere so that, together, we can continue to foster a compassionate environment and build a solid evidence-base for veterinary mental health research to grow and evolve.”

Abstract submissions can be emailed to symposium@rcvs.org.uk until 11:59pm on 28 February.