Dear friends and colleagues of Kew, We are delighted to announce that registration and poster abstract submissions are open for the international State of the World's Plants and Fungi Symposium. Join us for this important hybrid event, taking place at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and online from 29 June to 1 July 2026. We would be extremely grateful if you could please share details with relevant colleagues and networks. Harnessing the benefits of specimen digitisation The world's herbaria and fungaria hold the most complete, expertly curated and important sources of information for plant and fungal life on Earth. Yet, for much of their history, these data have remained accessible only to physical visitors. Massive efforts are now underway to digitise these collections, unlocking billions of data points through high-resolution imaging, omics analyses and the generation of rich multimodal meta-data. This three-day symposium accompanies the publication of a cutting-edge report exploring the applications and implications of this digital revolution. It brings together international experts to examine how these emerging digital resources are being used to address pressing scientific, environmental and societal questions. Crucially, we will discuss how best to galvanise global support to increase digitisation, particularly in biodiverse, low-income countries. These discussions will be developed into an open access publication to drive future action and policy. Don't miss your chance to be part of the conversation that will shape the future of biodiversity research. Programme The symposium is based around themed sessions in which invited experts will explore critical topics through presentations and Q&A panel discussions: * Digitisation success stories from around the world * New frontiers in specimen science * Unlocking specimen data to accelerate biodiversity knowledge * Tapping into the biocultural wealth of collections * Digital data, open access and sovereign rights * Developing digital evidence for biodiversity policy In-person attendees will also be able to participate in a workshop to contribute their ideas towards the subsequent publication. View the programme [IMG] Register now for an early bird ticket Discounted early bird tickets are available until 28 February. Full ticket pricing can be found on the symposium web page. Submit a poster abstract Delegates attending the symposium in person are invited to submit an abstract to present a poster and a one-minute oral presentation. Prizes will be awarded for the best early career researcher poster presentations. Abstract submission deadline: 24 April. Register now We very much hope you can join us. Best wishes, Alex Professor Alexandre Antonelli (he/him) Executive Director of Science Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew kew.org/sotwpf-symposium Kew Science (to subscribe/unsubscribe the EvolDir send mail to golding@mcmaster.ca)