11. - 14. June 2026

Graz, Austria (more information to be announced soon)

Each ISSMGE Member Society will be asked to select two representatives to attend the young geotechnical conference. Ideally, they should be 35 years of age or younger at the time of the meeting. Senior geotechnical engineers will deliver keynote lectures and engage with the young engineer delegates during the technical sessions.

Franz Tschuchnigg
Institute of Soil Mechanics, Foundation Engineering and Computational Geotechnics
Graz University of Technology

Haris Felic, Johannes Leo
Institute of Soil Mechanics, Foundation Engineering and Computational Geotechnics
Graz University of Technology
iygec2026noSpam@tugraz.at

There is no specific conference theme, any topic related to geotechnical engineering is appropriate. Some examples are:

• Site investigation
• Laboratory and field testing
• Field monitoring
• Selection of design parameters
• Constitutive, numerical and physical modelling
• Shallow and deep foundations
• Deep excavations and retaining structures
• Tunnelling and underground structures
• Slope stability and landslides
• Infrastructure projects
• Ground improvement
• Mechanical, hydraulic and thermal behaviour of saturated and unsaturated soils
• Environmental Geotechnics
• Ground Modelling
• Data-driven methods
• Machine learning

• 25th June 2025: Deadline for participant nomination
• 31st May 2025: Confirmation of nominations and allocation of remaining spots
• 15th August 2025: Submission of extended abstract
• 28th November 2025: Formal acceptance of extended abstract
• 15th January 2026: Submission of final extended abstract

For information on the 21st International Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering in Vienna, click here: https://www.icsmge2026.org/

Participants of the 8th iYGEC are entitled to a 10% discount on the PhD registration fee for the ICSMGE2026. Further details regarding this offer are available on the official conference website.

• Contributions to the 8th iYGEC shall be submitted in the form of extended abstracts.
• Extended abstracts (4 pages in length) will be published in the conference proceedings of the “NAWI Book Series” of Graz University of Technology.
• Each extended abstract will be assigned a unique Digital Object Identifier (DOI).
• The proceedings will be made available as Open Access following the conference.
• Templates for submission (Word) are available for download.
• A signed license agreement is required for publication and must be submitted together with the extended abstract (see here).
• All submissions will be reviewed to ensure compliance with formal requirements and assessed for their relevance to the conference topics.
• Submission is carried out via the registration platform, see in the corresponding mail.

All participants are required to register via the official registration platform, which can be found in the corresponding mail.

To support effective communication between participants and the organizing committee, a dedicated Discord server has been set up. This platform enables participants to coordinate accommodation, share transport options, and receive updates from the organizers.

A list of recommended hotels, including discount codes, is also provided via the Discord server. Access the server here.

The conference ticket (360 €) includes the following services:

• Admission to the conference venue
• Ice-breaker event
• Refreshments during breaks
• Coffee and tea
• Lunch on Friday and Saturday
• Dinner on Friday
• Transfer to Vienna (Excursion)

Companies, institutions, and stakeholders from the field of geotechnical engineering are invited to support the 8iYGEC.

By sponsoring the conference, organizations will benefit from high-visibility opportunities across all official materials and from direct interaction with the international community of young geotechnical engineers.

Support may include, but is not limited to:

• Logo integration in conference materials
• On-site presence during the event
• Participation in selected social and networking activities
   

If your organization is interested in supporting the iYGEC and contributing to the advancement of young professionals in geotechnical engineering, please contact the organizing committee via email at: iygec2026noSpam@tugraz.at.

Further details will be provided upon request.