ARPH Conference 2026
Health Psychology Research and Societal Transitions
March 19 & 20, 2026 Egmond aan Zee
Welcome
Dear colleagues
We are happy to invite you to the 15th ARPH Conference, taking place on March 19–20, 2026. The conference will be hosted by the ARPH board in Egmond aan Zee. As always, our program will feature inspiring keynote lectures, symposia, workshops, oral presentations, and poster sessions, along with social and networking events. The conference dinner and party are included in the registration fee.
This year’s theme is Health Psychology Research and Societal Transitions. During the conference, we want to explore how individuals and communities deal with engaging in preventive and healthy behaviors, managing illness and symptoms, and adapting to changing social, technological, and healthcare environments. We welcome presentations, round tables and workshops about any research (methodology) relevant to researchers in psychology and health. As the theme of this years conferences is our contribution to societal transitions, we also warmly invite abstracts that reflect on how we create impact on policy and practice – also when this is not psychological research.
Kind regards,
ARPH Conference 2026 Committee
ARPH Board
Meet our keynote speakers
Sicco de Knecht
One of our keynote speakers is Sicco de Knecht. Sicco is the director of NEWS (www.wetenschapensamenleving.nl). Previously, he served as Head of Research Policy at Leiden University and as program coordinator for Open Science and Recognition & Reward at Utrecht University. From 2016 to 2020, he was Editor-in-Chief of the higher education and science platform ScienceGuide, and before that, he conducted neuroscience research at the University of Amsterdam. His keynote is titled: “Communication is a Two-Way Street: Science Communication for Societal Impact.”
Meet our keynote speakers
Emely de Vet
Emely is professor in behavior change, health and the living environment at Wageningen University, and principal investigator at Amsterdam Institute of Advanced Metropolitan Solutions (AMS Institute – Emely de Vet). She is involved in inter-and transdisciplinary research and education to address the role of behavior in complex systemic health issues involving many actors and interacting factors (e.g., obesity, antimicrobial resistance, urban health, social inequalities). In addition, she advises national government through the Health Council of the Netherlands. Internationally she serves on the behavioral sciences technical advisory group of the World Health Organization.
Her keynote is titled “Balancing Scientific Rigor and Societal Impact: Challenges and Opportunities for Health Psychology”
And the nominees are...
ARPH PhD Award
We invite submissions for the ARPH PhD Award. The award is meant to support young researchers in the field of psychology and health who just received their PhD title.
Strengthen your network
Meet a mentor
The ARPH is organizing another “Meet a mentor” programme. At the conference, junior researchers are given the opportunity to schedule a 30-60 minute meeting with a senior researcher (mentor). Before the meeting, the juniors will send a short summary and some questions they would like to discuss.
