AbGradE and the Origin of Life Early-career Network (OoLEN) are pleased to invite you to our joint event FALCON: Frontiers in Astrobiology and Origins of Life Conference!

The event will take place in beautiful Reykjavik (Iceland🌋) at the University of Iceland (Askja building) on June 26-29, 2025 (right before the BEACON conference)!

The symposium is open to all early-careers – from undergraduates to postdocs and professionals. It will be a great opportunity to get to know other astrobiologists and origin of life scientists!

The preliminary programme includes scientific sessions with contributed talks by our attendees and a poster session. As always, this will be a great opportunity to present your work in front of a friendly audience of peers in a stress-free environment.

We will have two full symposium days consisting of keynote lectures, contributed talks, poster sessions, and round-table discussions. The third day will be devoted to interactive workshops, and on the fourth day we will visit Iceland’s stunning waterfalls and geysers on a tour of the Golden Circle (€75).

On the evening of the 25th we will host a barbeque ice breaker. On the 26th we urge you to join us for a conference social dinner at Kaffi Flóra in Reykjavík’s botanical gardens (€77, includes Botanical Garden tour). Thanks to the abundant daylight hours, the rest of the evenings can be enjoyed in and around Reykjavík, with opportunities to visit islands and volcanoes or go whale watching, amongst other attractions.

Registration

If you are interested, please fill in the registration form below by the May 31st deadline. IMPORTANT: Registration is only complete upon a confirmed payment of the fee (75€) AND completion of the form below (details will be sent after you fill in the registration form). There will be limited travel grants available for attendees from both AbGradE/OoLEN and BEACON.

>> Registration form <<

Accommodation

Camping options (please arrange it yourself). A very nice camping site is available at Laugardalur, close to the Botanic Garden, the Laugardalslaug spa, and the zoo. It is very advisable to book the tent places well in advance here. The price for a place for a tent from 25th to 30th June starts from ISK 21900,- (EUR 150), so it is a good idea to share a tent. There are different options on size and electricity availability. Tents can be rented at Iceland Camping Equipment here. Their office is directly situated at the BSI central bus station, so you can go with the airport bus there, pick up your gear and then take bus 14 to the campsite. Advance booking is highly recommended. At Laugardalur camp site you have the infrastructure of the Dalur hostel at your disposal.

Airbnbs: Feel free to look for one yourself 🙂

Stay tuned for more information on the programme, registration & registration fee, abstract submission, accommodation options and the excursion. In the meantime, if you have any questions, please feel free to contact us.


We very much hope that you will be able to join us in beautiful Iceland for

🦅“FALCON: Frontiers in Astrobiology and Origins of Life Conference”🦅