The 49th ESPEN Congress on Clinical Nutrition & Metabolism will be held in Istanbul, Türkiye, from 11 to 14 September 2027. The announcement was made by KEPAN, the Turkish Society of Clinical Enteral and Parenteral Nutrition, which won the bid to host the congress and will act as local partner to the European Society for Clinical Nutrition and Metabolism (ESPEN). It follows the 48th ESPEN Congress held in Berlin in September 2026.
ESPEN's annual congress is the largest clinical nutrition meeting in Europe and one of the most influential worldwide, regularly drawing several thousand physicians, dietitians, pharmacists, nurses, nutrition support team members and basic scientists. The scientific programme is anchored in the society's guideline work and typically spans nutritional screening and assessment, the diagnosis and management of malnutrition and sarcopenia, enteral and parenteral nutrition practice and complications, intestinal failure and home parenteral nutrition, nutrition in critical illness, perioperative and ERAS nutrition, cancer cachexia and oncology nutrition, obesity and metabolic disease, paediatric and geriatric nutrition, micronutrients, refeeding syndrome, and the metabolic science underpinning all of it.
The format combines plenary lectures from internationally recognised investigators, guideline presentation and update sessions, symposia organised by ESPEN's special interest groups, educational sessions from the Life Long Learning (LLL) programme, and a very large abstract-driven component with oral, short-oral and poster presentations. Abstract submission is a central part of the congress and has historically been coupled with young investigator awards and travel bursaries. Industry exhibition and satellite symposia cover nutritional products, delivery devices, monitoring technology and pharmaconutrition.
For clinicians in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf, the Istanbul edition is unusually accessible: a short flight, a familiar hub airport, and a host society with strong regional ties through the LLL course network that already runs live courses in the region. Previous ESPEN congresses have been accredited for European CME credits, and the same is expected for 2027 once confirmed. At the time of listing, the congress venue, registration fees, abstract deadline, accreditation and programme themes had not yet been published; details will appear on the ESPEN and congress websites closer to the date.
