We are pleased to announce the opening of registration for Contours 2026 — Effective Field Theories Meet the Schwinger–Keldysh Formalism, a conference dedicated to Schwinger–Keldysh Effective Field Theories. The conference will take place from Monday 29 June to Friday 3 July 2026 at the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, University of Cambridge (United Kingdom). 

The growing interest in applying Schwinger–Keldysh Effective Field Theory techniques to a wide range of non-equilibrium and open systems has been a major motivation for organising this conference. In particular, the emergence of these methods across diverse areas, including dissipative hydrodynamics, black hole physics, holography, and cosmology, makes this an especially timely opportunity to bring together researchers from these communities. By facilitating the exchange of ideas, tools, and recent developments, we hope that the conference will help identify shared goals and methodologies and, ideally, lay the groundwork for lasting collaborations. 

Registration is now open, and abstracts for contributed talks and posters may be submitted via https://indico.global/event/16432/overview. 

Thank you for considering participating in Contours 2026. We hope to welcome you in Cambridge next summer.