IBAGS XV, the triennial meeting of the International Basal Ganglia Society, runs 6–10 December 2026 at the University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand.
The XV Meeting of the International Basal Ganglia Society (IBAGS XV) brings the global basal ganglia research community to Ōtepoti Dunedin, New Zealand, from 6 to 10 December 2026. Convened under the theme "Advances in global understanding of the basal ganglia across health and disease," it is a multidisciplinary scientific congress spanning the molecular, cellular and network organisation of the basal ganglia and the neuropsychiatric and neurodegenerative disorders linked to them.
The meeting is organised by the International Basal Ganglia Society (IBAGS), a global non-profit organisation whose plenary scientific conferences run every three years. IBAGS says its aims are to advance understanding of basal ganglia structure and function in health and disease, to bring together researchers across countries and disciplines, and to inform the public about the field. The 2026 welcome is signed by IBAGS President John Reynolds, Secretary Louise Parr-Brownlie and Treasurer Yoland Smith, and the society sits alongside national and regional counterparts including the European, French, Japanese and Swedish basal ganglia societies.
IBAGS describes the meeting as drawing together basic and clinical scientists, from established investigators and young research leaders through to postdoctoral fellows and students. As the fifteenth edition of a long-running triennial series, it is an international gathering of the specialist neuroscience community rather than a general-audience event.
The congress is held at the University of Otago, Aotearoa New Zealand's oldest university, which the organiser describes as close to Dunedin's central business and shopping area and within easy walking distance of numerous accommodation options. The campus is about a 30-minute drive from Dunedin Airport; the organiser notes it does not arrange transfers itself and points delegates to airport shuttle, taxi and rideshare options between the airport and town. Listed accommodation ranges from the Fable Hotel Dunedin, a roughly 2km flat walk to the university conference venue through the city, to the University of Otago's own Te Rangihīroa Residential College on campus, the Bluestone on George apartments, and the Cable Court Motel a short walk from the city centre and close to the university. The compact layout, with hotels, campus residences and the CBD clustered within walking distance of the venue, keeps delegate movement short.
Securing the triennial IBAGS meeting places Dunedin on the international neuroscience conference circuit and brings an offshore specialist delegation into the lower South Island in early summer. For New Zealand's MICE sector it is an example of a university campus anchoring an international scientific congress, with the host institution's lecture facilities and residential colleges, nearby hotels and a walkable CBD absorbing the delegate programme and after-hours movement in one compact destination.
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