Call for papers for the 2026 edition of FIDIC’s Future Leaders Booklet
The Future Leaders Advisory Council (FLAC) of FIDIC is inviting submissions of papers for the 2026 edition of its annual FIDIC Future Leaders Booklet. The booklet, this year hits a significant milestone of its tenth edition, will be launched at the 2026 annual FIDIC Global Infrastructure Conference 2026 which will be hosted in New Delhi, India between 13 and 15 September.
The conference theme will be Engineering a Bright Future, Together: Quality Infrastructure for People and Prosperity.
New Delhi offers a highly relevant setting for the conference, reflecting India’s growing influence and leadership in global infrastructure development. As one of the world’s fastest-growing major economies, India is at the forefront of large-scale infrastructure delivery, innovation and capacity building, making it an ideal location for the global infrastructure community to meet.
The 2026 FIDIC Global Infrastructure Conference will discuss how best we can plan and deliver quality infrastructure that benefits communities and builds the foundation for a more prosperous world. The sector faces major challenges, including the commoditisation of engineering services, inequitable procurement practices and a $64 trillion global infrastructure investment gap.
We encourage submissions that discuss and highlight the important role that Future Leaders play in shaping the future of the infrastructure industry and which demonstrate how current trends are shaping the future world we are living in. We invite Future Leaders from around the world to share their thoughts, experiences and ideas in this unique and exciting publication.
Booklet Theme: Engineering a Bright Future, Together: Quality Infrastructure for People and Prosperity
Papers are invited according to the following sub-themes:
1. Designing for the Planet
Net Zero
Decarbonization
Nature Based Solutions
Resilient Infrastructure
2. AI and Innovation in Modern Engineering
Artificial Intelligence (AI)
Digital Transformation
Augmented Reality (AR)
Robotics
Digital Twins
3. Ethics, Inclusion and Leadership
Corruption
Diversity and Inclusion
Human-Centered Engineering
Future of Work
Important Dates:
13 April 2026 - Call for papers opens
29 May 2026 - Submission of papers closes
30 June 2026 - Shortlisting of papers for publication and presentation
13-15 September 2026 - Release of the FIDIC Future Leaders Booklet
Eligibility Criteria:
Authors must be a Future Leader (under 40 years of age at the date of publication of the booklet) and satisfy at least one of the membership criteria below:
(1) Be a member of FIDIC’s Future Leaders Council
(2) Be a member of a FIDIC Regional Future Leaders Group
(3) Be a member of a FIDIC Member Association Future Leaders Group
(4) Be an employee of a member firm affiliated to a FIDIC Member Association (To confirm your Member Association, please visit FIDIC | Member associations | International Federation of Consulting Engineers)
Submission Guidelines
(1) All submissions must be made in English via the FIDIC web site: https://www.fidic.org/node/32998 (see the form below) on or before 29 May 2026 (midnight GMT) using the word template.
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(2) Length of the paper to not exceed 2 x A4 pages for content
(3) All authors are to supply a short biography (not exceeding 150 words) and a high-resolution picture of the author(s) of at least 1MB in resolution.
The FIDIC FLC reserve the right to shortlist articles for publishing against the above criteria and quality guidelines. Papers that do not get selected for the booklet may be published on other FIDIC platforms. Submitting authors are to be available to present their papers in person at the Future Leaders Symposium on Sunday 21 September 2025.
