Abstracts are now being accepted for the 2022 ASHRAE Annual Conference to be held in Toronto, Ontario, Canada June 25- 29, 2022, at the Sheraton Centre Toronto Hotel.

The conference will address the changes to buildings created by the pandemic and will present papers and programs that are pertinent to the future of the built environment.

"As we move into 2022 and face climate extremes and natural disasters along with the pandemic, buildings continue to be critical to our everyday lives," said Kristen Cetin, conference chair. "These commercial, industrial and residential buildings in particular face an increasingly complex set of competing priorities to balance, as well as an increasing number of technologies and solutions to use and implement. The 2022 ASHRAE Annual Conference focuses on such diverse priorities and methods to address them, while considering the dynamic nature of such priorities over time."

The conference's technical program is comprised of the following eight tracks:

The "Buildings in the Aftermath of COVID-19" track highlights the significant impacts on how buildings are used, the priorities associated with building operations to ensure healthy environments for occupants and the transition to design and operation in the aftermath of the pandemic. 

The "Connected Buildings, Connected Communities" track focuses on advanced smart building technologies and renewable energy resources, and the coordinated efforts in accomplishing improved building performance and demand flexibility.

The "IAQ, Energy Use, Comfort and Health of Sustainable Buildings" track features the following topics, and how they interact and impact one another: Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ), energy use and efficiency, occupant comfort and health, sustainability goals and owner/operator priorities.

The "Cold Climate Building System Design, Operation and Resilience" track covers efforts and topics specifically focused on buildings, building systems and equipment in cold, arctic and subarctic climates. The track will also cover specific considerations for the building envelope and HVAC&R systems and resulting thermal and hygrothermal performance.

The "Professional Development" track will cover all aspects of business outside of engineering/technical applications and lends itself to interactive session types such as workshops and forums.

The "HVAC&R Systems and Equipment" track will focus on the development of new systems and equipment, improvements to existing systems and equipment and the proper application and operation of systems and equipment.

The "Fundamentals and Applications" track will provide opportunities for papers of varying levels across a large topic base. Concepts, design elements and shared experiences for theoretical and applied concepts of HVAC&R design are included.

Finally, the "Research Summit" features active research, and the exchange of research findings, critical to the development of the HVAC&R industry and built environment. The track includes a partnership with ASHRAE's archival journal, Science and Technology for the Built Environment.

Abstracts (400 words or less) are due September 20, 2021. If accepted, final conference papers (8-page maximum) are due December 1, 2021.

In addition, technical papers (complete 30-page maximum papers published in "ASHRAE Transactions") are also due September 20, 2021, and considered for Science and Technology for the Built Environment, ASHRAE's research journal.

For more information on the call for abstracts and the 2022 ASHRAE Annual Conference, visit ashrae.org/2022Annual.