Abstract : The Workshop on Advances in Personal Load Carriage was held at Queen's University from October 7-10, 1997 and was sponsored by TTCP-TLG-8 and the Defence and Civil Institute for Environmental Medicine. The purpose was to bring together researchers with soldier mission command to exchange information between TTCP (NATO) countries and ensure that research developments were in agreement with command expectations. Commercial designers were also invited. A secondary purpose was to demonstrate the approach being taken by Canada at Queen's University, mainly the development of standardized testing protocols, such as the Load Carriage Simulator. The conference attracted fifty scientists, soldier command, and commercial visitors from 10 countries. There were fifteen papers delivered as well as demonstrations of military and commercial systems, with abstracts included in this report. Within the program were also opportunities for discussion of system designs and design features that were important for soldier operational effectiveness. At the closing of the meeting, participants completed focus group discussions identifying key design issues in load carriage. Ideas for design to overcome current limitations were also discussed, focusing on controlling the weight, cooling the body, reducing the load, off-body load carriage, and protecting the soldier. This information is also included in this report.