Activities and Public Relations
Our interest is offering our members a platform to realize their initiatives, for the advancement of research and education in immunology. The following is a short overview of our main activities. We strongly encourage everyone to get involved and to present additional ideas to the board.
It is our aim to promote awareness of immunology among decision makers from science and education as well as among the public.
Day of Immunology
As an example, EFIS brought the annual Day of Immunology (DOI, April 29th) into being, which is now celebrated worldwide. Click here to read reports on our previous DOI activities.
Short Cuts for Immunology
With the competition Short cuts for Immunology, we sought an audience that is not exclusively science-oriented. We offered an award to the best short film concept featuring the importance of immunology. The movie "The Immunology Knight" was introduced to the public at the opening ceremony of ECI 2009. EFIS is now inviting everyone to watch, download and distribute it widely! Please access it via www.immunology-info.org .
European Newswire
We have recently subscribed to the European newswire Alphagalileo to be able to distribute your input directly to the European press.
Focus on young talent
Young scientists may apply for our travel grants and fellowships. Participation in scientific congresses as well as lab exchanges allows junior scientists to tap the full educational potential of the European immunology environment. EFIS encourages immunologists to bring their knowledge to the classroom. We award the most original and innovative ideas and support their realization. Developing a sense of curiosity for immunological topics among children today will likely impact research in the field of immunology in the future. In this regard, EFIS has published an educating and entertaining book on immunology, which is suitable for children. You can download a pdf of the book here: www.immunology-info.org. The Japanese Society of Immunology has published the original for the Day of Immunology in 2008.
If you have additional ideas for the website www.immunology-info.org, a page on immunology, intended for laypeople, please send us your proposal! We invite all EFIS members to share their teaching material with each other.
Triennial European Congress of Immunology (ECI)
“Immunity for Life – Immunology for Health”: with this as their motto, all National European Societies of Immunology convened from the 13th to 16th September, 2009, in Berlin, Germany. This Congress offered a four day comprehensive program on the state of the art in Immunology. Following the highly successful first Congress of Immunology 2006 in Paris, 5000 European Immunologists met in Berlin for ECI 2009 (2nd European Congress of Immunology). The Congress offered broad spectrum of topics in more than 30 symposia and 60 workshops, covering topics from basic research to applied Immunology.
The immunologists meet triennially under the umbrella of EFIS. Get ready for ECI 2012 in Glasgow, and ECI 2015 in Vienna!!!
Is your society interested in organizing a future European Congress of Immunology? Please click here to learn about the requirements.
In Berlin, two outstanding research prizes were awarded: the 50,000 € “EFIS Schering-Plough Prize in Immunology”, given for the second time. The winner of 2009 was Prof. Michael Reth from Germany. For the first time the 10,000 € “Ita Askonas Prize” has been awarded to a female researcher in the early stage of her career: The winner of 2009 was Prof. Fiona Powrie from the UK.
Furthermore, EFIS was offering 300 travel grants à 500 € for young European scientists to attend the ECI 2009.