Attendants:
EFIS Board Members:
Sergio Romagnani (presiedent), F.Y.Liew (vice-president), Israel Pecht (past president) Reinhold E. Schmidt (treasurer), Anna Erdei (secretary general)

EFIS Members' Delegates:
 

1. Adoption of the Agenda
2. approval of the Minutes of the last GA held in Poznan ( can be found on our homepage )
3. President's report (S.Romagnani)
4. Secretary's report (A.Erdei)
5. Treasurer's report (R.Schmidt)
6. Immunology Letters Editor-in Chief's report (I.Pecht)
7. Report on EFIS-CIG activities (M.C. Bene)
8. European Immunology Congress-EFIS, 2003. (M.Varla-Leftherioti)
9. EFIS Conferences and John Humphrey Courses (s.Romagnani, A. Erdei)
10. Matters arising

1.Adoption of the Agenda
The agenda was adopted by the GA

2.Approval of the Minutes of the last GA
The Minutes of the EFIS General Assembly held in September, 2000 in Poznan were approved.

3.President's Report (see enclosure #1 )
No comments or questions were raised following the President's report.

4.Secretary's Report (see enclosure #2 )
No comments or questions were raised following the Secretary's report.

5.Treasurer's Report (see enclosure #3 )
No major questins were raised following the Treasurer’s report.

6. Immunology Letters editor-in-chief’s report
Israel Pecht, Editor-in-Chief of Immunology Letters (IL) stressed, that IL is the only source of substantial income for EFIS. In the last issues, however papers submitted mostly by non-european authors appeared. It is also a problem that very few papers are submitted to the Journal, consequently there is no real basis for selection. I.Pecht asked the delegates of EFIS Members to recruit and submit good papers to IL. C.Melief suggested to involve a secion on „Controversial issues”.
It has been accepted by the delegates that from now on, the Proceedings of all EFIS-supported meetings should be published in IL. As an example, the practice of the Signals-meetings organized by the Hungarian Society for Immunology has been mentiond by I.P since the lectures of these meetings are regularly published in IL.

7. Report on EFIS-CIG activities
Marie-Christine Béné, the Liaison Officer for Clinical Immunology, reported on the activities of the EFIS Clinical Immunology Group (EFIS-CIG). (see enclosure #4 )

8. EFIS 2003 Congress in Rhodes
Prof. Youla Varla-Leftherioti, the representative of the Hellenic Society for Immunology reported on the progress regarding the organization of the 15th European Immunology Congress of EFIS 2003, to be held in Rhodes, Greece. She informed the GA about the new conference center which will be finished by September, this year and presented a general scheme of sessions planned. She mentioned the opening of the new airport in Athens and stressed the good accessibility of the congress site. Prof. Varla-Leftherioti emphasized that an experienced organizing company had been picked up.
Registration fees planned were as follows: scientists 370 Euros (late: 470), students 230 Euros (late 300). These fees were found to be too high for all the members of the GA, and a considerable reduction was suggested.
Prof. Varla-Leftherioti wished that closer contact should be established with the EFIS Board and the Member Societies. She also informed the assembly that an internet page had been created at "www.efis2003.net". A link to this site has already been created from the EFIS homepage, as well.

9. EFIS Conferences and John Humphrey Courses (see also the President’s Report)
- EFIS financially supported the 4th Tatra Conference in September 2000 and the 11th Signals Meeting to be held in September 2001.
- The John Humphrey Meeting on Autoimmunity, Clinical and Molecular Aspects, which was held in Tartu, Estonia (June5-9, 2001) served the goals of EFIS, by having many young scientists from non-EU countries at a high level scientific meeting.

10. Matters arising
- The possibility of organizing one of the next EFIS-congresses as a kind of „European-FASEB-Meeting” was raised by R.Schmidt. The idea is to organize joint National+European Meetings in the future. The suggestion was not approved by delegates of the British Society for Immunology, while delegates of three other big societies: the French, Scandinavian and German Society suggested that the Board prepares a proposal with all the details and set a deadline for the application to this kind of EFIS-congress. The frequency of such meetings should also be determined. At the next GA a final decision will be made.
- Regarding the new EU-liaison Officier, Dr.Jesper Zeuthen suggested Dr.Arnd Hoeveler (DG XII) to be asked by the Board.

The next General Assembly of EFIS will be held in 2003, during the EFIS Congress in Rhodes.

14th European  Immunology meeting.
The 14th European Immunology Meeting was held in Poznan (Poland) on September 23-27 and it was organized by Dr. Andreji Mackiewicz. and the Polish Society. Scientific program included: Key not address delivered by Dr Peter Krammer, 8 – State-of Art. Lectures including 25th EFIS Anniversary Lecture given by Dr Rolf Zinkernagel (Nobel Prize Laureate), 12 Meet an Expert Sessions, 20 Plenary Sessions (80 Invited Speakers), 46 Workshops (92 Invited Chairmen) composed of oral presentations and poster display and Educational Session organized by the Clinical Immunology Group (CIG). A Special Session devoted to 25th EFIS Anniversary was also organized. All-together 865 abstracts were submitted. Organizers printed Program Book of the meeting. Abstract Book was a Special Issue of Immunology Letters 73:75-302, 2000. Moreover, Supplement Issue of Immunology Letters entitled Cancer Vaccines that included related papers presented during EFIS 2000 was printed. Two volumes as proceedings are in press. One is entitled Advances in Basic and Clinical Immunology and will be published by Kluver/Plenum Press Publishers in Advances of Experimental Medicine and Biology series, and the other one is entitled 14th European Immunology Meeting and will be published by Monduzzi Editore. Advances will contain 62 chapters, half of them prepared by invited speakers and the other half by participants selected by Workshop Chairmen. The !4th European Immunology Meeting will contain 127 papers, part of them prepared by invited Workshop chairmen and majority submitted by participants.
Total number of participants of EFIS 2000 (as by computer list) was 1420. 588 were from EC countries, 690 from EC associated countries, 48 from new independent states, 36 from USA, 3 from Japan and 55 from other countries (Australia, Brasil, Canada, Chile, Cuba, Iran, Korea, Mexico, Singapour, South Africa, Turkey, Zimbabwe). There were 186 young scientists (under 30 years) including, from 89 from EC countries.
456 participants did not pay registration fee.  The number includes 186 invited speakers and workshop chairmen, 30 members of the organizing committee, 116  exhibitors, 2 EFIS 2003 representatives, 40 Kronenberg bursaries, 4 waived registration fee (Russia, Lithuania, Ukraine). The budget is not closed yet. Shortly, “partial reimbursement of costs” will be paid to the invited speakers.
Certainly, Dr. A. Mackiewicz has done a terrific job in organizing this meeting under the circumstances given. However, the opinion of all the EFIS Board members was that scientifically the meeting was very good, but the organization and the logistics were not fully satisfactory.

Elections.
The elections for the next Vice-President and the next  General Secretary were held at the General Assembly in Poznan. F.Y. Liew (United Kingdom) was elected as next Vice-President and A. Erdei (Hungary) as next General Secretary. R. Schmidt (Germany) was re-elected as a Treasurer.

Homepage.
The EFIS homepage was transferred from Paris to Budapest by the new General Secretary Anna Erdei, who took care of having the homepage put on the web. She did it with great rapidity and efficiency. Many thanks to Anna for her terrific job.

EFIS Directory.
The decision to set up an EFIS Directory made on the same model as the FASEB Directory received the agreement of all European Societies provided that the lists of their Members should be adequately protected. This Directory would contain the addresses of all 16,000 European Immunologists who belong to EFIS and make them accessible via Internet. An organization capable of maintaining such a directory and the technical solutions necessary to protect was searched, but because of the high cost, it was decided to stop this project. However, since the IUIS decided to establish a permanent Secretariat at the Vienna Medical Academy, it is hoping that it will help all the National European Societies to get the information they would require.

Next meetings
The organization of the European Immunology Congresses is one of the major activities of EFIS. The policy for the next European Immunology Congresses is to keep the quality level as high as possible, but at the same time to avoid they are as comprehensive as the International Immunology Congresses, but rather focused on topics in which European Immunologists have provided significant contributions. The meetings of EFIS should indeed be the main Forum for the presentation of the new discoveries and advancements of European Immunologists. To make the organization of next meetings even more efficient, the Board also decided to establish Guidelines for local Organizers adapted from the Guidelines provided by IUIS. Likewise, a contract to be performed between EFIS and the National Organizing Societies, prepared with the help of lawyers, was approved.
As known, the 15th Congress will be held in Rhodes and the Hellenic Society of Immunology is currently involved in its organization.
For the 16th European meeting in 2006, there were four candidates (Budapest, Paris, Praha, and Tel Aviv) and Paris was choosen as site for this meeting. The idea was discussed by the Board that the Paris meeting may provide the opportunity of a new experiment, making it  comprehensive of the 2006 meetings of all National Societies.

Relationship with National Immunology and other Societies.
The Turkish Society of Immunology and the Yugoslavian Immunological Society have expressed their wish to re-join EFIS, and the Board has accepted these requests.
It was also decided by the Board to accept the request from Dr. Falko Steinbach (Freie Universitat Berlin) to establish a European Veterinary Group under the auspices of EFIS. The Euroepan Immunodermatology Society also asked to hold a partner meeting with the EFIS in Rhodes and its proposal was accepted.
To make more visible the EFIS image among national Societies, it was decided to establish and support an EFIS-lecture with an Award of 1,000 Euros, provided that the invited speaker will prepare even a review of his presentation to be published in Immunology Letters.
The first EFIS lecture was given by Dr. Trinchieri (France) at the Joint German-Dutch meeting on November 2000 in Dusseldorf at the Joint meeting of German and Dutch Societies. The second EFIS lecture was given by Dr. Wekerle in Abano Terme (Italy), June 6-8, 2001 at the meeting of the Italian Society. Another lecture has been requested in occasion of the 32nd Annual Meeting of the German Society of Immunology (Dresden, September 26-29, 2001)

John Humphrey Courses.
EFIS will continue to sponsor these Courses according to the Guidelines available on EFIS Homepage. Organizers should submit a written report to the EFIS Board after the Course has been held. One Course on “Autoimmunity: clinical and molecular aspects” was organized in Tartu, Estonia between 5-9 June 2001. This was a great success.

EFIS Conferences.
EFIS supported the 4th Tatra Immunology Conference on “Molecular determinants of T cell immunity” organized by V. Horejsi in the Tatra Mountains (Slovakia) on September 2-7, 2000. Financial support was also provided to support the next meeting on “Signals and Signal Processing in the Immune System” to be held in Pecs (Hungary), September 2-6, 2001. The 14th Germinal Center Conference (to be held in Groningen, the Netherlands, in 2002.) will also be supported by EFIS, by allocating 5000 Euros to young scientists who'll attend the meeting. Another Conference entitled “From basic Immunology to the Clinics” was proposed by Reinhold Schmidt to be held in 2002.

To have a closer contact with National Societies, and also to have more opportunity to discuss EFIS-matters, it has been decided  by the Board that the General Assembly will be summoned not only at the time of EFIS-Conferences - when elections and bids for subsequent EFIS-Conference venues take place -, but also at the IUIS meetings. (Until the EFIS-conference in 2000. election of officiers and bids took place during the IUIS-meetings. This has been changed last year.)

Communication with EFIS-members by now is mostly done via e-mail. Communication with IUIS has also been ensured – the General Secretary of IUIS, Ann Kelsoe has been helpful and available any time.

Special activities:
- Homepage
The EFIS-homepage (www.efis.org) has been transfered from Paris to Budapest and since the beginning of January, 2001. it is handled form Hungary. I would take this opportunity and encourage all EFIS-members to use this homepage. I also would like to ask each Society to inform me about changes in the Board of their Society, to make communication continuous and smooth.

- EC-liaison Officier
All the Societies have been informed earlier, that our former EC-Liasion Officier, Prof.Herve Bazin retired from the Board of EFIS. Now the Board asks your help to find urgently a replacement. (This notice can also be found on our website.)

-“EFIS-Lecture”
- In order to make EFIS more visible among immunologits, the Board has decided to sponsor yearly one so-called “EFIS-lecture” - given by an outstanding lecturer. The sum of 1000 Euros should be used to cover travel and/or hotel expensies of the invited scientist. In the next 10 years National Societies can apply for this money 6 month before their National meeting and the Board will decide which application will be sponsored.

Finally I would like to thank the cooperation of most of the Societies, in the hope, that it will remain the same in the next years.

FIFTH EFIS-CIG GENERAL ASSEMBLY
Stockholm, IUIS-ICI meeting, Room K23, Monday July 23, 2001

Countries represented:
Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Estonia, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Turkey, UK
Representatives from Belarus, Croatia, Czech Republik and The Netherlands were also attending the IUIS-CIC meeting and were talked to, but could not come to the general assembly.
Representatives from Poland, Romania and Spain, had sent apologies for not being able to come.

Poznan's 4th general assembly minutes
There was no comment on the minutes. New participants will be added to the e-mail list and receive information from now on.

Follow-up on the IT paper : answer to Panayi
This has been dealt with shortly after Poznan and both letters have appeared in the January 2001 issue of Trends in Immunology (22:1, 16).
There has been no other comment about this paper.

Poll on training
The first results have been summarized in time for the meeting and are attached for information.
There appears to be already quite some homogeneity for medicine undergraduates. A development for undergraduate training would be to extend it to clinical immunology in non-medical environments.
The situation seems to be more complex for post-graduate courses. This will need reformulation, and a more detailed questionnaire will be prepared and forwarded soon.
There may also be large differences between universities and disclaimers to that effect should be added when the table is posted on the internet.
It would be nice to have the table completed for all countries. This might be easier to achieve now that some answers have already been provided.
A deadline for completion and posting is set for December 2001.

Developments with UEMS
Two contacts have been made with the Union Européenne des Médecins de Spécialité (European Union of Medical Specialists), a European association working on harmonizing curricula in order to allow free circulation of professionals.
Helen Choremi Papadopoulou, from Greece, has been appointed by her country for Immunology and has attended the spring meeting of the Biopathology section.
Jean Philippe Hendriks, the secretary of the Biopathology section has also been met. He has explained that 4 disciplines are officially recognized by UEMS in Biopathology : Clinical Chemistry, Microbiology, Haematology and Immunology. Curricula are well advanced for the first three, but there is nothing for immunology yet, as they did not know how to localize us.
It is extremely important that we work with UEMS, and try and have good representation. This can be achieved through your government as appointments are country dependent.
Helen Choremi Papadopoulou also suggests that you may contact Michael Madden at mmadden@mercy-hospital.cork.ie . The Greek society has sent e-mails to European societies, you might also wish to check on that.
Helen Chapel has also proposed to forward the curriculum which exists in the UK for discussion and fine tuning. This could be a first basis of work with the UEMS, which expects curricula early in January 2002.
For more details on this association you can go at : http://www.uems.org and for more about the Biopathology section at : http://e.lio.se/uems/
UEMS also has an Allergology section. No contact has been made with these people yet. The section's composition is available at http://www.uems.be/aller.htm . If anyone of you has special acquaintances with one of these people, contact on behalf of EFIS-CIG would be welcome.

Virtual Immunology Clinic
We still have only 3 cases, but some are on the way.
There is still demand for rough observations, in word format, that will be worked upon and circulated until consensus is achieved.
This could be an interesting project for a student/resident/intern.
The good news is that Helen Chapel propose to share the ESID cases through a link in the Internet site.

Joint international project for EC in frame of INTAS or INCO-COPERNICUS
This is a project proposed by Pr Titov from Belarus, who unfortunately could not make it that Monday afternoon. It is a project between eastern and western countries, and the Virtual Immunology Clinic could fit in it. Anyone interested please contact Pr Titov at titov@briem.ac.by

IUIS-CIC
There was concern among the European Community of Clinical Immunologist after the IUIS council in Basel in September, since there had been no activity report from the Clinical Immunology Committee. A letter signed by 25 of us was sent to Pr Fritz Melchers, IUIS President, which was acknowledged and apparently prompted motions within the IUIS. One of them was to invite Pr Reinhold Schmidt to the IUIS council where he was able to express our concern and hopes. A new chairman has been elected at Stockholm to chair this committee : Pr Jorge Kalil from Brazil. The IUIS board has also insisted that all committees prepare rules and statutes as soon as possible, including a rotation system for representatives in the committees and sub-committees. We hope that the CIC will be more active and will keep you informed.

Next Educational Session
The 2nd EFIS-CIG Educational session took place in Stockholm on Wednesday, July 25, 2001, thus after the 5th General Assembly.
The topic was "IL-10 from molecular structure to therapeutics".
In spite of the schedule (17-20 h) and of 4 concurring events, the session was attended by nearly 200 people. About a dozen students came to claim EFIS-CIG credits at the end.
In 2002, there is no major international immunology meeting. It was thus suggested to have a slightly different session, over 2 days, probably in Austria in spring. The topic could be a disease, and Systemic Lupus Erythematosus was proposed. Your input on this project will be sought for early in autumn.

Information about ECLM
The ECLM is turning more European and proposes, at the demand of the WHO and the manufacturers (EDMA : European Diagnostics Manufacturers Association) to organize a platform of European Societies involved in Laboratory Medicine. Decisions should be taken in October about the new statutes of this association, which plans to make information more transparent between disciplines and work on matters of common interest at the European level. It is hoped that feed-back to national societies will be preserved.

Next general assembly
This could take place during the Educational session or at Medica. A poll will run in Autumn to find out which suits you best.

The 4TH General Assembly was held in Poznan on September 25, 2000.
The 5TH General Assembly was held in Stockholm on July 23, 2001.
Both were attended by a dozen participants. Minutes have been sent and are posted on
the website.
The first EFIS-CIG Educational Session in Poznan attracted over 200 people.
The second Educational Session was planned in Stockholm on July 25, 2001.
The topic was "IL-10, from molecular structure to therapeutics". About 200 people also attended.
Pr. Panayi sent a letter of disagreement with the EFIS-CIG position paper published in Immunology Today in May 2000. EFIS-CIG answered and both letters appeared in the January 2001 of Trends in Immunology.
There has been active interaction between the EFIS-CIG and the IUIS on the matter of Clinical Immunology, mainly through a letter signed by 25 people sent to Pr. Melchers, President of IUIS, conveying our worry about the absence of activity of the IUIS Clinical Immunology Committee. In Stockholm, a new chairman was appointed for this committee.
A poll is currently ongoing on training programs in immunology in Europe. This will be helpful in future developments with the UEMS (European Union of Medicine Specialists), which proposes unified curricula. Contact has been made with the Biopathology section of UEMS which was looking for immunologists.
The Virtual Immunology Clinic is an ongoing project of EFIS-CIG, yet only still has three cases posted on the web site. Links with immunodeficiency cases at the ESID should be activated soon."

--------------------------------------------
Pr. Marie Christine Béné
Professeur d'Immunologie (PUPH)
Laboratoire d'Immunologie du CHU
Faculté de Médecine - UHP NancyI
BP184- 9 Avenue de la For?t de Haye
54500 Vandoeuvre les Nancy
France
Tel. 33-[0]383 592 859
Fax. 33-[0]383 446 022
e-mail: bene@grip.u-nancy.fr