In confirming its support for the Ukraine immunology and allergology community, EFIS has launched a special mobility scheme to assist Ukrainian students and early career researchers active in immunology and related fields who currently are unable to work as they are forced to flee the ongoing conflict or are already abroad and cannot return home. Download more information here.

These are truly challenging times: just as the world was beginning to taste the freedoms from restrictions imposed by a pandemic, another crisis has captured the attention and sentiments of the international community.

The European Federation of Immunological Societies (EFIS) first wishes to express its unwavering support and solidarity to the whole of Ukraine, its citizens, and all people affected by the war. Second, the unprovoked aggression of Russian Federation armed forces against a neighbouring nation demands condemnation, and EFIS joins the international community in denouncing this invasion.

At the same time, EFIS - as a federation of national European societies dedicated to the science of immunology and related fields - knows that the overwhelming majority of its community members share the principle that science and scientific collaboration are apolitical, know no borders, and help to guarantee peaceful coexistence among nations and their peoples. An integral part of that collaboration is the exchange of individuals and ideas, and EFIS will continue to dedicate its resources to nurture such exchange.

Conflicts of this kind breed too many innocent bystanders: normal citizens, organisations, entire communities with like-minded aims that have nothing to do with the crisis at hand. And science is one of these bystanders that must respond with the resources at its disposal.