Registration for the 7th European Congress of Immunology - ECI 2024, set for 1 - 4 September 2024 in Dublin, is now open! Join EFIS and the European immunology community for the go-to immunology event in 2024. Details available here.

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EFIS and IUIS continue to work together to involve all Regional and National Societies in a global effort to promote the benefits of immunology research during the International Day of Immunology (DoI) taking place every year on April 29. Read more... To acknowledge the best campaigns, EFIS is entrusted with awarding prizes for the best European Campaign and the Best Newcomer Campaign.

EFIS is delighted to announce that the awards for 2023 go to the

• Sociedade Portuguesa de Imunologia, for the Best European Campaign
• IMMspire - University of Toronto, for the Best Newcomer Campaign

A hearty congratulations to our awardees!

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EFIS is pleased to announce the winners of the 2023 Eastern Star Awards:

• Dr. Marina Babić Čač, Department of Histology and Embryology, University of Rijeka School of Medicine (Croatia), for her project on immune cell crosstalk during neuroinflammation.
• Dr. Mieszko Wilk, Department of Immunology, Jagiellonian University, Kraków (Poland), for his project on the role of secretory leukocyte protease inhibitor (SLPI) on local upper respiratory and systemic immune responses.

Congratulations to both Awardees!

Read more about the EFIS Eastern Star Award here. A new call for proposals will be launched in September 2023, with a deadline for applications set for January 31st, 2024.

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The call for applications for the 2023 EJI Ita Askonas Prize awarded by EFIS is now open!

Established to recognise female group leaders in immunology who have run an independent laboratory for a minimum of four and no more than ten years, beginning this year the prize will be awarded annually and will be coordinated by the EFIS Task Force on Gender and Diversity, that will review nomination packages - which must be submitted exclusively by EFIS Member Societies - and decide on the awardee.

Full details are available here.

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The Fondation ACTERIA is pleased to announce the winners of the 2023 ACTERIA Prizes awarded by EFIS:

• The Early Career Research prize in Immunology is awarded to Emanuela PASCIUTO (PhD 2014), Belgian Immunological Society, for her post-doctoral work on the role of T lymphocytes in brain development and their therapeutic potential in neuroinflammation. Download Emanuela's biosketch here.

• The Early Career Research prize in Allergology is awarded to Régis JOULIA (PhD 2016), British Society for Immunology, for his post-doctoral work on the interactions between mast cells and blood vessels during inflammation. Download Régis' biosketch here.

The ACTERIA Prizes will be conferred for the seventh time at a ceremony at the Annual Congress of the Swiss Society for Allergology and Immunology, August 24-25, 2023, during which the laureates will present their work.

The call for applications for the 2024 ACTERIA Doctoral Thesis Prizes in Immunology and Allergology will open in October 2023.

More information on the ACTERIA Prizes is available here.

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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.

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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.

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