The FONDATION ACTERIA and EFIS are delighted to announce the winners of the 2020 ACTERIA Doctoral Thesis Prizes awarded by EFIS!

On the recommendation of the ACTERIA Prizes Selection Jury, the 2020 ACTERIA Doctoral Thesis Prizes are awarded to

• for immunology: Ai Ing LIM, France, nominated by the French Society for Immunology (SFI) for her dissertation on "Cytokine Control of Human Innate Lymphoid Cells Development and Function"
• for allergology: Martijn SCHUIJS, Belgium, nominated by the Belgian Immunological Society (BIS) for his thesis on "The Pathogenesis of House Dust Mite-driven Asthma: From Barn to Bedside"

Congratulations to both 2020 Laureates! Read more about the ACTERIA Prizes awarded by EFIS here.

Building on the efforts of junior researchers from several EFIS Member Societies, EFIS has launched the yEFIS Task Force with the intent to create a network dedicated to young immunologists throughout Europe. Read more here.

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If you missed the live webinar of EFIS President, Andreas Radbruch, on Adaptive Immunity: Memory, Protection and Immunopathology in COVID-19, you can still view it here.

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As the world continues to focus its attention, energies and resources to combat the challenges brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic, EFIS trusts that its Member Societies and their membership ranks will want to commemorate April 29, 2020 as the international Day of Immunology. Let’s use this day once again to share with the general public how critically important immunology is for global health, and to champion the expert voices from our community as a vital part of this message. Further information - including details about prizes to be awarded to outreach campaigns - is available here.

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EFIS is delighted to share Celebrate Vaccines - the British Society for Immunology's campaign to advocate the critical role of vaccination and vaccine research in advancing global health and to promote the expert voice of the immunology community as a vital part of this message. Read more here.

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EFIS President Andreas Radbruch's message to the European immunology community on the the novel coronavirus outbreak is available here. Download and feel free to share.

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Remember to save the date for the next European Congress of Immunology, September 1-4, 2021, Belgrade, Republic of Serbia.

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In the wake of the U.K.'s official withdrawal from the European Union, EFIS has has been asked to share with its Members the following message from British Society for Immunology:

Dear Colleagues,

As the British Society for Immunology we wanted to reach out to you given the departure of the UK from the EU. It hopefully goes without saying that the desire to leave the EU is not something that all Brits share and for us it is a sad day and end of a wonderful era. However we want to emphasise that it is now even more important than ever for us, the UK community of immunologists, to keep our doors open and maintain our relationship with all of you. For us to make significant advances in science for the benefit of human and animal health we need to continue to work together and the BSI will do all we can to enable that, via developing partnerships with all of you and through advocacy to ensure the best result for European science and immunology. We very much value the links with you, our colleagues and friends across Europe, and we look forward to our relationships going from strength to strength.

Very best,

Arne Akbar, President of the BSI
Doug Brown, CEO of the BSI

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