The European Congress of Immunology - ECI
The European Congress of Immunology - ECI - is the triennial joint meeting of all EFIS member societies. It is now one of the most highly-regarded international conferences in the field of basic and clinical immunology, attracting on average more than 3,000 delegates and offering the highest standards in terms of both scientific and social programs. Following Paris in 2006, Berlin in 2009, Glasgow in 2012 and Vienna in 2015, Amsterdam hosted the 5th ECI in 2018. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the 6th ECI was held virtually, September 1-4, 2021, jointly organized by the Turkish and Serbian Societies for Immunology. The 7th ECI will be held in Dublin from September 1 to 4, 2024, organized by the Irish Society for Immunology.
Any EFIS member society can submit a bid to host an ECI. The bid is presented and selected at the EFIS General Assembly held every three years. The delegates of all EFIS member societies select the venue of the future ECI by anonymous vote. EFIS-affiliated societies with fewer than 500 members are entitled to one vote, societies with between 500 and 1000 members have 2 votes, and societies with more than 1000 individual members have 3 votes at the EFIS General Assembly where the venue is decided.
Click here to download more detailed information about the bidding process.
The EEIG ECI-EFIS
To provide the legal and financial framework necessary to organize the ECI, a European Economic Interest Grouping - EEIG ECI-EFIS - was established in 2006. At present, the following national immunology societies are EEIG ECI-EFIS members/stakeholders:
- Société Française d’Immunologie (SFI)
- British Society of Immunology (BSI)
- Deutsche Gesellschaft für Immunologie (DGfl)
- Società Italiana di Immunologia, Immunologia Clinica e Allergologia (SIICA)
- Scandinavian Society for Immunology (SSI)
- Sociedad Espanola de Inmunologia (SEI)
- Österreichische Gesellschaft für Allergologie und Immunologie (ÖGAI)
- Nederlandse Vereniging voor Immunologie (NVVI)
- Türk İmmünoloji Derneği (TSI)
with EFIS representing societies with fewer than 500 members.
Briefly, the EEIG ECI-EFIS was created to pool and to capitalize on the strengths of national societies and to provide an organizational and financial framework for the ECI. An important provision of the Grouping's membership criteria is the commitment of its stakeholders not to hold their annual national meetings in years when the ECI is staged. The EEIG ECI-EFIS, and not any single hosting national society, is responsible for the revenues or losses resulting from the ECI. As a non-profit entity, the EEIG ECI-EFIS shares proportionally among its members any revenues or losses resulting from the ECI, with any profits being subject to taxation in the hands of its members.
Click here for an informative article, published in 2010, summarizing the EEIG ECI-EFIS and the motivations underlying its establishment.
Previous ECIs
ECI 2021 Virtual/Online
ECI 2018 in Amsterdam, The Netherlands
ECI 2015 in Vienna, Austria
ECI 2012 in Glasgow, UK
ECI 2009 in Berlin, Germany
ECI 2006 in Paris, France
Future ECIs
