First of all we hope that you and your families are keeping safe and well during these difficult times.
Additionally we would like to inform you of the changes that have been introduced in the EUCARIS program in response to the current crisis.
EUCARIS General Assembly
At the beginning of January the EUCARIS Secretariat sent a “save the date” for the EUCARIS General Assembly on 7-9 October in Helsinki (Finland). Additionally in February the EReg Secretariat sent the official invitation for the EReg General Meeting & Annual Conference for the last week of May in The Hague (the Netherlands). In this invitation also the announcement was made for an EUCARIS Future Meeting on 26 May.
Since the beginning of March 2020 many countries have introduced measures to restrict travel to mitigate the risks of COVID-19. A lot of international conferences that were scheduled in the period March – June 2020 have already been postponed. In addition, this week, the Prime Minister of the Netherlands announced that all such events are forbidden until the first of June.
Given the above unfortunately there was no other option for the EReg Advisory Board but to postpone the EReg General Meeting & Annual Conference until October 2020 and for the EUCARIS Secretariat to cancel the EUCARIS Future Meeting.
In order to minimize amount of travel that colleagues need to undertake it now has been decided to organize the EUCARIS General Assembly and the EReg General Meeting & Annual Conference in the same week and at the same venue. By doing so we can remove the need for colleagues who participate in both networks to have to travel to two separate countries within a month.
In consultation with our Finnish hosts and the colleagues from EReg it has jointly been agreed to change the planned date and venue of the EUCARIS General Assembly to accommodate this. The EUCARIS General Assembly and the EReg General Meeting & Annual Conference will now both take place in The Hague, the Netherlands, in the last week of October 2020 (26 to 30 October). The exact dates of this meeting will be communicated to all Members and Invitees of the EUCARIS General Assembly and to all EReg Members as soon as possible.
EUCARIS Technical Working Group (TWG)
The TWG will continue on 21 April via video. During this video meeting it will be discussed how the TWG summer meeting will be arranged.
Thank you for your help and understanding. We hope that you, your colleagues and your families will remain safe and well over the coming months and we hope to see each other soon!!
Best regards,
Kim van Driel and Idske Dijkstra
Secretariat EUCARIS