Scientific Symposia

The EDCTP Forum programme committee invites proposals for scientific symposia to be presented at the Ninth EDCTP Forum. The symposium format allows groups of researchers or organisations to present an overview of a topic, including time for questions, discussion and exchange of views with Forum delegates. The symposia will be held during the parallel sessions from 18-20 September 2018.

The programme committee welcomes symposia on a wide range of topics in the EDCTP remit, with relevance to the Forum theme ‘Clinical research and sustainable development in sub-Saharan Africa: the impact of North-South partnerships’. 

Overview
 

Duration: Each symposium session is 120 minutes in length.
 

Organiser/chair: Each symposium requires an organiser/chair who will be the point of contact for the submission and selection process. The organiser may appoint a co-chair, although this is not necessary. The organiser and/or chair may also serve as speakers.
 

Format: The suggested format is a minimum of three speakers, with sufficient time allocated for questions and a general discussion at the end of the session. There is flexibility to incorporate alternative formats, including panel discussions or moderated debates. Full details should be provided in the application form.
 

Topics: Topics presented should fall within the remit and activities of EDCTP2 and the theme of the Forum (see application form). The programme committee will consider other topics if deemed to be of general interest to the Forum participants.

Submission process

Symposium proposals must be submitted in English via email to EDCTPForum2018@leading.pt by 27 April 2018 4 May 2018 (extended deadline) using the application form ( available for download below)
Submissions must be provided in Word. Only proposals completed in full and submitted by the deadline will be considered. 

Selection process

Proposals will be evaluated by the programme committee against the following criteria:

• Proposal quality 
• Relevance to EDCTP and to the theme of the Forum, or an emerging topic of interest to the Forum participants
• Timeliness of the topic and complementarity to the Forum programme

Other considerations

• No more than two symposium proposals should be submitted by each organiser. 
• In parallel to the call for scientific symposia, there is a call for abstracts for oral and poster presentations at the Forum. Symposium organisers and symposium speakers should not submit symposium proposals that duplicate the content of abstracts they have submitted/intend to submit to the call for abstracts. 
• Symposium speakers and organisers may submit abstracts that do not overlap with their symposium proposals. 
• All costs associated with attendance at the Forum (such as registration, flights, accommodation and visa) are the responsibility of the symposium organisers and speakers. 
• Symposium sessions at the Forum will be published in the programme book, a supplement of the journal BMJ Global Health and other Forum-related publications. 
• Submission of an abstract constitutes agreement to its publication and agreement to the terms of the Licence to BMJ Publishing Group Ltd for publication of conference abstracts

Guidelines for submission and processing

• Proposals should be submitted via email by 27 April 2018 4 May 2018 (extended deadline). 
• Communications are made with the symposium organiser. The organiser is responsible for distributing the information among speakers.
• All proposed speakers should be listed. Proposals that indicate speakers as ‘to be determined’ will be considered incomplete. 
• No abstracts are required for individual presentations within the symposium (an overview of the speakers and topics should be given in the symposium proposal).
• EDCTP cannot guarantee scheduling of a symposium on a specific day or time. Speakers should be available throughout the main Forum programme (18-20 September 2018). 
• Decisions will be made available by end of May 2018.

For questions regarding symposia, please contact EDCTPForum2018@leading.pt.