Covid-19

Dear Members and Colleagues,

The EASM Board and the Local Organising Committee of the 2020 EASM conference in London would like to thank our community for their patience and understanding in this time of uncertainty. Although we have remained positive and continued to monitor the situation, due to recent developments we have had to make an informed and realistic decision on how to proceed with the forthcoming EASM events this year.

The decision has been reached that the EASM Conference 2020 in London will not take place this year. We are very grateful for the solidarity that has been shown by all conference hosts for the upcoming years which has enabled each conference to be moved by one year and look forward to the revised London 2021, Innsbruck 2022 and Belfast 2023 conferences.

Though the EASM community will not be able to assemble in the typical way, we would like to continue providing platforms for knowledge creation and dissemination and networking opportunities. Therefore, EASM will be providing complimentary virtual workshops and thematic sessions which we invite everyone to engage with. We invite researchers to submit their work via https://www.conftool.com/easm2020/ by 17 April 2020. Further details on the timing and format of virtual workshops will follow shortly.

For students, this decision does mean that the EASM Student Seminar will not take place. However, we are fortunate to have been able to postpone the EASM Summer School to 12th to 16th of August 2020 and we encourage interested students to seize this opportunity. For PhD students, the EASM Board will be exploring the opportunities and solutions related to the PhD student seminar and will communicate this in due course.

Though we feel optimistic that we will be able to continue our community activities despite the current circumstance, postponing the conference will result in a significant loss of revenue for the Association for the financial year 2020/21. The existence of EASM and its liquidity is secured and we would like to ensure our members that the EASM Board is doing everything in its powers to reduce expenditures where possible, (e.g. on forthcoming Board meetings which now will be held virtually). However, in addition the EASM community is kindly asked to show its support and to consider contributing to an EASM membership. Current members are also asked to renew their memberships for 2020/21 via https://www.easm.net/become-a-member/.

The EASM Board and the London LOC would like to take this opportunity to once again thank the EASM family for its continued understanding and support and most importantly to wish everyone well during this challenging time.