Message from the FENS President: one year to the FENS Forum! 

09 July 2021

FENS News

Dear colleagues, dear friends,

We are now only one year away from our next FENS Forum, which will take place on 9-13 July 2022 in Paris, France. After hosting a successful virtual event in 2020, we look forward to resuming with an in-person meeting next summer. I hope that you will mark your calendars and join us for Europe’s largest international neuroscience conference in the inspiring City of Lights!

The FENS 2022 scientific programme, which will showcase high-quality work from every domain of modern brain research, is shaping up nicely. Our open call for symposium and technical workshop proposals back in March roused more responses from the neuroscience community than ever before, with a total of 230 submissions from 30 countries around the world. In addition, we have already scheduled an impressive line-up of speakers for the plenary and special lectures.
Early registration, abstract submission and travel grant applications for the FENS Forum 2022 will open on 1 December 2021. In the meantime, I encourage you to keep in touch with your respective national and single-discipline societies by attending their meetings. As you know, FENS federates 44 national and single-discipline societies across 33 countries in Europe – you can visit each society’s website to find out more, or browse the FENS meeting calendar to see all upcoming neuroscience and brain-related events.

The FENS Regional Meeting (FRM), taking place as a virtual conference on 25-27 August 2021, is yet another opportunity to promote scientific exchange and connect with your peers within Europe. Organised by the Polish Neuroscience Society and the Lithuanian Neuroscience Association, the FRM 2021 features a full programme of scientific symposia, talks, satellite events and much more. Registration, which is free for all FENS members, remains open until 13 August 2021.

Aside from all the exciting events coming up, I hope that you will explore our new FENS website, launched in Spring 2021. Make sure you take note of your new, unique FENS Member ID to access your upgraded account. It will allow you to register for meetings such as the FRM 2021 and take advantage of the many benefits of FENS membership. Also, FENS is now a member organisation of the global non-profit ORCID, meaning members can link their FENS and ORCID accounts for easier access.

Lastly, I would like to encourage our members to publish their research with the European Journal of Neuroscience (EJN), the official journal of FENS. FENS members have free access to EJN online and the journal has no submission fees or page charges. Wiley, EJN’s publisher, has also concluded transitional agreements with several countries offering possibilities to publish open access in EJN at no direct cost. I am proud to report that the journal is thriving, with a 15% increase in the number of submissions this year.

I look forward to meeting you online at the FRM 2021 and again in person for the FENS Forum 2022 in Paris! I wish you, your families and your colleagues a lovely summer.

Jean-Antoine Girault
FENS President