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Excellent turnout to the 2019 EUROTOX congress that took place September 8-11, in Helsinki. More than 1,600 participants from 63 countries were present in Finlandia Hall, venue of this year's congress.

Thank you to all participants, sponsors, exhibitors and invited speakers for making this a successful meeting. More news about the congress, as well as pictures of the event will follow soon.

EUROTOX is pleased to announce that it has joined the Scientific Liaison Coalition (SLC). The mission of SLC is to improve the ability of societies to partner with other domestic and international organisations with the goal of advancing science to improve human and environmental health. Benefits of membership include participation in identifying and fostering awareness of cutting-edge interdisciplinary scientific advances, networking opportunities across diverse scientific societies, and enhanced volunteer opportunities
 
"Over the last two years, EUROTOX has worked to fine tune its mission to "foster the science and education of toxicology, and influence regulatory and policy frameworks to promote the safety of humans, animals and the environment, and protect global health. We believe that joining the Scientific Liaison Coalition (SLC) is an excellent way to continue to strengthen our long term strategic vision to continue to increase the awareness of toxicology and the importance role it plays in ensuring the well being of human and animal welfare", said Prof. Heather Wallace, EUROTOX President.  

EUROTOX members will be able to participate in the upcoming SLC webinar, “Health Hazards of Electronic Cigarettes” featuring Dr. Neal Benowitz. The live webinar will take place Tuesday, September 17 at 11:00 am American Eastern standard time.

Since 2014, the SLC website has grown to include all the SLC webinar recordings. These recordings are freely accessible, demonstrating the SLC commitment to sharing knowledge to improve human and environmental health.

EUROTOX Molecular Toxicology Specialty Section organised an inaugural course on molecular toxicology at Ege University, Izmir, Turkey, June 26-28. Recent developments in science and feedback from various parties necessitated such an educational event in the field. Izmir hosted 14 invited lecturers and 32 course attendees from seven countries at the PhD and post-doc levels.

The course was well attended with 32 attendees from Algeria, Australia, Belgium, Estonia, Poland, Serbia and Turkey. The program tackled contemporary issues in molecular toxicology, and provided ample interaction  between attendees and invited lecturers. The course was co-financed by EUROTOX.

Read the complete report here.

EUROTOX and IUTOX signed a memorandum of understanding during the SOT in Baltimore earlier this year. The agreement contains guidelines for the future of IUTOX International Congress of Toxicology (ICT) meetings to be held in Europe. The 2022 IUTOX ICT will be organised in Maastricht by the Dutch Society, and in collaboration with EUROTOX. Jun Kanno, President of IUTOX, and Heather Wallace, President of EUROTOX, are pictured after the signed agreement.

Following the position statement published in Elsevier's Toxicology Letters "Toxicology as an academic discipline in European Universities", and the general notion shared among the scientific community that toxicology training across Europe is declining, EUROTOX has launched a research project to collect evidence to determine whether this is really the case.  The research project will be implemented by an external firm, working closely with members of the EUROTOX Executive Committee, and seeks to develop methods to help to better understand the landscape of toxicology education and training.  EUROTOX member societies, individual members, as well other key stakeholders will be contacted over the next 6-10 months to take part of this valuable research project. 

EUROTOX Executive Committee Members were at the recent SOT meeting to promote EUROTOX and the upcoming 2019 Helsinki Congress. Pictured Left to right (top row) Hilmi Orhan (Member), Kai Savolainen (2019 LOC), Felix Carvalho (President-Elect), Martin Wilks (General-Secretary) and Emanuela Corsini (Member). Front row: Heather Wallace (President).

"We appreciate all the EUROTOX members at SOT who volunteered to help us man the booth, and made this a successful experience", said Heather Wallace. "The EC has been working hard to increase the visibility of EUROTOX at specific events, but we can't do it without our members, so we are happy when they are eager to help", she concluded.

In addition, to their PR duties, members were actively involved in program activities. For instance, Felix Carvalho chaired the SOT-EUROTOX debate as speakers Martin van den Berg (EUROTOX) and Paul Foster (SOT) tackled the topic of "Classification of Substances as Endocrine Disruptors Has a Public Health Benefit", while Heather Wallace introduced the Bo Holmstedt Memorial Lecture, delivered by Nigel Gooderham, On Wednesday morning, EC members meet with SOT leadership to continue to discuss on-going SOT-EUROTOX collaboration projects.  

See more pictures  at

https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6514136560978391040/

As we wrap up the 2018 EUROTOX congress, we want to highlight the various awards presented in Brussels, and congratulate the respective recipients for their scientific contributions and professional excellence in toxicology. 

EUROTOX honours annually a distinguished European toxicologist with the Merit Award. This year's Merit Award recipient is Prof. Corrado L. Galli. 

Prof. Mumtaz Iscan, EUROTOX President (2016-2018) presents the 2018 EUROTOX Merit Award to Prof. Corrado L. Galli at the opening ceremony of the Brussels congress held September 2, 2018.

The Bo Holmstedt Memorial Foundation (BHMF) Lecture Award is presented every year during the EUROTOX congress to recognise scientists who have made outstanding research contributions to the science of drug or chemical toxicology. This year's BHMF award recipient is Prof. Nigel J Gooderham.

Prof. Nigel Gooderham, recipient of the 2018 Bo Holmstedt Lecture Award, delivers his presentation at the EUROTOX Brussels congress held September 4, 2018.

Early career toxicologists are encouraged by the annual Early Career Awards for best poster presentation in two distinct categories. The EUROTOX Gerhard-Zbinden award for drug-oriented toxicological research was presented to Dr. Timothy Allen, University of Cambridge (UK) for this work on "Computational approaches for predicting Molecular Initiating Events", while the ECETOC Christa Hennes Award for toxicological research into mechanisms and risk assessment was presented to Dr.  Wael Naboulsi, Signatope GmbH (Germany) for his work on "A classical and an immunoaffinity-proteomic study to identify and validate drug-induced kidney injury biomarker in canine". 

Prof. Heather Wallace, EUROTOX President (2018-2020) presents the EUROTOX Gerhard-Zbinden (G-Z) Early Career Award for drug-oriented toxicological research to Dr. Timothy Allen during the closing ceremony of the EUROTOX Brussels congress held September 5, 2018.

Presented at the 2018 EUROTOX Business Council Meeting to recognise individuals who have rendered distinguished service to foster toxicology across Europe, the 2018 EUROTOX Honorary Member recognition was presented to Prof. Bas J. Blaauboer (The Netherlands) and Prof. Aristidis Tsatsakis (Greece).

2018 EUROTOX Honorary Member recognition presentation during the 2018 Business Council meeting held in Brussels, September 4, 2018. Pictured left to right: Aristidis Tsatsakis, Mumtaz Iscan, EUROTOX President (2016-2018) and Bas J. Blaauboer.

The EUROTOX fellowship program supporting participants and cross-border exchange of teachers to comprehensive training in Toxicology (ERT Courses) has come to an end.. Established in 2013, the EUROTOX fellowship program provided financial support and incentives for cross-border attendance of ERT courses to individuals motivated for a career in toxicology, by providing travelling and accommodation costs, and course fees (obligatory in most ERT courses). The program was successful in helping students, and young career scientists across Europe begin their theoretical ERT education, but also professionals already on the track for ERT registration. 

Following the formal adoption by the Executive Committee during the Seville EUROTOX 2016 Congress in September 2016, the "European Registered Toxicologist (ERT) Guidelines for Registration 2016" are now in force. 

The text of the Guidelines, together with annexes, can be found on this website under the heading ERT. These Guidelines replace the 2012 version.

The changes compared to the former version are a more precise description of the procedures and the requirements for registration and re-registration. The addition of annex 1, which describes the foreseen learning outcomes of the core themes in toxicology, will be instrumental in determining the required level of theoretical knowledge for being a ERT. 

Annex 2 describes a procedure for the recognition of teaching activities (courses etc.) and provides guidance for course providers who wish to obtain recognition by EUROTOX for courses as part of the comprehensive theoretical training for registration of toxicologists or continuing professional development (CPD) for the purpose of maintaining ERT registration.