THE 25TH EARMA CONFERENCE: NEW AND FAMILIAR
EARMA is shifting into high gear to make the 2019 EARMA Conference a memorable anniversary edition. It is fitting that we will have this conference in Bologna, home of the oldest university in Europe for our 25th EARMA conference. It is also a return to the country in which EARMA was founded in 1995 with a conference in ’95 and ’05 in Genova. The conference programme is approaching its first draft, based on the 141 abstracts, but we will also offer familiar and new items next to the main programme.
Workshops, events and courses
The New:
- 4 new side event workshops with the very top trainers from our community during the morning of 27 March.
- Dr. Sean McCarthy will present a course on preparing for Horizon Europe with Sylvia McCarthy.
- Lotte Jaspers from Yellow Research will do a course on MSCA Individual Fellowships.
- Olaf Svenningsen from Lund University (formerly SDU) will teach a course in NIH funding with a colleague. Where Olaf will focus more on pre-award, his colleague will focus on post-award.
- The fourth course will be enthusiastically delivered by Dr. Robert Porter on coaching researchers to write successful grant proposals.
- The EARMA Ethics and Research Integrity Officers Network (ERION) will meet and discuss in detail how to deal with Ethics and Integrity at the practitioner level in the best way possible. This group hosts an open event twice per year and this will be the third event overall. It was set up with support from the European Commission Ethics and Research Integrity Sector from DG RTD. Newcomers are welcome if they have a role in Ethics and Research Integrity at their organisations. This is a very interactive forum and you are expected to take part in break outs and actively contribute to the discussion.
The Familiar:
The Leadership Event will be back in the days preceding the conference. It aims to give tailor-made experiences to heads of offices or other (aspiring) leaders in research management. The emphasis is more on networking around some interesting case studies and high-level presentation.
Familiar and new:
The EARMA pasta making experience will be back. Pasta making is an excellent way to train your soft skills. Participants will make some real Italian pasta from scratch under the leadership of an experienced research administrator and pasta maker. A tasting contest between the different teams will ensue.
Dinner, dancing and a show
The Familiar:
EARMA is setting up a new play on research administration after the opening reception in the main hall of the conference centre which is also an opera hall. It will be for RMA by RMA just like EARMA itself.
We will have the conference dinner at the beautiful Palazzo Re Enzo, the main Palazzo in the heart of the city centre. It is a stunning historical venue which will offer a unique experience.
The EARMA community is a dancing community. We have hundreds of dancers at each conference and the group only seems to get larger each year. There are special side rooms in the Palazzo allowing for a unique medieval experience while those preferring to keep the evening going at a gentler pace can remain at the tables in the main room. You can explore the Palazzo by means of a virtual tour here: http://www.palazzoreenzo.com/en/
New:
There will be a talent show before the dancing on the second day during which members of the community will show of their skills. Everyone is welcome to submit their acts in the conference registration module. Music, poetry, acrobatics and anything else you can come up with will be considered. We hope to get a showcase of how talented the community really is.
New:
The conference will end on Friday. For those staying the weekend, EARMA will offer an optional social programme for the first time on Saturday and Sunday. Spouses are also welcome to take part in discovering more about Bologna and its traditions.
New, but also familiar, is Brexit. Brexit deadline day is on the 2nd day of the conference and we are preparing a keynote around Brexit and want to send a strong signal of cooperation and not division on that day!
With these new and familiar features, we hope to create the best possible conference experience. All parts of EARMA are working hard to make this a reality and to present you with the full overview and the opening of registration on 20 November 2018 at www.earmaconference.com.
See you in Bologna!
Nik Claesen, EARMA Managing Director
