Educational Activities
One of the central roles of ESCMID is the promotion of knowledge in clinical microbiology and infectious diseases. The Society supports educational activities, i.e. Postgraduate Education Courses (PGECs) and Technical Workshops (PGTWs) for junior and senior scientists and clinicians by
- Encouraging affiliated national societies, ESCMID Study Groups and individual members to submit proposals as part of the ESCMID Education Programme
- Lending its logo and providing logistic support and financial contribution to these educational activities.
ESCMID courses can be divided in two different classes:
- PGECs are more of classroom-style courses with a focus on a specific clinical topic. Still, different formats of interactive learning can be included.
- PGTWs focus on the practical hands-on approach in relation to a specific technological issue.
Both types of courses have an international or European scope, are held in English and are clearly educational, thus focusing rather on basic concepts and state-of-the-art knowledge than only on scientific work in progress.
Application Procedure
Applications may come from ESCMID Study Groups, affiliated national societies, projects connected to ESCMID (e.g. EUCAST, GRACE), European and international partner societies and individual ESCMID members.
Applications should be made till end of May for the Education Programme of the following year.
A course proposal form is available for download in the right column.
Indicated time and venue are taken as suggestions, since during the selection procedure, changes might be necessary in order to shape the Education Programme in a coherent way. The completed course proposal form should be sent to the ESCMID Education Officer with copy to the ESCMID Education and Science Manager.
The course proposal form should indicate whether the applicants have performed this course before (date, venue, topic). Should this be the case, information should be provided about how to implement suggestions stemming from the participants’ evaluation of the previous course.
External sponsors (included corporate sponsorship) are in principle accepted, and must be listed in the proposal. It lies within the the organizer’s responsibility to ensure that the educational program is neither influenced nor biased by commercial organizations - following the guidelines for European CME Accreditation.
Selection Procedure
All proposals will be briefly reviewed by the Executive Office as for their completeness and correctness. The proposals will be subsequently evaluated by the ESCMID Education Subcommittee according to their object, programme, international representativeness of the faculty, previous evaluation of similar courses (when available), programmatic and geographic redundancies with other events in either the current or the previous year. Yearly repetition of the same topics is normally avoided.
The full ESCMID Education Programme is approved by the ESCMID Executive Committee, who also decides about granting a financial support up to 10,000 Euros. At least 50% of the granted sum should be normally spent for attendance grants, to be preferentially given to applicants that are ESCMID members and/or younger than 40 yrs and/or reside outside the country in which the course takes place.
Feedback to organizer(s) on the outcome of their submission, including possible revision requests, will be sent after approval of the whole Education Programme.
The ESCMID Education Programme for the coming year is finalized and published by late August, after which date all further changes of the date, duration, venue etc. of your course have first to be approved by the ESCMID Education Subcommittee.
Organization & Responsibilities
Organizer’s Tasks
- To update the course proposal form upon approval of the course
- To keep the ESCMID Executive Office informed about the preparation of the course
- To help the ESCMID Executive Office assembling the information for the ESCMID website and the course leaflet
- To obtain the speakers presentations and their individual permissions for mandatory publication of all course presentations in the ESCMID Online Lecture Library
- To indicate contact details of the course administrative secretariat, which will be responsible for registration of participants
- To apply for CME accreditation of the course
- To implement mandatory course evaluation by participants
- To assemble a final report and to produce it not later than two month after the course. This report should include:
finances
all course presentations
results of the course evaluation
final list of participants
pictures of the course
The report must be approved by the Education Officer according to the information provided by the Executive Office. This approval is essential for the final payment of the financial support granted by the Executive Committee (when applicable, see below under ‘ESCMID Office’s tasks’).
ESCMID Office’s Tasks
- To deliver all templates for course preparation (i.e. course proposal form, course application form, participant list template, course evaluation form, course evaluation summary template, invoice template)
- To assemble and print leaflet for the event. The organizer(s) can receive a maximum of 250 free printed copies for individual promotion. Additional copies may either be ordered via ESCMID at one’s own cost or be printed locally by using as a template the file produced and provided by the ESCMID Executive Office
- To make print promotion onsite at the annual congress ECCMID and at selected events with a similar target audience as your event
- To perform emailing promotion with the ESCMID Newsletter to more than 30’000 CM/ID professionals
- To perform online promotion on the ESCMID website with a subpage dedicated to the event, which includes an electronic version of the leaflet and the application form for the course
- To offer an online entry platform for attendance grant applicants
- To offer assistance in organizational questions
- To transfer to the organizer(s) the ESCMID financial support. If requested by the organizer(s), 50% of the sum may be transferred no earlier than two months of the beginning of the course; whilst the rest is paid after the course upon compliance of the organizer(s) with the aforementioned duties (see above under ‘Organizer’s Tasks’). Should a financial surplus occur, the second payment might not be made in its entity and ESCMID will ask the organizer(s) to be paid back up to a maximum sum equal to the support already granted.
ESCMID Summer School
The ESCMID Summer School is an annually organized, one-week update course on clinical microbiology and infectious diseases.
Organization
The programme and the venue for the Summer School (SS) are decided by the Education Subcommittee (ES). In general, one of the members of the ES volunteers for the organization. However, he or she may ask other members in the committee or any other ESCMID member(s) to co-organize the SS. These persons then act as ESCMID Summer School Directors. In the unlikely case that none of the members would volunteer for the organization, the Education Officer can ask ESCMID members outside the ES.
Geographic redundancies will be considered when choosing the venue. The time for SS is usually during July and August, but always after the end of the academic year.
The proposal about the organizer(s) and the venue will be made during the ES meeting at the ECCMID, two years in advance of the event.
A site visit to the venue by the Education Officer and a representative from the Executive Office will be made well in advance of the Summer School.
Scientific programme, selection of the faculty and the students
The programme should cover a broad range of relevant topics in clinical microbiology and infectious diseases. The aim is to discuss up-to-date information in an interactive fashion. In order to achieve this, small group discussions facilitated by the members of the faculty are organized.
The numbers of faculty members should not exceed 15 and at least half of them should come from outside the host country.
Venue and final programme are subject to approval by the ESCMID Executive Committee (EC).
The applicants for the SS are required to submit a short case related with their current practice. If the student is accepted to the SS, he/she is supposed to present this case in one of the interactive sessions. Guidance for preparing cases is available on the ESCMID website.
There is no age limit for the attendees; however, the main target group is young MDs at the end of their specialty training, as well as biologists, pharmacists, PhD students and postdoctoral fellows working in the infection and/or microbiology field. In order to be able to maintain the interactive nature of the SS, a maximum of 50 students will be accepted for each year. Priority will be given to those who did not attend a SS before.
All applications will be made through a dedicated SS website. All applications will be evaluated by the SS Directors and selected applicants will be notified at least one month before the date of the SS.
Budget and grants
The SS is self-financed by the tuition fees, which normally cover the course, educational material, housing (double accommodation), breakfast and lunch for six days, the social events and airport transfers to/from the course venue. An early and cheaper tuition fee will be applicable so as to allow the SS Directors for advance planning.
EC will provide attendance grants up to a maximum of 20 students. Grant applicants must produce a short letter explaining their professional situation and their motivation for attending the SS, a brief CV, and a case presentation. All applications will be evaluated and final decision will be made by the SS Directors and the Education Officer.
All budgetary matters are organized by the Executive Office through a central bank account dedicated to the SS. External sponsors are in principle accepted, but should be kept to a minimum. Their financial support will also be managed by the Executive Office. No commercial exhibitions are allowed in the SS venue. Educational print material (e.g. books, journal articles) can be provided by the sponsors and may be exhibited.
Other organizational issues
For other details about organizational matters and responsibilities for either organizers or the ESCMID Executive Office, please consult the part listed above for PGECs and PGTWs.
Timeline
ES meeting during ECCMID (two years prior to the SS): The organizer(s) and the venue are decided.
ES meeting during ECCMID (the year preceding the SS): The provisional programme is presented to the ES for discussion.
October (the year preceding the SS): the programme is finalized by the ES and submitted for approval to EC.
November/December (the year preceding the SS): The scientific programme is approved by the EC. The faculty gets invited, promotional material is prepared.
November/December (the year preceding the SS): Site visit to the venue.
January: The SS website is opened and applications are accepted.
One month before the start of the Summer School: Attendees and grant receivers are notified.
