ESCMID Operating Procedures

Scientific Events


1) General information
One of the central roles of ESCMID is the promotion of knowledge in clinical microbiology and infectious diseases. The society supports multi-state (international) and national scientific events such as conferences, symposia, workshops, etc. by advertisement, endorsement and/or financial contribution.

2) Levels of ESCMID support

  • Advertise in calendar on ESCMID website (www.escmid.org/dates_events/calendar/)
  • Endorsement (ESCMID lends its logo to event and advertises event on website)
  • Delegates attendance grants up to EUR 5’000 in total per event (covering registration only, not accommodation/travel costs) for multi-state events (speakers from at least three countries)
  • Sponsoring of two ESCMID speakers up to EUR 5’000 in total per event for national events (events held in national language) – the speakers will be appointed by ESCMID

3) Application procedure

  • Applications may come from ESCMID Study Groups, affiliated national societies, projects connected to ESCMID (e.g. EUCAST, EUCIC), European and international partner societies, individual ESCMID members and persons/organizations aiming to link or partner with ESCMID.
  • Before submitting a scientific event request, we ask you to check whether one of our ESCMID Study Groups could be involved in your event. In this case, please contact the Study Group Chair for further coordination of the event. All our Study Groups are listed here: https://www.escmid.org/research_projects/study_groups/
  • Applications can generally be made throughout the year. Please see the timelines for the respective categories in the section below.
  • An online proposal form is available at this link.
  • If other sponsors (including corporate sponsorship) have been approached, these must be listed in the proposal.

4) Application criteria

  • Educational courses can only receive advertisement support and/or endorsement. If financial support is sought for educational courses, please refer to the ESCMID Operating Procedures for Educational Activities.
  • The proposer must ensure that the scientific programme is neither influenced nor biased by commercial organizations/companies. Proposals advertising pharma-driven or purely commercial interest will not be accepted.
  • For all proposals, an event website and a detailed programme including timelines, talk titles and faculty names needs to be provided. If that information is not complete or missing, the proposal cannot be considered.
  • Advertisement requests need to be submitted at least three months before the start of the event. Submission after this deadline will automatically lead to the rejection of the request.
  • Endorsement requests must be made at least 6 months before the start of the event before the marketing materials (i.e. printed matters) are finalized in order to ensure that the ESCMID logo can be incorporated accordingly. Endorsement requests submitted later than the above stated deadline will not be accepted. Once the endorsement request has been approved, the ESCMID logo needs to be incorporated in all marketing materials (printed matters and website(s)). The proposer needs to send copies of these printed matters to the ESCMID Office via email for approval before printing. Also, the proposer needs to update the ESCMID Office in case the ESCMID logo has been placed on a website. In general no endorsement is possible for national events in local language without international speakers. Endorsement for events of ESCMID affiliated societies and multi-state (international) events will be evaluated.
  • Attendance grant requests for delegates of multi-state events (with speakers from at least three countries) up to EUR 5´000:
    o    The request needs to be submitted at least six months before the start of the event in order guarantee enough time for the review process and the setup of the grant application platform (if the request has been approved).
    o    Requests submitted later than six months before the start of the event will automatically be rejected.
    o    The attendance grants only cover the registration fee and not travel and/or accommodation. In cases where the registration fee is < EUR 100, a coverage of travel and/or accommodation costs can be considered as an exception. ESCMID needs to approve this exception beforehand however.
    o    Attendance grants will be given to paying ESCMID members only. Please note that all applicants need to be registered with ESCMID as paying member in order to submit a grant application.
    o    Not eligible are:
          - Non-paying users (registered users)
          - No shows at any ESCMID event when being rewarded with a grant
  • Sponsoring of two ESCMID speakers up to EUR 5’000: for national events only (events held in national language).
    o    The speakers will be appointed by ESCMID.
    o    The request needs to be submitted at least six months before the start of the event in order to have enough time to evaluate and appoint the respective ESCMID speakers.
  • Before submitting a scientific event request, we ask you to check whether one of our ESCMID Study Groups could be involved in your event. In this case, please contact the Study Group Chair for further coordination of the event. All our Study Groups are listed here: https://www.escmid.org/research_projects/study_groups/

5) Selection procedure
All proposals will be reviewed by the ESCMID Executive Office as for their completeness and correctness and will be evaluated by the ESCMID Scientific Affairs Officer. The proposer will be contacted for clarifications/amendments (if needed) within two weeks after the submission. If the proposal is formally correct and complete, the proposer will be informed about the outcome of the submission within four weeks. The final decision about the outcome of the proposals rests with the ESCMID Executive Committee.

6) Payment procedure (attendance grants for delegates and sponsoring of ESCMID speakers)
The payment of the agreed amount of the contribution shall be paid according to the following schedule:

Attendance grants for delegates:
Payment of full amount of contribution after event was held upon submission of the invoice and the following document:

  • Complete participant list (name, surname, email, city, country) incl. attendance grant recipients to double-check which ESCMID members have finally attended and to release the final payment according to these numbers.

Please note that direct payments/reimbursements to the grant receivers cannot be done. The complete grant contribution will be paid to the local organizer instead.

Sponsoring of ESCMID speakers:
The reimbursement of registration fees, travel costs and/or accommodation costs will be initiated after receiving the respective proof(s) from the sponsored speakers. Reimbursements can be done directly to the speakers or to the local organizer directly.