IFPA Meeting Postponement Announcement
Dear IFPA community,
The Covid-19 pandemic continues to affect us globally, and while many
countries are beginning to return to normal with high vaccination rates,
international travel remains very limited. This is a particular issue for
the next IFPA meeting, due to be held in Rotorua, New Zealand in September
2022. Costs of running this meeting in a hybrid format were considered,
and due to the concurrent expense of running two meetings this is not
financially feasible. You may also be aware that since the start of the
pandemic, the New Zealand government has closed the borders, meaning that it
remains extremely difficult for even New Zealand citizens to enter via the
managed quarantine system. There are plans to progressively open New
Zealand’s borders in 2022, however the timelines and conditions around this
remain unclear, and it is likely to be done in a very careful staged manner,
varying by country of origin, and potentially requiring self-isolation upon
entry. Significant risks also remain in 2022 that travel status could change at
short notice. Thus, at the time of abstract submission in early April 2022, we
believe it will be unclear for most delegates whether travelling to New Zealand
in September 2022 to attend a conference would be possible, meaning that it is not
feasible to hold an in person meeting.
Based on this, the IFPA executive committee considered two potential
alternative scenarios – 1) to hold a virtual meeting, or 2) to postpone the
meeting schedule. As Europe and North America open up and move towards in
person meetings, and virtual conference fatigue continues to grow, the New
Zealand IFPA organising committee are concerned about the declining appetite
for virtual meetings in 2022. Furthermore, running an international virtual
meeting from a New Zealand timezone would present significant issues for ease
of live access for European or American delegates.
The IFPA executive has thus unanimously voted to delay the conference schedule,
and to hold the next IFPA meeting in New Zealand in September 2023, with
Montreal 2024 and Jena 2025 to follow. Senior awards that were to be
associated with the 2022 meeting (Gabor Than Award, Andree Gruslin Award, IFPA
Senior Award, and IFPA Award in Placentology) will also now be awarded in 2023,
with eligibility criteria extended to those that would have been normally
eligible in 2021 or 2022. We appreciate that this will be disappointing for
many people. However, we believe this is our best chance to be able to hold an
in person IFPA meeting in New Zealand, which is the preference of many.
We very much look forward to welcoming you to New Zealand – it will have been a
long time coming.
In order to keep the IFPA community engaged with each other’s research
throughout 2022, members of the executive will look to increase the number of
regional meetings under the IFPA banner, and we will explicitly work with our
IFPA ECR representatives to develop initiatives to help profile ECR research,
and make bespoke awards available for our junior members. We will
continue to keep you updated on these initiatives.
Stay well,
Jo James (IFPA New Zealand convenor)
Pascale Chavatte-Palmer (IFPA president)
August 18 2021: Graduate, postgraduate, postdoctoral and fellowship position website
ECRs: Here’s a useful site to see graduate, postgraduate, postdoctoral and fellowship positions.
April 30th 2021: IFPA website image photo competition
Would you like your image showcasing placental research to be featured as part of a moving gallery on the official website? We invite you to submit images with the following specifications: 2560 x 1920 pixels, maximum size 621KB. Please submit this image by July 31st 2021 to IFPA Photo Competition .Your image will be featured with your name and Institutional affiliation at the time of submission. We look forward to featuring your image on the IFPA website.
Nov 11, 2020: Change to meeting dates
As a result of restrictions in many countries due to COVID-19, IFPA meetings have been postponed by a year. Thus the 2020 meeting due to take place in Amsterdam has been re-scheduled for 1-4 September, 2021 in Amsterdam. The following meeting is now scheduled for September 6-9, 2022 in Rotorua, New Zealand. Meetings for 2023 and 2024 are due to be held in Montreal, Canada and Erfurt, Germany – dates will be provided
For more information on the 2021 meeting in Amsterdam, please go to their website at www.ifpa2021.amc-registration.nl.
For more information on the 2022 meeting in Rotorua, please go to the meeting website at www.ifpa2022.org.