In order to foster, promote, and reward excellent research in placentology, IFPA, with the generous contributions of various donors and organizations, sponsors a number of Awards. These range from those acknowledging the work of young investigators in the field through to acknowledgement of the major contributions by senior investigators (see the website: https://www.ifpa.epineux.com/awards). Call for Joan Hunt Senior Award in Placentology, Gábor Than Award and Andrée Gruslin Award nominations. Each nomination should be emailed by March 22, 2024 to Dr. Hirotaka Nishi, E-mail: nishih@tokyo-med.ac.jp

The publishers and IFPA are seeking to appoint a new Asia/Pacific editor for Placenta, to begin in January 2025. This individual will work alongside the current Editor for Europe, Dr Udo Markert, the Editor for the Americas, Dr Nick Illsley, and the Editors for China Dr Yan-ling Wang and Dr Gendie Lash. The Asia/Pacific Editor received approximately 15% of the submissions (82 manuscripts) in 2023, although this number is increasing.
We are therefore seeking nominations for this editorial position. For more information, click here.

The 2024 meeting of the Fetal and Neonatal Physiological Society with the Neonatal Society will be held in Nottingham, UK on June 19-21, 2024. For more information, click here.

The abstract deadline for the IFPA 2024 meeting in Montreal, Canada is MARCH 22, 2024. For more details go to www.ifpa2024.org

Details released for the SLIMP 2024 meeting in Maceio, Brazil, May 27-29. To find out more, go to the SLIMP 2024 website

The next IFPA meeting will be held in Montreal, Canada from September 2-6, 2024. To find out more, go to www.ifpa2024.org

The 2023 IFPA meeting was held 5– 8 of September 2023 at the Novotel Lakeside Hotel, Rotorua, New Zealand  The meeting theme was “Whenua: the foundation of life” which pays respect to the Māori people of New Zealand, who place great cultural importance on the placenta (whenua), and for whom it is customary to bury their placenta on traditional tribal lands to tie them back to their ancestry.

The meeting was attended by 294 delegates in total, with good representation from all parts of the globe. The meeting programme included workshop sessions, symposia, poster sessions and award lectures.  As is customary in New Zealand, the meeting was opened with the blessing of the local iwi (Māori tribe), who spoke in Te Reo of the importance of the placenta.

The meeting featured a number of social events including the welcome function held on the Tuesday evening at the Skyline, where after a gondola ride up delegates could choose to participate in some luging down the hill.  This proved very popular, and resulted in some excellent photos (see below!) as well as some new introductions made on the rides back up the chairlift. Wednesday night saw the New Investigators head to The Beer Garden for a social mixer, and Thursday evening provided delegates the opportunity to sign up for a trip to the Redwoods Treewalk – which is lit up beautifully at night.  Finally, the meeting ended with a gala dinner held at Te Puia, where delegates dined and danced framed by Māori carvings.