ESCMID Operating Procedures

Educational Activities

One of the central roles of ESCMID is the promotion of knowledge in clinical microbiology and infectious diseases. The Society supports various educational activities for junior and senior scientists and clinicians.

ESCMID educational activities are divided in the following classes:

• Postgraduate Educational Courses (PGEC): PGECs are more of classroom-style courses with a focus on a specific clinical topic. Still, different formats of interactive learning can be included.
• Postgraduate Technical Workshop (PGTW): PGTWs focus on the practical hands-on approach in relation to a specific technological issue.
• Summer School (SuSch): The Summer School is an annually organized, one-week update course on clinical microbiology and infectious diseases.

All types of educational activities 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.

PGEC and PGTW

۱) Application Procedure

• Applications may come from ESCMID Study Groups, affiliated national societies, projects connected to ESCMID (e.g. EUCAST, GRACE), EU funded consortiums in which ESCMID is partner, 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.
• An online course proposal form is available 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 course proposal form should indicate whether the applicants have applied for or 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 organizer’s responsibility to ensure that the educational program is neither influenced nor biased by commercial organizations - following the guidelines for European CME Accreditation.
• Sponsoring company representatives shall not be part of the course organizing committee.
• For courses held outside of Europe, the chair of the ESCMID International Affairs Subcommittee (EIAS) needs to be involved before the course proposal submission to ensure the proposal fits ESCMID´s strategic vision for extra-European activities.

۲) 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 ۱۰,۰۰۰ Euros. At least ۵۰% of the granted sum should be normally spent for attendance grants, to be preferentially given to ESCMID “young scientist members” (≤ ۳۵ years).
• Feedback to organizer(s) on the outcome of their submission, including possible revision requests, will be sent after approval of the whole Education Programme (normally beginning of July).
• 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.

۳) Local Organiser’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 course website and the course leaflet
• To collect all presentations of the speakers during the event. In regard to the educational value of the eLibrary, it is indispensable to get the publication permissions from all of the presenting speakers.
• To indicate contact details of the course administrative secretariat, which will be responsible for registration of participants
• To apply for timely CME accreditation of the course (please see http://www.eaccme.eu/ for more information)
• To assemble a final report and to produce it not later than two months after the course. This report should include:
  - Participant list incl. grant recipients & faculty
  - Financial report
  - Presentations of all speakers
  - Pictures of the event for our yearbook

۴) ESCMID Office’s Tasks

• To deliver all templates for course preparation (i.e. course proposal form, online registration, online 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 ۲۵۰ 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 perform online promotion on the ESCMID website with a subpage dedicated to the event, which includes an electronic version of the leaflet and online registration plus payment collection for the course
• To offer an online entry platform for attendance grant applicants
• To offer assistance in organisational questions
• To transfer to the organiser(s) the ESCMID financial support (see point ۵ below).
• To ask all speakers online via the event management platform for their consent for presentation publication in our ESCMID E-Library (https://www.escmid.org/elibrary)
• To send to all participants an online questionnaire after the event. Once the questionnaire has been filled in, the delegates will be able to download their attendance/CME certificate.

۵) Contribution procedure

The payment of the agreed amount of contribution shall be paid according to the following schedule:

• ۵۰% in advance upon receipt of invoice (if requested from the organiser and not earlier than two months before the course)
• ۵۰% after the event was held upon submission of the invoice and the following documents:
  - Participant list incl. grant recipients & faculty
  - Financial report
  - Presentations of all speakers
  - Filled in evaluation analysis template
  - Original feedback forms sent by courier
  - Pictures of the course

In order to guarantee a certain budget control, ESCMID requests proofs for each cost item stated in the budget. Those proofs need to be uploaded to the ESCMID Event Management Platform by the local organizer. Should the latter fail to provide the respective proofs, the respective costs cannot be claimed. Only secretary expenses can be claimed as personnel costs. For that, a detailed report stating the exact working hours as well as a proof of the position of the secretary needs to be submitted to ESCMID. Speakers cannot be reimbursed nor receive honoraria for giving lectures at the course.

Should a net profit occur, the below rule will apply:

The net profit will be shared ۵۰/۵۰ among the local organizer(s) and ESCMID. If ESCMID Study Groups were involved as course organizers, the complete ESCMID benefit share will be carried back equally (if multiple Study Groups are involved) to the ESCMID Study Group account(s).

Legend:
Basis of calculation for net profit: Final financial statement (ESCMID contribution deducted)
Gross profit: Course profit before deduction of ESCMID contribution
Net profit: Gross profit after deduction of ESCMID contribution

ESCMID Summer School

۱) General Information

• The ESCMID Summer School is an annually organized, one-week update course on clinical microbiology and infectious diseases.
• The programme and the venue for the Summer School (SuSch) 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 SuSch. 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 SuSch 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.

۲) Organisation & Responsibilites

A) SuSch Director’s Tasks

• Help assembling content for poster/leaflet
• Decision on regular/grant applications
• Case presentation selection
• Check submitted documents (case description, CV & motivation letter)
• Assign students to groups a-e (small group tutorials)
• Select cases to be presented and create case presentation schedule
• Assign students to pro-con sessions (instead of case presentations) and inform students accordingly
• Help students with preparation and questions
• Selection & reservation of accommodation speakers/participants
• Support for bus transfer participants (airport – venue – airport)
• Selection & reservation of meeting facilities incl. all necessary technical equipment
• Selection of coffee breaks/lunches
• Organization of all social activities (opening, closing, excursion)
• Organization of speakers present
• Production of a banner according to ESCMID template
• Seek for sponsorship (Financial support, conference bags, notepads, pens, lanyards, memory sticks, pencils, …)
• Provide all necessary infrastructures for onsite registration (additional manpower, printer, etc.)
• Provide ESCMID Office with all invoices/offers upon request for budget completion

B) ESCMID Office’s Tasks

• Invitation of facilitators/speakers
• Assemble and print poster/leaflet (with help of SuSch Directors)
• Prepare website according to leaflet
• Set-up of registration (incl. grant application)
• Advertisement: Website, ESCMID Newsletter, mailings, distribution of printed material
• CME accreditation
• Assemble normal/grant applications for SuSch Director
• Send out confirmation letters to applicants
• Ask speakers for handout material & consent for recording
• Provide upload platform for speakers handout material (to be put on memory sticks)
• Inform participants on case presentation schedule
• Assemble final programme booklet
• Print of attendance certificates
• Provide SuSchu Director with printed evaluation forms
• Handling of all budgetary matters (except sponsorship) through a SuSch dedicated account
• (Produce badges)
• (Print attendance certificates)
• (Booking of travel arrangements (flights) for foreign speakers)

C) PCO/DMC Tasks (if assigned)
In coordination with ESCMID Office and SuSch Director:

• Booking of accommodation speakers/participants
• Arrangement of bus transfer participants (airport – venue – airport)
• Booking of meeting facilities incl. all necessary technical equipment
• Arrangement of coffee breaks/lunches
• Organization of all social activities (opening, closing, excursion)
• Production of a banner according to ESCMID template
• Seek for sponsorship (Financial support, conference bags, notepads, pens, lanyards, memory sticks, pencils, …)
• Produce badges according to ESCMID template (incl. plastic covers)
• Print out attendance certificates according to ESCMID template
• Provide all necessary infrastructures for onsite registration (additional manpower, printer, etc.)
• Booking of travel arrangements for faculty
• Provide ESCMID Office with all invoices/offers upon request for budget completion

A contract between PCO/DMC and ESCMID will be negotiated by the ESCMID Office. A template is available upon request. All final services of the PCO/DMC will be defined in the respective contract.

۳) 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. These should be highly interactive (e.g. quizzes, role-play, work on “real” cases, perform “real” tasks, create study proposals/designs, etc.). Apart from a short introduction/conclusion, this is not intended to be a “frontal” lecture by the facilitator.
  
  Session Types Overview
• The number of faculty members should not exceed ۱۵ 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 SuSch are required to submit a short case related with their current practice. If the student is accepted to the SuSch, he/she is supposed to present this case in one of the interactive sessions. Guidance for preparing cases is available below:
  
  Guidance Student Case Presentations
• 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 SuSch, a maximum of ۶۰ students will be accepted for each year. Priority will be given to those who did not attend a SuSch before.
• All applications will be made through a dedicated SuSch website. All applications will be evaluated by the SuSch Directors and selected applicants will be notified at least one month before the date of the SuSch.

۴) Budget and grants

• The SuSch 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.
• The EC will provide attendance grants up to a maximum of ۲۰ students. Grant applicants must produce a short letter explaining their professional situation and their motivation for attending the SuSch, a brief CV and a case presentation. All applications will be evaluated and the final decision will be made by the SuSch Directors.
• All budgetary matters are organized by the Executive Office through a central bank account dedicated to the SuSch. External sponsors are in principle accepted, but should be kept to a minimum. Their financial support will be managed by the SuSch Director or PCO/DMC. No commercial exhibitions are allowed in the SuSch venue. Educational print material (e.g. books, journal articles) can be provided by the sponsors and may be exhibited.

۵) Timelines

• ES meeting during ECCMID (two years prior to the SuSch): The organizer(s) and the venue are decided.
• ES meeting during ECCMID (the year preceding the SuSch): The provisional programme is presented to the ES for discussion.
• October (the year preceding the SuSch): The programme is finalized by the ES and submitted for approval to the EC.
• November/December (the year preceding the SuSch): The scientific programme is approved by the EC. The faculty gets invited, promotional material is prepared.
• November/December (the year preceding the SuSch): Site visit to the venue.
• January: The SuSch website is opened and applications are accepted.
• One month before the start of the SuSch: Attendees and grant receivers are notified