Great participation, strong engagement and top level science: VPH2016 can certainly be called a success
The VPH2016 conference took place in Amsterdam from 26 to 28 September, in the very charming venue of the Royal Tropical Institute, a beautiful building that was originally founded to house the collection of artefacts brought back from the Dutch colonies in the East.
The VPH2016 conference is the 2nd conference that has been organized since the VPH Institute has taken over from the VPH Network of Excellence, the previous one being held in Norway in 2014. What came across strongly during these intense days of presentations and discussions is the increased level of maturity that the VPH community and its research have achieved over the past two years. In Amsterdam the participation level wasmuch larger than any other previous VPH conference: we reached precisely 281 registered attendees, a third more than in Trondheim [I understand that this exemplifies the increase but it can also be interpreted as that Trondheim was particularly bad > perhaps better to say ‘previous editions’ instead of ‘Trondheim’]. But it was not only a question of numbers that made the conference so successful: it was the general enthusiasm that was constantly presenton during the 3 days as well as the level of engagement the delegates showed. Last but obviously not least: science! After years of hard work, VPH research has really started to give fruitful and tangible results that are getting translated into the clinic.
VPH research is by definition very much translational, and it involves a large spectrum of stakeholders: obviously the research community, which is the fundamental ingredient; but also policy makers who work to ensure VPH getsan adequate level of funding; the industry that will implement the research results into biomedical products (both pharmaceutical products and medical devices) that will then be used by another key actor: clinicians. A nice blend of representatives from these four different areas of interests were indeed present at the conference, showing that the VPH community is growing, again not only in numbers, but in quality.
The VPH Institute would like to give a special “thank” to the VPH2016 organizing committee: without their hard work this event would have never been so great!
We also would like to thank all the participants, the invited and keynote speakers but also the sponsors for having all contributed to a very successful outcome.
The next VPH conference will be in Zaragoza on 5/7 September 2018: you’re all invited to attend!
Enclosed a selection of nice photos taken during the conference by Robert Tjalondo from www.rockinpictures.com
