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The Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the EANS was held on Sunday October 18, 2020. Some very important changes were presented by the Board and subsequently voted upon favorably with great majority.
Some of these important changes are less visible than others, such as amendments to our Constitution, where 8 articles were adapted to reflect the current functioning of the EANS. Please refer to our website within a few days, where the whole Constitution will be visible.
An exciting and challenging initiative is the launch of an entirely new journal: Brain & Spine! This will be the new medium for our future representation and visibility in the scientific world.
As opposed to Acta Neurochirurgica, which is still owned as a title by the publishing company Springer, our new Journal will be owned by the EANS – together with our partner organisation Eurospine. This will give us a lot more liberty and leverage when it comes to publication policy, strategy and management. With these two major European societies as its base, it is envisaged that this new journal will acquire PubMed access relatively quickly; an impact factor will surely follow.
Of course, such an endeavor will require a leap of faith from our community. That first step was done with the positive vote during the AGM. Furthermore, our opinion leaders as well as our community are encouraged to send in their excellent manuscripts and to review for the new journal. The two Co-editors- Wilco Peul for the EANS and Frank Kandziora for Eurospine- are standing for best scientific quality. The first Open Access edition should be ready in the first quarter of 2021. Waiving any fees for all members is the goal. So watch this space!
Another important decision with a potentially big impact on the future of our organization was made: The creation of a foundation on behalf of the EANS. Philanthropy has become an extremely important driver for research and for many other societal aspects. Here, EANS will prepare a viable and transparent legal entity for potential donors. Due to his long-standing commitment to the goals of the EANS, it was decided to nominate Sir André Grotenhuis as the first president of that foundation. The goal of the first two years - the time until the first election - will be to mount a functioning structure for the foundation, to define one or more main axes for research and development, and to establish and deepen contact with donors and other foundations. Of course, once the foundation will have been ramped up fully, we will provide access channels through our website.
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