Dear ECR participant,

We are writing to you regarding the status of the European Congress of Radiology 2020.

As you know, due to the spread of COVID-19 in Europe, the decision was made to postpone ECR 2020 until July. Since that time, the outbreak has worsened, with Europe becoming the epicentre of the global pandemic.

Public health authorities in Austria, as well as much of the rest of the world, have restricted large meetings and enforced travel bans, with no official indication as to when these restrictions will be lifted. As we are currently witnessing, almost all specialty and subspecialty societies and other congress organisers have already, or will shortly, cancel their meetings for 2020.

With this in mind, it is with a heavy heart and much regret that the Board of Directors of the European Society of Radiology has decided not to hold an onsite European Congress of Radiology in 2020.

As you can imagine, this serious decision was not taken easily. The choice not to hold ECR 2020 onsite presents a significant burden for the European Society of Radiology and will also influence future congresses and endeavours. However, as a medical community, we have a social responsibility to our members, partners, staff and the general public. In the current crisis, the ESR must lead by example, and it is clear that your safety will always be our No.1 priority and we sincerely hope for your understanding and support of our decision.  

In our continued commitment to our congress attendees, we are pleased to announce that ECR 2020 will go ahead as an online congress taking place on July 15-19, 2020. Further information regarding the online event will be made available in the near future, as we want firstly to ensure that we only deliver useful and unique content.   

As a first step, and in order to honour the wealth of excellent scientific contributions that we have received for ECR 2020, we will publish the ECR 2020 Book of Abstracts within the next few days in our journal Insights into Imaging.

Registration fees paid for ECR 2020 are equally valid for ECR 2021 (March 3-7, 2021, Vienna/Austria) and an ECR 2020 registration automatically grants free access to the online congress in July 2020 (incl. on-demand access until December 31, 2020). If you should have questions regarding your registration, please contact our staff at registration@myesr.org. Please note that due to the current circumstances responses can take slightly longer than usual.

Regarding your flight and accommodation bookings, please check the cancellation policy of your provider. As there is not yet an official statement by the Austrian government regarding travel restrictions, border openings or the allowance to hold major events in July, you should consider to wait with the cancellation of your booking if you are not eligible for free cancellation now. Most airlines offer a voucher for the booked flight or a rebooking to a different date or destination. Please check the website of your operating airline.

We will publish all related regulations issued by the Austrian government and authorities on our website. Please check regularly for updates.

We are not only a medical profession, but a family, and helping and protecting one another during moments like these is of the utmost importance. At no time have your services to radiology and healthcare been more important than now and the ESR Board of Directors would like to thank you, not only for your ongoing contribution to helping fight coronavirus, in whatever form it might take, but also for your support of our congress and society. We sincerely hope that we can rely on a continuation of this support in the future.

We hope you stay safe and wish you all the best during these trying times. 

Yours sincerely,
the ESR Board of Directors