Statement Concerning ADEE 2020 postponement
The ADEE executive and office have been closely monitoring the evolution of the Covid 19 pandemic throughout Europe. The short and medium term impact of this global crisis and its impact on dental education is likely to carry on into the period leading upto the new academic year. This time of uncertainty has caused most conferences due to take place before the final trimester of 2020 to be cancelled or postponed.
As Schools adapt their programmes, change their methods and relocate their human resources to address the new challenges posed by the COVID-19 outbreak, ADEE finds that maintaining the normal timeline of its activities would not be a sensible and reasonable thing to do. In this context and following considerable discussion with our colleagues in Strasbourg we have taken what we feel is a necessary decision to postpone ADEE2020 Strasbourg. It will now be delivered in Strasbourg August 2021.
We would like to thank most sincerely our Strasbourg colleagues for their flexibility and indeed commitment to ADEE at this time particularly given their immediate area is at the epicentre of the pandemic at this time. We also thank you, our members, for your understanding in these circumstances.
While this is disappointing we feel it is the responsible decision to take at this time. Having clarity around this at this stage will allow colleagues to focus on key academic issues and on rebuilding their systems post the pandemic and give back valuable time to share with their families.
We will of course hold our general assembly for 2020 and to comply with Irish regulation this must be completed and the subsequent annual report submitted to the regulator no later than 31 Oct. The likely presentation of our general assembly will be an online meeting. We have as yet to decide the date. A decision will be made no later than mid June on this and a further update will issue in due course.
During this period, the Executive Committee has been working to offer ADEE membership and the Oral Health Education community at large a set of resources to help all of us to cope with the COVID-19 pandemic, addressing its research, teaching and clinical consequences. As academics, we must continue to learn from this experience in order to increase the knowledge we will need to improve our response to this and future crisis. We will keep you informed about future ADEE initiatives, in which we hope you will engage. We intend to hold a number of online meetings and discussions to support members through this chalenging time. If you wish to have a particular topic covered please get in contact. Further details of the planned sessions will issue in the coming weeks.
For now we send our best wishes to our colleagues throughout Europe and indeed across the world many of whom are engaged in the frontline of pandemic defence at this time.
We wish you all safety and health and look forward to again sharing time, space and discussion with you in the near future.
The ADEE Executive
16th April 2020
