The 2021 ASPHER Young Researchers’ Forum (YRF) will take place online on Friday, October 8th, 12:45-16:10 as part of the 30th Anniversary of the Krakow School of Public Health – Jagiellonian University Medical College. It is the first edition of the YRF that will be entirely online and offered via an ASPHER member event. We would like to sustain this format of the YRF as a regular offer to ASPHER members – strengthening ASPHER’s presence in its member locations and within their local agendas.

This new format for the YRF provides added value for all actors involved. The Forum has always represented a unique opportunity for young researchers to present their work to a select audience of peers and key representatives of the European public health community. Extending the opportunity for Members to host YRF sessions allows them to internationalize their key events by calling for submissions across the ASPHER network. Supplementary YRF sessions permit ASPHER and its wider membership to energize the next generation agenda. Presenters are provided the chance to learn about the local context of the host schools, with relevant networking and extra impact opportunities.

For this inaugural event, students, post docs, junior faculty and recent graduates from all ASPHER Member programmes are invited to submit an abstract which should be of performed original research (see specifics below). All authors selected to present at the Forum will be invited to join the Krakow SPH Jubilee conference, 7-8 October. An award, funded by ASPHER and Krakow SPH will be presented to the researcher judged to have made the best presentation.

We are delighted to confirm that a special guest of this year's event will be Prof. Nadav Davidovitch from the Ben Gurion University School of Public Health, Israel – head of the BGU SPH and member of the ASPHER Executive Board (bio). Prof. Davidovitch will address participants of the Krakow YRF together with Prof. John Middleton, President of ASPHER.

The deadline for submission is Monday 27th September (midnight Brussels time). Please send abstracts of up to 350 words to youngresearchersforum@aspher.org.

Please forward this message to your relevant contacts and share the opportunity with your students, alumni and junior faculty members. Should you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact us at youngresearchersforum@aspher.org.

We hope that the digital Member-hosted YRF offer will be of interest to ASPHER Members going forward, and that this agenda serves as a “template module” for future events. ASPHER will also continue to offer the traditional in-person Forum at the European Public Health Conferences once they are able to be held in person. Berlin 2022!

Best wishes,
ASPHER Secretariat

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ASPHER Young Researchers Forum – Jagiellonian University Medical College, Krakow 2021 (virtual edition)

During the 30th Anniversary of the Krakow School of Public Health – Jagiellonian University Medical College, a session will be held for the presentations of YRF papers submitted by students, post-docs, young faculty and recent alumni from ASPHER Member programmes. One participant can submit a maximum of two papers. Only oral presentations are anticipated. The presentations during the YRF session will be delivered via the videoconferencing system.

Rationale

The goal of the YRF is to provide an opportunity for young researchers to present their work and engage with other young researchers. Through the ASPHER network, participants can expand their individual networks and receive (and provide) feedback from international peers. YRF sessions are ideal events to stimulate conversation, research partnerships, and further academic experiences; participants are encouraged to engage with one another.

Proposed agenda

12:45 – 13:05 Welcome and opening address by Prof. John Middleton and Prof. Davidovitch
13:05 – 14:15 YRF presentations 1-6 (co-moderated by Krakow SPH and ASPHER)
14:15 – 14:30 Break
14:30 – 15:40 YRF presentations 7-12 (co-moderated by Krakow SPH and ASPHER)
15:40 – 15:50 ASPHER Young Professionals Programme presentation by Ines Siepmann, ASPHER EB & YPP coordinator / Jury deliberation
15:50 – 16:10 Award ceremony and wrap up

** Krakow local time

Abstract submission

The deadline for abstract submission is September 27, 2021 (midnight Brussels time). Abstracts should be submitted by e-mail as an attachment prepared with text processing software, preferably MS Word, to youngresearchersforum@aspher.org.

Abstracts prepared in English should not exceed 350 words. Title, names of the authors and their affiliation are not included in this count. The title cannot consist of more than 15 words. The list of authors should not surpass six persons.

Only abstracts of original research papers are invited. Furthermore, the abstract should refer to performed and not planned research activities. The body of the abstract must consist of clearly distinguished sections, including Introduction, Aim of the study, Methods, Results and Conclusions.

The Introduction should give the context and rationale for the study, and it may shortly mention the preceding research. It is advised that the main aim of the study is clearly stated. It can be accompanied by the most important specific research questions. The Methods section must include a transparent description of the material used in the study and methods applied to obtain and analyse generated data. If applicable, statistical methods should be shortly addressed. The Authors should place the main findings in the Results section, keeping in mind the theme of the study and the main and detailed study objectives. It is expected that the Conclusions will refer to the study objectives; the Authors are expected to generalise obtained results without repeating results reported earlier. Recommendations for further research or future actions are acceptable.

The style of the abstract should be concise, purposeful and understandable. The abbreviations may be introduced after the first full appearance of relevant terms. References, as well as tables, images and graphs, are not allowed in the abstracts.

The text of the abstract should be formatted as Times New Roman size 12 p. with single spacing between lines. The abstract should be accompanied by a maximum of 6 keywords.

Review process

Each abstract will be assessed by at least two reviewers for the scientific quality and feasibility of the presentation during the Conference. The decision about the acceptance of submitted papers will be provided by e-mail on September 30, 2021, at the latest. The programme of the YRF session will be distributed on October 1, 2021.

Oral presentations

The oral presentation should not surpass 7 minutes. The time for the questions and the discussion is a maximum of 3 minutes. The presentations should be delivered in English. The presentations should be sent to 30-lecieIZP@uj.edu.pl  2 days before the Conference at the latest as a .ppt, .pptx or .pdf file. There is no limit for the number of slides providing the presenting author can conform to the allowed time. 

General regulations

Participants of the oral sessions are obliged to observe the programme of the meeting. Questions can be voiced after receiving consent from the chairman of the session.  

To join the oral session, a participant must agree to the processing of their personal data in the range necessary for handling the submissions and organising the presentations. Filled forms “Consent to use the image” and “Consent to personal data processing” should be sent in parallel to the submitted abstract.