Session proposals

Vienna 2020 Hot topic sessions Submission is now opened

Below you will find information on session proposal deadlines, priority topics and session types.

For questions regarding the scientific and educational programme, please contact: programme@ersnet.org.

Session proposal tips

Please go through these tips before submitting a session proposal.

Session proposal deadlines

Call open	Deadline	Submission type
10 June 2019	16 July 2019	1st round Vienna 2020: Symposia proposals only
16 December 2019	6 March 2020	2nd round submissions for Vienna 2020: Hot topic proposals only
28 May 2020	3 July 2020	1st round Barcelona 2021: Symposia proposals only
December 2020	March 2021	2nd round submissions for Vienna 2020: Hot topic proposals only

Symposia priority topics for Vienna 2020

The ERS Congress 2020 programme theme selected by our Congress Chairs is: "Respiratory diseases and their origins in early life".

The programme will also cover the most recent topics on research and clinical practice, including:

Assembly	Topics
1 - General pneumology	Pulmonary rehabilitation - including telemedicine Pulmonary involvement in systemic and other conditions Multimorbidity management Non-pharmacological management of interstitial lung diseases Integration of m-health and e-health
2 - Respiratory intensive care	NIV and sedation Personalized medicine in ARDS Management of difficult-to-wean patients Chronic NIV and home mechanical ventilation Sepsis
3 - Basic and translational sciences	Lung microenvironment: implications for chronic lung disease Human ex vivo models Damage and repair of the epithelium Cell-matrix interactions in lung disease and regeneration Epigenetic/genetic-environment interactions
4 - Sleep and breathing disorders; and clinical physiology	Control of breathing – hypoventilation during sleep, exercise and dyspnoea Sleep apnoea Big data and machine learning in respiratory and sleep pathophysiology Exercise and sleep: from impaired function to new therapeutic strategies Hypoxia: protective and harmful mechanisms from wakefulness to sleep Asymptomatic OSA
5 - Airway diseases, asthma and COPD	Novel immunology-based therapies in asthma and COPD / Treatment of severe asthma Asthma and COPD exacerbations / Treatment & prevention of airway disease exacerbations COPD: Pharmacological management Precision medicine in airway diseases: from bench to bedside Multi-disciplinary interactions to treat airway diseases
6 - Epidemiology and environment	Occupational and environmental contributions including tobacco to airway disease burden Occupational and environmental contributions including tobacco to interstitial lung disease and respiratory cancers Air pollution Genetic and environmental contribution including tobacco to disease causation since early life Risk prediction in early life for chronic respiratory disease and other NCDs
7 - Paediatrics	Evidence based clinical practice guideline on the diagnosis of asthma in children aged 5 to 16 years Asthma Lung development and aging Acute and chronic cough Infectious agents in childhood asthma
8 - Thoracic surgery and transplantation	Lung transplantation in the era of new drugs Lung cancer screening. What to do next? Bronchiectasis Tuberculosis Standardizing definitions and outcome measures in acute bronchiolitis
9 - Allied respiratory professionals	Utilizing exercise testing in pre-operative assessment, rehabilitation and exercise prescription Psychological wellbeing and prevention of psychological distress in chronic lung diseases Functional evaluation of lung and airways: building a flow chart for a comprehensive, multifaceted, evidence-based use of the different techniques A hands-off (non-invasive) approach to respiratory assessment Interdisciplinary assessment and management of ILD (DPLD) Frailty in chronic lung disease
10 - Respiratory infections	Management of tuberculosis The future of inhaled antibiotics in respiratory diseases Can we improve the immune response against respiratory infections? Results of new trials in Tuberculosis Point of care diagnostics for respiratory infections
11 - Thoracic oncology	Immunotherapies for lung cancer Implementation of thoracic malignancies management: from RCT's to real life data When the nodules are suspicious Complications of therapy in thoracic malignancies Lung cancer and ILD: gens, environments, drugs Oligometastatic & oligoprogressive diseases
12 - Interstitial lung diseases	Thoracic complications of connective tissue diseases Acute exacerbation in ILD Sarcoidosis treatment Autoimmunity across ILD IPF & "Friends" – the concept of PF-ILD
13 - Pulmonary vascular diseases	When the lung vessels do matter From clinical observation to pathobiological insight in pulmonary vascular diseases Three months later: post pulmonary embolism syndrome and prevention of VTE recurrence Answer to practical questions for PE patients: Do I need a thrombophilia testing?, Do I have a cancer?, Do I need anticoagulation for my (small) subsegmental PE?, Do I need treatment for my (asymptomatic) incidental PE? Interventional treatment of high-risk pulmonary embolism
14 - Clinical techniques, imaging and endoscopy	Patient related outcomes of interventional pulmonology procedures Interaction chest radiology - pulmonology ERS meets European Society of Thoracic Imaging (interstitial lung disease) Imaging of chest Thoracic ultrasound

* Topics last updated: June 2019

The ERS Congress Programme Committee encourages you to develop a session that includes faculty members of varying ages, backgrounds, specialties and gender. The congress theme should also be reflected in session proposals as much as possible.

Session types

Please note: For the Vienna Congress 2020 only Symposia and Hot topics sessions will be opened for the submission.

Lecture-based sessions
Symposia	Hot topics	Year in review
In these 2-hour long sessions four renowned experts present key aspects of respiratory medicine, or topics of interest to respiratory professionals. Each symposium is chaired by two specialists in the presented topic. Symposia are open to all Congress delegates.	Hot topic sessions cover the latest developments in respiratory medicine or in topics of interest to respiratory professionals. Each hot topic session is chaired by two specialists in the presented topic. These sessions are open to all Congress delegates.	The Year in review sessions aim at providing an overview of what was recently published, discovered, on a specific topic. These sessions are open to all Congress delegates.
State-of-the-art	Guidelines sessions
State-of-the-art sessions are high-quality presentations delivered by world-leading clinical experts. They are designed to offer delegates both an opportunity to learn more about topics and diseases that they are less familiar with, as well as an opportunity to learn about the latest developments within specific fields of expertise. At the end of these sessions, delegates will have the most up-to-date, clear and practical take-home knowledge relating to diagnosis, treatment and prevention in each case.	Guidelines sessions are based on the official ERS clinical practice guidelines prepared by the experts in a specific field of respiratory medicine.
Case-based sessions
Grand round	Challenging clinical cases	Lungs on Fire
Grand rounds are interactive sessions, where cases of interest to a wide audience are presented and well documented. The audience will be solicited to give by vote an opinion at each step of the diagnostic and therapeutic procedures. These sessions are open to all Congress delegates.	These case-based sessions allow participants to understand the history, pathology, analysis and treatment of complex clinical cases in different subject areas. The session leaders, along with the clinical case presenters, will encourage and facilitate a discussion in order to examine and discuss each case. Participants are encouraged to actively participate in the session and the discussions. These sessions are open to all Congress delegates.	These interactive sessions will see a panel of experts being put to the test against the audience to diagnose various clinical cases. The panel of experts will discover the cases at the same time as the audience. Each session will be led by a discussant, who will be the only person in the room with the details about the cases. Participants will be able to answer multiple-choice questions throughout the session. The aim is to give the audience an opportunity to study real challenging clinical cases, to learn and exchange ideas with a panel of respiratory experts and to discuss the various diagnosis and treatment options. These sessions are open to all Congress delegates.
Educational sessions
Meet the expert	Postgraduate courses	Skills workshops
In these sessions, an expert is on hand to stimulate discussion, answer questions and offer advice. The format encourages a more personal approach to learning. Each of the lunchtime expert sessions are limited to 50 participants. Registration for these sessions is additional to the congress registration fee.	These courses aim to improve knowledge and skills that will be applied in the daily practice of clinicians, respiratory scientists and healthcare professionals. The information disseminated during the course should introduce the basic concepts and established practices rather than scientific work in progress. Registration for these courses is additional to the congress registration fee.	The workshops are designed to allow participants to gain practical skills in different disciplines of respiratory medicine. The workshops will revolve around 4 workstations and use interactive demonstrations and equipment instead of traditional presentations and lectures. Registration for these workshops is additional to the congress registration fee.
Professional development workshops
Professional development activities aim to provide participants with practical tips and guidelines on how to be more well-rounded health professionals. The maximum number of participants is 50 per session, and registration for these workshops is additional to the congress registration fee.