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Formation of Thematic Groups
The Governing Board of TERMIS has approved a recommendation that Thematic Groups of the Society should be created. According to its mission, TERMIS brings together the international community of persons engaged in the fields of tissue engineering and regenerative medicine and promotes education and research within these fields, serving as an international forum to promote the informed discussion of challenges and therapeutic benefits of the application of these technologies of regenerative medicine.
These aims are mainly achieved through the annual meetings of the three Continental Chapters, the TERMIS World Congress Meeting held every three years and the endorsement of the journal Tissue Engineering. TERMIS is well advanced in the integration of regenerative medicine at the geographical level and now intends to address this integration at the thematic level. Tissue engineering and regenerative medicine involve a wide variety of basic scientific and engineering disciplines that have to be combined with clinical disciplines and the practical aspects of translational medicine. Thematic Groups will now be introduced, in a phased manner, which are globally based rather than geographically oriented. The incorporation of Thematic Groups into the general structure of TERMIS will be permissive and not mandatory and will be based on the submission of proposals to the Governing Board and their approval by that Board.
The following is a non-exclusive list of potential themes:
- Developmental Biology
- Scaffolds and Matrix Biomaterials
- Bioprinting / Biofabrication / Bioreactors / Bioprocessing
- Inflammation and Immunity
- Imaging
- Cell Sourcing and Manipulation
- Pre-clinical Protocols
- Clinical Trials
- Infrastructure - regulatory, health economics, ethics
The Governing Board have agreed that each approved Thematic Group should be able to request a symposium slot at any Continental Conference, and each Continental Council Chair and Conference Chair will be encouraged to give preference to proposals from Thematic Groups to organize such symposia. Thematic Groups should report to the Governing Board on their activities and be prepared to produce reports for publication in the Newsletter. It is also possible for Thematic Group chairs to co-ordinate with the Editors-in-Chief of Tissue Engineering for publication of occasional review papers dealing with their themes. Thematic Groups should be independent of Continental Councils, but each Group would be encouraged to keep all Continental Chairs apprised of their proposals and activities.
The procedures for establishing Thematic Groups will be as follows:
- Outline submissions; an outline proposal should be made to TERMIS which will include the title of the theme, the names of three proposers, all of whom are members of TERMIS, and one of whom will be the Chair of the Group, and a single paragraph statement of the rationale for the theme and its inclusions as a TERMIS Thematic Group.
- The outline submission should be communicated to the TERMIS administrator and will be reviewed by the TERMIS President and President-Elect. If it is agreed that the proposal represents a theme that is relevant to TERMIS, the proposed Thematic Group Chair would be encouraged to submit a full proposal.
- Full proposal; the full proposal should contain a two-page statement of the scientific and clinical rationale for the theme and an indication of the proposed activities. It should include the names of proposed office holders, specifically Chair, Vice Chair and Secretary, and a list of ten additional scientists and / or clinicians, who need not be current members of TERMIS, who endorse the formation of the Group. These should have a broad geographical spread and preferably involve all three Continental areas.
The full proposal, which have to be submitted within three months of receiving the decision to proceed, should be communicated to the TERMIS administrator, who will distribute this to members of the Governing Board. A decision to adopt a proposal will be made by a majority vote of the Governing Board.
The process of submissions may take place at any time after March 1st 2011; there will be no submission closure dates and each proposal will be dealt with as they are received. If two or more proposals dealing with the same, or similar themes, are received, the individual proposers may be invited to discuss possible collaboration / consolidation.
David Williams
President-Elect, TERMIS
Cape Town, January 2011