Future directions for the ERS: Presidential plans

The mission of the European Respiratory Society (ERS) is to promote respiratory health and alleviate suffering from respiratory disease and it fulfils this goal by promoting science/research, education and advocacy. Among the Society's activities are a successful annual Congress (attended by approximately 20,000 delegates), research fellowships, grants and seminars and a comprehensive educational programme through the ERS School [1–5]. The educational programme encompasses postgraduate courses during the Congress, courses and seminars on various topics throughout the year across Europe, a website with a wealth of educational modules and interactive materials. Importantly, the ERS School has initiated a training programme called Harmonisation in Education in Respiratory Medicine for European Specialists (HERMES), which sets training standards across Europe, runs examination and certification processes for the European Diplomas in Respiratory Medicine and Paediatric Respiratory Medicine, and allows mobility of European specialists. Furthermore, the ERS has a strong advocacy role through its Advocacy Committee and Brussels office, and through the European Lung Foundation (ELF) – the public voice of the ERS, which links with patients and patient organisations, provides information and listens to and empowers the patients' voices. In a dynamic European and global setting, where health priorities in general (and respiratory medicine in particular) are changing rapidly, the ERS is planning to do even more in order to attract the attention of the media and policymakers and to bring more research funding into respiratory medicine. The ERS is proud to be the first major respiratory medicine society to have agreed and launched a public health Presidential plan, which is now being implemented. A series of ERS Summits has been organised since 2011, when the European Respiratory Roadmap , which set out directions for respiratory medicine and research over the next decade, was approved in Leuven (Belgium) and was then …