Dear Session Proponent,

As a potential session organiser at the 2025 Dutch Neuroscience Meeting (DNM 25), your role is a crucial one for an excellent meeting. The DNM 25 Organising Committee would like to call your attention to a few aspects regarding the Call for Proposals for Parallel Sessions and Plenary Speakers. Please remember that the deadline for submitting session proposals is 6 December 2024.

Parallel Sessions

The Parallel Sessions in the DNM 25 are meant to serve as a platform for topics of key importance within the Dutch Neuroscience community. Sessions can be fundamental, translational, clinical or educational (expert focus on specific technology, paradigm(s) or model(s) etc).

All sessions require 2 co-applicants (co-chairs), where one must be a Dutch PI and the other can be a PI/postdoc/Ph.D. student working in a Dutch institution or an international speaker included in the session.

A Dutch PI is operationally defined as an assistant, associate or full professor, working at an institution in the Netherlands, with a research group, preferably with a tenured position. An international speaker refers to someone working outside the Netherlands (the nationality of the person is irrelevant).

The organising committee understands the issue of obtaining firm commitments from speakers for a yet-to-be-approved session but we do require that you confirm that all speakers have been contacted regarding the session proposal being submitted.

Importantly, session proponents should strongly encourage their speakers to attend both days of the Dutch Neuroscience Meeting (or, at the very least, the complete day of their presentation). This is in line with one of the fundamental aims of this meeting: actively promoting the interaction between researchers, old and new, from various scientific backgrounds.

Parallel sessions are 90 minutes in duration. The preferred format is:

• 1 x 30-minute keynote lecture given by either a Dutch PI or international speaker
• 4 x 15-minute lectures by Dutch PIs, Post-Docs, and/or Ph.D. students

A balanced representation of speakers from different research institutes, genders and seniority is preferred.

Note Parallel Sessions are required to include at least one Dutch PI as a speaker. Dutch PI speakers are encouraged to be one of the symposium co-chairs, but that is not mandatory.

Plenary Speakers

In addition to Parallel Sessions, the Dutch Neuroscience Meeting programme includes Plenary Sessions with a single distinguished keynote speaker. Anyone can nominate a keynote speaker, including a clear and compelling justification of why this person would be an outstanding choice. The nomination should cover a brief summary of the proposed speaker’s past scientific accomplishments, most recent work, and their reputation as an engaging speaker. Importantly, we ask for confirmation of whether or not the speaker has been contacted regarding the proposal to give a lecture. In terms of expenses covered and eligible reimbursements, selected keynote speakers are equivalent to main speakers of parallel sessions (see also below).

Important dates and deadlines

Deadline for proposals: 6 December 2024.

If your proposal is selected, you will need to provide details of your session from 19 December 2024 (further instructions about this will be sent to you at a later stage). You will need to provide the names, affiliations, and e-mail addresses of all speakers in your session, as well as the allotted time for each talk; a title for each presentation would also be appreciated, but it is not mandatory (please note that this title can be changed when the speaker uploads his/her abstract; see below). All this information must be submitted before 20 January 2025.

Subsequently, your speakers are requested to upload an abstract for their presentation through this website (instructions will be sent to your speakers for this). They will need to do this before 24 April 2025.

Please make a note of the following important points

1. You (one of the session co-chairs) must invite the speakers of your session; when doing this, however, please include the information that additional organisational details will be sent to them by the HelpDesk (DNM25@azuleon.org). The HelpDesk is also available to answer any additional questions that you may have regarding the organisation of the sessions.

2. Costs covered by the DNM 25 Organisation

A) Your session’s main speaker

• If your main speaker is working in the Netherlands, the expenses covered are:
  • Registration fee for the whole duration of the meeting (this includes the standard registration kit, as well as coffee breaks and lunches).
  • Transportation to the conference venue: train (2nd class fare) to Tiel, plus taxi from Tiel train station to the venue, or personal car (reimbursed at € 0.30 per km); the DNM Organisers encourage everyone to be environmentally conscious, favouring public transportation whenever appropriate.
  • Accommodation: one night at van der Valk Hotel in Tiel (either preceding the lecture, or thereafter), including breakfast. In addition, access to the meeting’s social dinner is also covered.
• If your main speaker is working outside the Netherlands, the expenses covered are:
  • Registration fee for the whole duration of the meeting (this includes the standard registration kit, as well as coffee breaks and lunches).
  • Transportation: airplane ticket (APEX tourist class rate; please make sure that it is the lowest available airfare; see also below) to the Netherlands, plus 2nd class train to Tiel, plus taxi from Tiel train station to the venue; alternatively, 2nd class train to the Netherlands, until Tiel and the rest as above; alternatively, the use of a personal car will be reimbursed at € 0.30 per km.
  • Accommodation: two nights at van der Valk Hotel in Tiel, including breakfast. For speakers outside Europe, if necessary, an additional day – at the meeting venue – may be claimed (preceding the meeting or thereafter). In addition, access to the social dinner is also covered.
  • To contain costs, invited speakers who have travel expenses covered by the DNM Organisation are encouraged to define their travel details as early as possible; if required, please contact our HelpDesk (DNM25@azuleon.org).

Note Travel expenses covered by the DNM 25 Organising Committee will in no case exceed 750 EUR for European main speakers and 1500 EUR for main speakers outside Europe! Please make this clear to your invited speaker when formulating the invitation (i.e., especially considering a non-European plenary speaker). If you wish to invite a speaker whose expenses will exceed these limits, you will need to find other sources of funding.

B) Other speakers in your session

Besides your main speaker (whose registration costs are waived), all other speakers invited to your session are entitled to a 50% discount on registration fees for the day of their talk. However, travel costs and participation in the meeting’s social dinner are their own responsibility.

C) Session chairs

Both co-chairs are entitled to a 50% discount on registration fees for the day of the session. However, travel costs and participation in the meeting’s social dinner are their own responsibility. In the event that one of the co-chairs is also the main speaker, he/she is entitled to the full reimbursement benefits provided above under 2.A.

D) Discounts

Discounts are not cumulative.

3. Reimbursements

Travel expenses will be reimbursed upon receipt of a completed DNM 25 Reimbursement Form, accompanied by copies of all tickets (airplane/train/taxi) or a statement of the distance travelled using a personal car. The refund can be transferred either to the session chair or directly to the speaker. The reimbursement form will be available for download from this website and should be returned before 15 July 2025 by e-mail to the DNM Treasurer. Forms returned after this deadline will not be processed and refunded!

4. Additional responsibilities of the session organiser(s)

• Please make sure that all of your invited speakers are aware of the “rules” described above. Importantly, avoid potential embarrassing misunderstandings further down the line: all speakers (except the main and keynote speakers) and chairs need to pay a (reduced) registration fee.
• If necessary, you should help your speakers with their travel arrangements. The aim is to facilitate while keeping travel costs in check.
• At the meeting venue, you will need to provide a laptop and a laser pointer for the session. A beamer will be available in the room.

In short

• Structure and submit your proposal OUTLINE through this website until 6 December 2024.
• Notification of selected proposals by the Organising Committee: mid-December 2024.
• If accepted, submit your proposal DETAILS: 19 December 2024 to 20 January 2025.
• Abstract submissions by session speakers: 4 March to 24 April 2025.
• N.B. Chairs and speakers (except main speakers of parallel sessions) need to pay their registration fees until 8 April 2025.

For any questions, don’t hesitate to contact us at DNM25@azuleon.org – we’re here to help...

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