Europlanet Science Congress 2022
Palacio de Congresos de Granada, Spain
18 – 23 September 2022
Europlanet Science Congress 2022
Palacio de Congresos de Granada, Spain
18 September – 23 September 2022

Virtual components and Covid-19 at EPSC2022

EPSC2022 will take place largely as an in-person meeting, without the possibility of live virtual participation in the standard scientific sessions. The planning of the meeting by the EPSC Executive Committee and the Europlanet Society has been guided by the facilities offered by the venue and the objective of keeping the registration fees comparable to previous in-person meetings, despite the current economic situation. Presenting authors at EPSC2022 will need to register to attend the meeting in Granada, Spain.

However, considering the lessons learned from the last two virtual EPSC meetings and taking into account your feedback, we will bring some virtual components into the EPSC2022 physical meeting to improve access and help mitigate the impact of changing circumstances (e.g. due to last-minute travel cancellations, or Covid-19 infections).

  • All scientific sessions will be recorded:
    • Europlanet Society members and registered attendees will have the option to access recordings (free) after the meeting.
    • To gain access to the recordings, Society members that have not already registered for the conference itself need to request a TAN code (session recording category) between 24 September 2022 and 31 October 2022.
    • Best efforts will be made to publish the recordings as soon as possible after the session, but it may take between 24 hours and 1 week. Recordings will remain online for up to 1 year after the conference.
    • If oral presenters do not wish for the recording of their presentation to be accessible (even though recordings will only be accessible to conference participants through the EPSC2022 website under "private" settings) it will be possible to withdraw the recording by contacting the organizers by email.
  • Registered presenting authors will be invited to upload two categories of materials. If you do not want materials in your presentation shared, please include the 'no sharing' icon. Please note that you will not be able to upload materials if you are not registered. The two types of material are:
    • "Display materials" (slides, videos, pdf posters etc). These are added to the abstract information page, and can either be set by authors as publicly available or marked as "private"” so that they are only accessible by registered EPSC participants. It is prohibited to retain or share scientific material shown in any display materials if they have been marked as 'private' in the programme and/or include the "no sharing" icon.
    • "Live presentation materials" (for orals only). Oral presenters are asked to upload their presentation slides (ppt, pdf, …) at least 24 hours before the live session. It will not be possible to upload presentations from a memory stick in the session room.
  • Please note that only printed posters will be displayed on-site. However, presenters can also upload a PDF of their poster as "display material", which can be accessed through the EPSC2022 website.

If registered participants are unable to attend at short notice (e.g. due to a Covid-19 infection), the following back-up options are available to avoid no-show status if the presenter is well enough:

  • Pre-recordings of oral talks can be uploaded in replacement of the "Live presentation material" slides up to 4 hours before the live session, so that the video can be shown during the session during the allocated timeslot. Presenters must inform the session chairs about this change. Please note that there will be no possibility to join the session live online, and any Q&A needs to take place on the EPSC2022 Slack channel.
  • Should authors not be able to attach a poster to the poster board, they should upload their poster as "display material" and contact the conveners of their session (preferably at least 24h prior to their poster session) to request that their presentation's QR-Code be attached to the poster board. This will redirect EPSC participants to their abstract information page and "display material". Authors should download their presentation's official QR code from the EPSC2022 abstract management tool and send it to the conveners/session chairs, who will be able to print it out at the EPSC registration booth. Alternatively, conveners/session chairs can access the QR code as a png download on the abstract page.
  • Holders of EPSC2022 bursary awards are strongly encouraged to prepare in advance the back-up options for oral and poster presentations described above to ensure that they avoid a no-show scenario due to unforeseen circumstances. Registered authors using these options will be considered as having presented their work at EPSC, and so will still be eligible to claim their bursary (i.e. waiver for the EPSC registration and any travel costs up to the value of the grant that cannot be recovered otherwise), should they be unable to present in person at the meeting.

Covid-19 regulations at the conference center and entry regulations for Spain

All participants at EPSC2022 will be asked to wear FFP2 facial masks at the conference center. This regulation will help to make a safe environment for all participants at the in-person meeting. All participants will be given two Europlanet-branded FFP2 facial masks when they pick up their badge at the information & name badge pickup desk.

Following the current regulations in Spain, no vaccination/recovery certificate/recent PCR test is required to either enter the country or the conference center. However, please note that this could change before or even during the meeting. This page will be kept up to date as much as possible, however, we can provide no guarantee of accuracy. We therefore strongly recommend visiting the sites mentioned below regularly:

  • European Commission's overview of travel regulations
  • Up-to-date information on the Spanish measures
  • Covid-19 tests can be bought in the pharmacies and everyone can do a self-test. If the test is positive and the symptoms are severe, you have to go to the hospital at the Parque Tecnológico de la Salud (PTS) to the emergency unit.
  • Currently, the Covid-19 confirmed cases are not registered anymore at national level. There is no tracking of the number of Covid-19 infected persons at age below 65 years. If you get Covid-19 during your stay in Granada, it is recommended to always wear a mask, and to not go to bars, restaurants, shopping malls, etc. If you feel sick, but not so much that emergency care is needed, stay at the hotel until a Covid-19 test is negative.
  • If you tested positive for Covid-19, we kindly ask you to fill out the anonymous Covid-19 tracing form so that other participants can be notified.

Entry regulations for Spain

The information is updated as needed and it can be seen on this webpage.