Dear Fellows of the European Calcium Society,

The start of our Society followed the organization of various European Symposia on Calcium Binding Proteins in Normal and Transformed Cells, initiated under the visionary impulsion of Roland Pochet, Claus Heizmann, Jacques Haiech and Rosario Donato. In 1997 the European Calcium Society (ECS) was officially created, a web site was launched, newsletters started to be published on a regular basis, and the ECS grew.

The aim has been to develop and sustain relationships between all scientists working in the field of Ca²⁺ binding, Ca²⁺ signaling and the study of the various proteins thereby involved (the "Ca²⁺ toolkit") with special attention for the needs and the participation of the junior researchers in the field (e.g. travel fellowships, discounted membership and registration fees, poster prizes, and since 2019 an own junior ECS Board) and this all with maximal respect for gender equality and geographic representation.

Moreover, ECS feels strongly committed to our Ukrainian colleagues who are severely suffering. ECS has and keeps on offering free membership to all Ukrainian-based researchers and waives registration for attending ECS events.

In recent years, the ECS could always maintain membership varying between 250 and 300 members, coming from across the globe with about two-thirds of our members located in Europe (>20 European countries) and one-third located outside Europe (>10 countries from North, Central and South America, Asia and Oceania). This further underpins the global and inclusive character of our Society.

In 2022, ECS existed 25 years. On this occasion, a special NewsLetter has been developed by former and current ECS Board members, presidents and Secretary-Generals as well as jECS Board members. The documents provides a historic perspective on the Society as well as a forward-looking perspective on the future of ECS and its place in the scientific calcium landscape.

Every two years, the ECS organizes very successful scientific meetings and the alternate years at least one focused workshop. Due to COVID-19, ECS2020 meeting had to be postponed. Thus, the main ECS meeting revived in 2022 and was organized by John Mackrill (with help of the local organizing committee) and Geert Bultynck (with help of the scientific committee) in Cork, Ireland from August 21^st to August 25^th, 2022. The meeting was attended by about 140 participants, including 40 early career researchers. The meeting was generously supported by ECS with 2 key note speakers, 17 travel awards for researchers at early career stage or residing in emerging countries and 2 awards. The main meeting was preceded by the 3^rd junior ECS (jECS) symposium (August 20^th), which was only the first in-person jECS event and hosted 12 early career speakers. A lasting record of the science presented at the ECS meeting will be captured by the Special Issue for BBA – Molecular Cell Research (edited by a new team of Guest Editors, presented in alphabetical order: Geert Bultynck, Björn-Philipp Diercks, Enikö Kallay, John Mackrill). The Special issue will be available through: https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/biochimica-et-biophysica-acta-bba-molecular-cell-research/special-issues

Other recent ECS-supported activities included the “Ion Channel in Cancer” meeting organized by Natacha Prevarskaya & Dimitra Gkika (December 6-9, 2022; Lille, France) and the Signal Transduction Society meeting (November 2-4, 2022; Weimar, Germany). At both of these meetings, ECS organized a session. Finally, we also had another series of ECS webinar with team talks delivered by a PI and their early career co-worker.

In 2023, the ECS and jECS remain very active and, at the end of the year, will have organized 4 events.

1. A virtual meeting was organized by Llew Roderick and Luc Leybaert on April 26^th, 2023 on “Calcium in Physiology & Disease – New technology New Insights” with 5 invited speakers and 2 short talks selected by jECS Board from submitted abstracts. The meeting, attended by >40 participants, preceded the virtual General Assembly.
2. The 9^th ECS Symposium on Mitochondrial Ca²⁺ signaling in Health and Disease will be organized by Paola Pizzo & team will take place in Padua, Italy and will run from 7-9 September 2023. The workshop is in memory of Tullio Pozzan. All information about the program, registration and abstract submission can be found at https://ecsw2023.azuleon.org/ .
3. The 10^th ECS Symposium on Ca^2+- Signaling Toolkit in Cell Function, Health & Disease will be organized by Geert Bultynck & team will take place in Leuven, Belgium and will run from 15-17 November 2023. The workshop will take place in honor of Professor Emeritus Jan B. Parys. All information about the program, registration and abstract submission can be found at https://leuven2023.calciumsociety.com/
4. The 4^th jECS Symposium will be organized by the jECS Board on October 5^th, 2023 and will be a virtual event via the Google Meet platform. More information will be provided via our NewsLetters.

In 2024, the 17^th International ECS meeting will be organized by Patel, Martin Bootman & Katja Rietdorf in Cambridge, UK and will run from August 31 to September 4, 2023. ECS members will be able to shape ECS2024 meeting by sending in proposals for Sessions (cfr. NewsLetter for more information).

Moreover, at the General Assembly, the ECS Board has been strengthened by three new ECS Board members. Upon an Open Call, 9 nominees were received and discussed by the ECS Board. Based on their contributions to ECS and Ca²⁺ research, research topics, geographic spreading and EDI principles, the Board proposed and the ECS General Assembly approved Natacha Prevarskaya (Lille, France), Paola Pizzo (Padova, Italy) and Khaled Machaca (Doha, Qatar). The new Board members are longstanding ECS members (>10 years), respected & renowned researchers in the field and have been very active in supporting ECS and organizing ECS events. Therefore, the ECS Board now comprises 11 members (in alphabetical order): Martin Bootman, Geert Bultynck, Andreas Guse, Enikö Kallay, Luc Leybaert, Khaled Machaca, Barbara Niemeyer, Natacha Prevarskaya, Paola Pizzo, Jim Putney, Carlos Villalobos. This means that ECS Board is now represented by 9 members from Europe, 1 from North America and 1 from Asia. Moreover, Malene Brohus and Björn Diercks as spokespersons of the jECS serve as associated ECS Board members.

Also, the jECS Board has evolved. The current jECS Board has 8 members: Annalisa Bellandi, Malene Brohus (spokesperson), Silke Chalmers, Björn Diercks (spokesperson), Bekhta Fedlaoui, Helene Halkjaer Jensen, Adelina Ivanova, Alejandro Marmoleijo-Garza, Jussep Salgodo-Almario.

Finally, we are proud to announce that ECS has taken further steps to improve Equity, Diversity & Inclusion. While ECS always has been appreciated for its inclusive character (e.g. several ECS2022 award winners were 1^st time attendees!), we are well aware that further improvements were needed. Therefore, the ECS is proud to announce that from now on the 2 ECS poster awards will be named after Annette Draeger and Roland Pochet and the 2 Key Note lectures will be badged as Claude Klee and Michael Berridge lectures. These names reflect the broad spectrum of calcium research represented in our Society including calcium-binding proteins and calcium signaling as well as further enhances EDI through gender balance.

As you can appreciate, the ECS remains a vibrant and highly active society by and for Ca²⁺ researchers and keeps on evolving with an eye on the current societal challenges and embedded Equity, Diversity & Inclusion principles. We all hope that the future brings many joyful moments and inspiring interactions & events. More information on all our activities will be diffused via [ECS-post]: InfoLetters, this website and other media (such as the Slack Forum, our Facebook page and twitter account).        

With your help and engagement, we will further develop ECS as a world-wide, inclusive & welcoming community of Ca²⁺ researchers!

Very sincerely yours,      
Geert Bultynck & Andreas H. Guse,         
Secretary General & President