F.A.Q

Cancellation FAQs

The EAPCCT Executive, Board, Scientific Committee and our Professional Congress Organiser partners, Grupo Pacifico, have been working hard to address the many logistical challenges that we all face as a result of the recent cancellation of our congress.

We understand this is an unsettling time on many accounts. Respectfully, we ask for your patience and understanding as we work systematically through the tasks, find solutions and process them.

We have developed some FAQs to help address some of these.

These will be updated and expanded continually, and we will send regular notifications of this and other news bulletins.

Please check the congress website (link) regularly.

8^th April 2020

General questions

• Will the EAPCCT 2020 Congress be rescheduled?

  Regrettably, for health, financial and logistical reasons, we have decided to cancel the meeting completely.

• Why was the EAPCCT 2020 Congress not postponed?

  There were few options for postponement in Tallinn 2020 without prolonging uncertainty, encroaching on periods close to other international toxicology congresses, and interfering with our own plans and timelines for our 2021 meeting in Palma de Mallorca.

• Why could a virtual congress not be held?

  We pursued virtual / electronic options but the worldwide spread of COVID-19, current workload and future time commitments of our speakers and delegates and the associated costs make this impractical.

  We are looking into the possibility of making selected presentations available online – if this can be done we will immediately inform delegates.

  We would encourage our members and delegates to consider attending the autumn meetings of NACCT, APAMT and EUROTOX for some great (clinical) toxicology, assuming the current situation is controlled.

• Will we have an opportunity to visit Estonia in future years?

  We were very disappointed to cancel our first Estonian Congress, particularly since Dr Raido Paasma, Grupo Pacifico and the EAPCCT Board had found such great venues and partners in Tallinn. We’d found many sponsors and had a record number of exhibitors booked.

  To help protect some funds and to capitalise on our efforts thus far, we are looking at options to hold the congress there in 2022 or 2023 so you don’t miss out. Tallinn is a wonderful congress city!

• Will the 2020 meeting content be automatically included in the 2021 congress in Palma de Mallorca?

  We appreciate the effort and work that has been put in by all our speakers and presenters thus far. We hope to be able to transfer much of the programme to 2021, although there may be aspects of the current pandemic that will merit intense debate!

  We appreciate your patience as we work to determine whether and how parts of the planned scientific content for the EAPCCT 40th Congress can still be utilised next year.

• Will EACCME credits be available for 2020?

  EACCME credits for the 2020 congress will not be available. We have informed EACCME of the congress cancellation and are negotiating over refunds of our payments to date.

• Will my abstract still be published?

  As previously announced, we will publish the congress abstract for 2020 in full as usual, so that those of you sharing research will have it published.

  We are in discussion about rules for submitting such abstracts to other scientific meetings and will issue guidance in due course.
• Will there be a financial loss to the EAPCCT?

  Inevitably, there will be some financial losses which we and Grupo Pacifico are in the process of identifying. Mitigating and minimising such losses was one of the many considerations included in our decision to cancel the 2020 congress. We hope that some savings may be made by holding the event in Tallinn in either 2022 or 2023.

  Over many years the EAPCCT has built up a reserve in the event of a congress cancellation, and part of that will be used to cover our losses. We hope that we can replenish these reserves over future years without too much impact on other initiatives and functions.

• Does the EAPCCT have cancellation insurance?
  EAPCCT considered this some years ago when we ran our congresses ‘in-house’. The costs were prohibitive if natural disasters and communicable diseases were included. For these reasons we consciously built up our own reserves. Were we not now in partnership with Grupo Pacifico the losses would have been considerably higher.
• What about the EAPCCT Board elections of 2020?

  The service terms of board members are set out in our 2018 constitution and elections must take place. As we have the facility to handle these via online voting this process will be used, and announcements will be forthcoming.

• What about the EAPCCT General Assembly?

  Certain items of business for the GA are set down in our constitution, which states the meeting must be held at a congress. Owing to the cancellation we will need to find a way for the required presentations and decisions to be made and approved. We are looking at electronic solutions for this.

Registrations

• Do I have to cancel my registration?

  No. Since the Board decided to cancel the entire congress, Grupo Pacifico has refunded all registrations paid.

• Will my registration be refunded?

  All registrations have now been refunded automatically by Grupo Pacifico. We would like to thank those who generously donated all or part of their fees to the EAPCCT – we are extremely grateful for such generosity.

• Will I be able to transfer my registration to next year’s congress?

  We looked at an option to transfer credit for attendance at the 2021 congress in Palma de Mallorca (25-28 May 2021). Owing to accounting and taxation rules this is not possible.

• I received an EAPCCT attendance award. Will I be eligible for this next year?

  Recipients of EAPCCT Congress attendance awards will have their awards carried over to next year with priority, although the conditions of having a presentation / poster for the 2021 programme will apply.

Exhibitors section

• Will my registration and exhibition space fees be refunded?

  All registrations have now been refunded by Grupo Pacifico or carried forward for 2023.

Accommodation and Travel

• I booked my hotel via the EAPCCT Congress website links. Will I be able to get a refund?

  You will need to contact the hotel directly and cancel or modify your personal reservation. Grupo Pacifico have reviewed the cancellation policy terms for each of the selected hotels contracted for inclusion and have informed us that most will offer refunds accordingly and will be understanding of the situation.

  If you made your arrangements independently of the congress website the terms of your own booking will apply.

  With regard to travel, regrettably, the EAPCCT is unable to cover any losses, however, many airlines have revised their rebooking and refund policies to deal with this extraordinary situation. We encourage you to check with your travel agent or with the airline directly as early as possible.