Copyright: Modified and published with permission from http://www.ebmt2018.org/

Dear Colleagues and Friends,

On behalf of the EBMT 2018 Organizing Committee and our joint Iberian Scientific Committee, it gives us great pleasure to welcome you to Lisbon for the 44th EBMT Annual Meeting, which includes the 34th EBMT Nurses Group Meeting, the 17th Data Management Group meeting, the 10th Quality Management Group meeting, the 7th Paediatric Day, the 7th Cell Therapy Day, the 3rd Pharmacists Day, the 12th Patient, Family and Donor Group Day and the 2nd Psychiatry and Psychology Day. This ever-growing number of dedicated days reflects the truly comprehensive nature of our group.

The Scientific Programme includes symposia and educational sessions related to the specific challenges of stem cell transplantation. The meeting itself is a national collaboration of all six Portuguese transplant centres, supported by a joint Iberian Scientific Committee and the Portuguese Society of Hematology. Even as a small country, Portugal is distinguished as the administrator of one of the major European donor registries, with over 400,000 volunteer donors and frequent involvement in donations throughout the world.

We suggest that you take the opportunity to visit Lisbon, a friendly and welcoming city, considered by some to be the capital of the world’s first global village. Lisbon’s sites take visitors back to the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, the era of great maritime discoveries, when the city was the heart of Eastern and Western maritime trade, bustling with visitors from many different parts of the world. In Lisbon, you will find the perfect combination of ancient tradition and vibrant modernity in a city sprawling over seven hills, bathed by the Tagus River and extending into the Atlantic Ocean.

The Lisbon Conference Centre is located by the river, near the historic neighborhood of Belem and not far from the central part of the town.

We are delighted to welcome our friends, members of the EBMT and all EBMT participants to Lisbon, and we hope you enjoy the meeting.

Mohamad Mohty, EBMT President

Nicolaus Kröger, EBMT President Elect

Manuel Abecasis, Annual Meeting President

José Eduardo Guimarães, Co-Chair, Scientific Committee

Enric Carreras, Co-Chair, Scientific Committee

António Campos Jr., Chair, Local Organizing Committee

John Murray, President of the Nurses Group

Elsa Oliveira, Chair, Local Nurses Committee