Dear Colleagues,
I am pleased to send you my second ‘message’ of the President, before the summer break.
This period sees many changes and novelties in the EWRS’s life, with promising expectations.
First, as you should know, the Symposium of the Society will be held next year in Lleida, Spain. We are now entering the ‘clou’ of its organization, with the local committee, led by our colleague Jordi Recasens, doing an excellent job to ensure a great event. The location they found is perfectly suitable for the event, guaranteeing wide spaces and a friendly meeting atmosphere. The website (https://ewrs2025.org/) gives all the necessary information to plan the attendance, and very soon will allow the submission of the abstracts and, in the future, the registration to the event. Numerous sponsors are supporting the event and are a further guarantee of its success. The city offers a wide choice of suitable accommodations. The scientific committee (led by Husrev Mennan – the EWRS Scientific Secretary) has defined sessions and session organizers, who are ready to revise the expected numerous abstracts. Important initiatives to support students and young researchers are foreseen. The communication team, with the local committees, is doing an excellent job by timely informing members and subscribers about the most recent news regarding the symposium. Stay tuned! Thus, with all these important clues, it is easy to predict a successful event in July 2025. Join the crowd!
Other important novelties regard the organization of the Society. We have completed the planned changes of the Board. Indeed, after the election of the Vice-President (Ilias Travlos), the Secretary (Lena Ulber), and the two Additional Members (Silvia Fogliatto and Milena Simić), we were able to elect also a new Treasurer (Roland Beffa). I am very thankful to all those colleagues, who decided to voluntarily offer some of their precious time to serve the Society. In this regard, please let me express my deepest gratitude to Ben Post, who was the EWRS Treasurer (and not only, as he managed many other economic affairs – reimbursements, subsidies, etc.) for many, many years. It is also thanks to his careful management that the budget of the Society is still in very good condition.
We also have almost completed the revision of the Working Groups, revitalizing some of them, or appointing new coordinators. Please check the official website to find all the relevant information and join one or more WGs.
Another important initiative to support young researchers is the so-called ‘travel grants for bilateral cooperation 2024’. The idea is to support, with the EWRS funds, some visits of young researchers to European Research Institutes, to start or complete research activities, or to acquire specific skills. The aim is to facilitate collaborations and joint activities among members of the Society and hosting institutes. Please check the website to follow this initiative.
As in the previous message, a separate section deserves our Journal, Weed Research. Just a few days ago we got a very good message from Wiley, informing us that the Impact Factor again increased, reaching 2.2. More importantly, the Journal is now again classified as Q2 for Agronomy and Plant Science journals, and it is better positioned compared to other similar journals. This is very satisfactory because our Society needs the Journal to support our initiatives (it is the main income for the Society) but also our members need a very good Journal where to publish. And we have it!
In the meantime, we started some initiatives to support the Journal and the Editor in Chief (Alison Haughton), who is doing an excellent job. First, as Paul Neve (thanks, Paul, for the past actions) stepped down from his position as Chairperson of the Editorial Board, our Board agreed that I replace Paul for the contacts with Wiley and Alison. Furthermore, we agreed to create a group (a temporary task force) to interact with the EiC, Wiley and the Editorial Board. This task force aims to identify the weaknesses of the Journal, to discuss strategies to overcome those problems, and in the end to improve the quality of the Journal and increase its attractiveness to publish in it. The strategies will include better and faster reviewing and publication processes, preparation of special issues, invitations of top scientists to prepare reviews on cutting-edge subjects, widening of the Journal interests, presentations through the web of the published articles, etc. Suggestions will be very welcome. We will timely inform you about the progress, but your help is necessary: please publish in Weed Research.
Thus, with this heartfelt request and these extremely encouraging and optimistic views of the EWRS future, I send you my best wishes (extended to your loved ones) for a pleasant summer break, to recharge your batteries for a new fruitful season.
Many thanks for your consideration.
Kind regards
Maurizio
26th June 2024