Meeting report: the Leprosy Research Initiative Spring Meeting

On 4th and 5th April, 2019 the fourth annual Leprosy Research Initiative (LRI) Spring Meeting was held in Veenendaal, the Netherlands with a total attendance of 75 participants from 21 countries among whom were representatives from the Turing Foundation (LRI’s co-funder), the Global Partnership for Zero Leprosy (GPZL), the European and Developing Countries Clinical Trial Partnership (EDCTP), Novartis Foundation and R2STOP. As in previous years, the meeting was devoted to presentations on the progress and results of LRI funded projects, and representatives of all funded projects were invited to participate. In addition, for the second time representatives of projects funded by R2STOP participated in the meeting. Moreover, it serves as a meeting point where researchers can meet each other and can make new connections.

In total there were 33 presentations: 22 long and 11 short presentations. Long presentations were from participants who presented data from their research, whereas short presentations were from recently started projects. In addition to the progress presentations, the representative from the EDCTP presented the upcoming EDCTP funding opportunities. The afternoon of the second day was devoted to the GPZL, starting with a plenary session with speakers addressing different aspects of the GPZL and LRI research agenda, followed by discussion groups.

Many positive features about this fourth LRI Spring Meeting were noted: first, since several projects were nearing completion or were already completed more and definite data could be presented; second, a very enthusiastic and engaged group of researchers participated in very valuable discussions following the presentations; third, the meeting provided ample opportunity to interact; fourth, seeing quite a number of young investigators from many different countries was a hopeful sign for the future of leprosy research.