About BIRAs
Articles of
Association
The Association's meetings programme and general organization is run by a Committee of no more than fifteen
research scientists, drawn from both the pharmaceutical industry and from
academia. The elected Committee has the authority to co-opt members to
maintain a fair and balanced representation of the interests of the Association's
members, within the spirit of these Guidelines. The committee should consist
of approximately equal numbers of scientists from academia and industry.
The details of the process of the election of committee members also forms
part of these articles. The organization of the British Inflammation Research
Association is subject to the views and votes of the business meeting at
the AGM. Any member of the British Inflammation Research Association is
entitled to raise issues at the AGM, or, preferably, prior to it so that
the agenda topics can be circulated beforehand to all BIRAs members (please
send items to the Chairman). An AGM will be held annually. All members
will be informed, and invited to the AGM, at least 8 weeks in advance,
either by through email or other form of mailing. The British Inflammation
Research Association will communicate with its members through:
- This web site. Regular mailings, carried out by email, or fax or post where
a member does not have access to email.
BIRAs wishes to be seen to be independent of any overriding commercial
concern and thus does not accept sole sponsorship of any of its activities.
Sponsorship will be accepted provided the meetings are free from any
constraints on their content, and this freedom will be emphasised to all
members of the Association. No advertisement or presentation of pharmaceutical
company interests (e.g. drugs pertinent to the subject of the meeting)
is allowed. Other forms of acceptable sponsorship are:
- sponsorship (travel, accommodation, etc.) of an individual speaker at one
of its meetings
- commercially-orientated displays or stands, such as those by suppliers
of reagents or publishers of scientific or medical textbooks, are permissible
where they offer a genuinely useful and unbiased service to the researchers
likely to attend the meeting.
- mailshots to its members
- contribution(s) to the cost of its activities, e.g. this web site. If so
desired by the sponsoring company, such contributions will be recognised
at the end of any relevant literature or, in the case of this web site,
under the list of sponsors given.
Inflammation Research is the official journal of BIRAs. The Association
does not currently have charitable status.
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