Poster abstract submissions for the ECRD 2024 are now open until 23rd February 2024.
We encourage patient groups, academics, health care professionals and all other interested parties having conducted research or studies on rare diseases or public health projects to submit a poster abstract for the ECRD 2024.
Please read the information below on the Guidelines, Accepted Posters, Selection Procedure, Disqualification Criteria and Posters Themes before submitting your abstract.
Guidelines
- Poster abstract submissions are accepted in English only;
- Poster abstract submissions are limited to 300 words;
- You may be the co-author of any number of poster abstracts but the representing author of only one;
- Representing authors of accepted posters are required to be registered to attend ECRD 2024 on site or online. Authors who do not secure a ticket will not have their posters displayed;
- Posters presented at other events are accepted.
Accepted posters
- All accepted posters will be made available on the official ECRD 2024 virtual platform. Participants will be able to ask questions via chat and schedule meetings on the platform with representing authors as well as share posters with their networks;
- The 3 top scoring posters will each receive an award (non-financial) to be presented on day 2 of the conference;
- Authors of a limited number of top scoring posters will be invited to present their poster live (online or on-site) during one of two dedicated sessions at the conference;
- Additionally, the authors of the 40 top scoring posters will be invited to submit their poster abstract after the conference to be published in a special ECRD 2024 edition of the Orphanet Journal of Rare Diseases (OJRD). Please click here to view published supplements since 2010.
Selection procedure and posters scoring
Poster abstracts will be reviewed and scored by a multi-stakeholder ECRD 2024 Poster Committee in March, and notifications will be sent to all poster authors by the end of the month (whether selected or declined).
Posters will be scored using the following criteria:
1) Relevance of the topic to rare diseases
- Relevance, currency (how new/recent/up-to-date the information/study is), significance, and appropriateness to the conference/themes*
- Practical application to the field
2) Quality of content
- Clarity of the title
- Concision, coherence, and clarity of content (summary of purpose and methodology, results, conclusions, next steps/practical application, etc.)
- Methodology of the given study/poster
- Originality (posters can be presented at other conferences prior to ECRD 2024)
*ECRD encourages posters from the scientific community: however, please be aware that posters should be adapted and relevant to the focus of the conference and the proposed themes. Posters concerning case reports will not be accepted.
Disqualification criteria
- Commercial product promotion
- Disregard for above guidelines
- Submission after the deadline
- Incorrect submission channel (must use the online form)
Poster themes
The recommended themes below correspond to the topics included in the Programme and have been selected by the Programme Committee who would like to have these addressed. By clicking on the titles, you will access more information that can serve as a valuable guide as you develop your poster abstract.
RESEARCH & INNOVATION
We invite all stakeholders active in the rare disease community to provide examples of:
- Ultra-rare/rarer disease treatment and therapy development challenges.
- ATMP development in ultra-rare/rarer diseases.
- Innovative funding strategies/models and funding challenges to support research, development and treatments on ultra-rare/rarer diseases.
- Evidence generation for treatments and therapies of ultra-rare/rarer diseases.
ACCESS TO HIGHLY SPECIALIZED CARE
We invite all stakeholders active in the rare disease community to provide examples of:
- Unmet needs/challenges faced by ultra-rare disease patients or people who need to undergo complex surgical interventions to access cross-border highly specialised services.
- Supra national or cross-regional commissioning arrangements for highly specialised services (for example, Scandinavian collaboration, between Denmark, Sweden, Iceland, Norway & Finland to plan and provide highly specialised services for a very small population or UK centralised commissioning for highly specialised healthcare services).
- Cross-border access to highly specialised surgical interventions (cases of expert centres that deliver complex surgery to patients from other countries OR the expert travels to perform these interventions).
- Examples of EU cross-border arrangements to provide access to innovative therapies .
- European accreditation system and standards – for example, JACIE – Europe’s only official accreditation body in the field of haematopoietic stem cell transplantation and cellular therapy.
MENTAL WELLBEING & HOLISTIC CARE
We invite all stakeholders active in the rare disease community to provide examples of:
- Publications, evidence and survey results of the impact of rare and undiagnosed conditions on the mental health of people living with a rare disease, for individual or grouping of rare conditions and early detection and preventative initiatives.
- Evidence of the population needs of people living with a rare disease that is common to the rare disease pathway, from the diagnostic odyssey through to receiving a diagnosis, ongoing surveillance and living with a rare disease etc.
- Evidence of the accumulation of intersectional needs faced by people living with a rare disease and their families on mental health and wellbeing.
- Awareness raising initiatives focusing on the unmet mental health needs in the rare disease community and tackling stigma and discrimination related to mental health and rare diseases.
- Best and promising practices on addressing the psychosocial needs of people living with a rare disease and other groups in vulnerable situations including national or international programmes.
- Best practice and innovative approaches to enhance medical and social care to be psychologically informed.
- Evidence-based studies that address the common needs of uncommon conditions, such as self-care and recovery, coping strategies to deal with uncertainty, medical trauma, carers fatigue, tiredness and burnout, etc.
RARE DISEASE NATIONAL PLANS
We invite all stakeholders active in the rare disease community to provide examples of:
In Europe:
- Best practices in national rare disease policies/policy making on governance.
- Best practices in national rare disease policies/policy making on monitoring/indicators.
- Best practices in national rare disease policies/policy making on patient engagement in national rare disease policy.
- Best practices in national rare disease policies/policy making on the integration of European policies.
Beyond Europe:
- Best practices in national rare disease policies/policy making.
- Examples of how to integrate and implement the UN General Assembly Resolution on Persons Living with Rare Diseases (PLWRD).
DIAGNOSIS & SCREENING
We invite all stakeholders active in the rare disease community to provide examples of:
- Reports on combined and novel approaches to diagnosis in a research and/or clinical setting.
- Examples of using digital technologies and/or symptom checkers to advance and speed up access to diagnosis.
- Improving the experiences of genetic counselling.
- Examples of advances in newborn screening programmes.
- Social implications of not having a diagnosis.
- Examples of undiagnosed disease programmes.
- Returning results and incidental findings to patients and families: examples of policies and studies.
ACCESS, AVAILABILITY AND AFFORDABILITY OF TREATMENTS
We invite all stakeholders active in the rare disease community to provide examples of:
- Innovative approaches to improve patient access in a broad spectrum of therapies/treatments.
- Methods to generate evidence to support pricing and reimbursement decisions.
- Examples of the impact and implications of early access schemes for rare disease patients.
- Pioneering funding strategies and solutions to alleviate the challenges surrounding access, affordability and availability of orphan medicinal products.
- Innovative methods of negotiations on pricing and reimbursement.
OPEN TOPIC
What would you like to say about your disease, your actions, your vision? We welcome poster abstracts that address the impact of intersectionality/ minority communities related to inequality.
Posters format
Authors of selected abstracts will be able to create an interactive and shareable e-poster that will be displayed at the Conference within a dedicated virtual platform. All the following multimedia formats will be accepted:

Previous posters
If you’d like to take a look at past posters, please click here.
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