About ENCALS

ENCALS is a network of ALS centres in Europe. ALS Centre membership is open to Universities/Hospitals in Europe with ALS clinical/research activity. The ENCALS bylaws and policy can be found below:

ENCALS Bylaws

ENCALS Policy
Financial Statement ENCALS 2019
Financial Statement ENCALS 2020
Financial Statement ENCALS 2021

Aims of ENCALS

  1. To develop an European ALS research network + database/biobank that
    1. is recognized, visible, active and efficient;
    2. agrees on collection/storage of clinical data and biospecimens on a European level;
    3. will attract pharmaceutical companies to conduct trials in ALS in Europe;
    4. facilitates associated patient-oriented research projects (phenotyping, epidemiology, biomarkers, etc).
  2. To initiate collaboration between funding agencies in Europe to sponsor collectively investigator-initiated European research projects in ALS
  3. To reach consensus on a classification of ALS suitable for European research projects
  4. To study novel designs for the assessment of the efficacy of new pharmaceutical compounds in ALS

ENCALS Executive board

  1. Chair: Leonard van den Berg (The Netherlands)
  2. Co-chair: Orla Hardiman (Ireland)
  3. Treasurer: Adriano Chio (Italy)
  4. Philip van Damme (Belgium)
  5. Markus Weber (Switzerland)
  6. Monica Povedano (Spain)
  7. Peter Andersen (Sweden)
  8. Francois Salachas (France)
  9. Magdalena Kuzma (Poland)
  10. Sharon Abrahams (Scotland)
  11. Julian Grosskreutz (Germany)
  12. Ammar Al-Chalabi, chair award committee (England)
  13. Suzanne Petri (Germany)
  14. Vincenzo Silani (Italy)
  15. Philippe Corcia (France)
  16. Blaž Kortnik (Slovenia)
  17. Martin Turner (England)
  18. Christopher McDermot (England)

Award committee

The ENCALS Young Investigators Award was designed to recognise the brightest and best young scientists in ALS, and is given for outstanding research. Criteria include any or all of novelty, challenge to existing ideas about ALS, results with patient benefit, and impact on our understanding of ALS. The competition is open to researchers aged 35 or less on 1 September of the award year. If there has been a career gap, these years can be left out. Further criteria are (primarily) working at a university/ALS Centre in Europe, Turkey or Israel.

The award committee consists of:

  1. Ammar Al-Chalabi, Chair (England) – as from 2012
  2. Ludo van den Bosch (Belgium) – as from 2017
  3. Luc Dupuis (France) – as from 2017
  4. Magdalena Kuzma (Poland) – as from 2018
  5. Caroline Ingre (Sweden) – as from 2021
  6. Dorothée Lulé (Germany) – as from 2021

Programme Committee

ENCALS organizes a yearly scientific meeting. The programme committee for the virtual ENCALS meeting 2023 consists of:

  • Orla Hardiman (Ireland), Chair
  • Leonard van den Berg (The Netherlands)
  • Ammar Al-Chalabi (UK)
  • Monica Povedano (Spain)
  • Sharon Abrahams (UK)
  • Jochen Weisenhaupt (Germany)
  • Caroline Ingre (Sweden)
  • Ludo van den Bosch (Belgium)
  • Adriano Chio (Italy)

Previous meetings were facilitated by:

  1. Reisenburg (Germany) 2003
  2. Nice (France) 2004
  3. Umea (Sweden) 2005
  4. St. Gallen (Switzerland) 2006
  5. Utrecht (the Netherlands) 2007
  6. Lisbon (Portugal) 2008
  7. Turin (Italy) 2009
  8. London (UK) 2010
  9. Hannover (Germany) 2011
  10. Dublin (Ireland) 2012
  11. Sheffield (UK) 2013
  12. Leuven (Belgium) 2014
  13. Dublin (Ireland) 2015
  14. Milan (Italy) 2016
  15. Ljubljana (Slovenia) 2017
  16. Oxford (UK) 2018
  17. Tours (France) 2019
  18. Virtual meeting (2021)
  19. Edinburgh (Scotland) 2022

First meeting in Reisenburg 2003

ENCALS meeting 2016 Milan