The originators and founders of the Winter Workshop in Schizophrenia and Bipolar Disorders step down from their Chairing roles.

Professors Steven Hirsch and Tim Crow have decided to step down from their key roles in chairing and organising the Biennial Winter Workshop in Schizophrenia and Bipolar Disorders after 26 years of organising this outstanding contribution to scientific research and collaboration.

Both Professors have dedicated their lives to psychoses research and have worked hard over the years to build bridges and links between research units around the world. The Winter Workshop Scientific Committee has recognised their roles in moving science forward through the initiation of The Hirsch & Crow lifetime achievement award to be awarded for the first time in 2009.

To ensure that the Winter Workshop continues building bridges and bringing together diverse groups from across the world, Professors Hirsch and Crow have decided to hand over the active Chairing role of the conference to Professors Bernd Gallhofer and Eduard Vieta, and organisation of the conference to Cortex Congress, a specialist Neuroscience conference organising company. This will become a not-for-profit conference with donations being made to charitable medical causes and travel grants.

Professors Bernd Gallhofer and Eduard Vieta commented as follows:

‘We are honoured to accept the position of Co-Chairs for the Winter Workshop in Psychoses 2009 conference. I will endeavour to ensure that the conference continues its tradition of encouraging the presentation and discussion of cutting edge scientific discovery and debates. To this end, I am requesting that all scientific and pharmaceutical researchers in the broad topic area of Psychoses submit their work to be presented (and published) through the Winter Workshop in Psychoses 2009 conference.’

Cortex Congress will be taking over the organisational aspects of the Winter Workshop:

‘Cortex are specialist Neuroscience conference organisers’ said the Managing Director of Cortex, Russ Pendleton: ‘We manage conferences and publications in Psychiatry and Neurology and bring our scientific knowledge to bear in helping the committee generate innovative programmes to further medical education.

Taking on the management of the Winter Workshop fits exactly with our area of expertise and we will be dedicated to ensuring the Winter Workshop in 2009 is a great success on all levels for everyone involved.’

He went on to say:

‘The Winter Workshop has taken place 14 times in the past. It has a great history and reputation, we want to retain the feel and atmosphere of the conference as it obviously meets many delegates' and supporters' needs already.

The conference landscape has changed substantially in recent years, however. We are therefore going to re-launch the conference with a new name - the Winter Workshop in Psychoses, and re-position the conference in the conference calendar - it will remain Biennial, and in the winter, but will now take place in November, starting in 2009.

The Winter Workshop in Psychoses will also move from its traditional base in Switzerland, to take place in the University town of Barcelona, where Professor Vieta is based.

These changes mean that the conference will not clash with its traditional partner conference in the USA, but also, more importantly, will not clash with the 'newcomer' International Schizophrenia conference as it will be taking place in the alternate year from that conference. At Cortex, we make every effort to ensure that our conferences co-exist with other events in the conference calendar, and that clashes are minimised.

The conference will retain all its current scientific features - extensive poster tracks discussing ground-breaking new topics, superb plenary lectures, plus a further exciting and dynamic programme discussing all the key relevant and current topics, from the world's best speakers. A further key element of the Winter Workshop is the opportunity to network in a relaxed and informal atmosphere with colleagues. These elements have made it such a success for so many years and we want to ensure that they are retained as much as possible.

We are delighted to be bringing the Winter Workshop into our conference portfolio.’