The origins and history of the Young Researchers BNCT meeting

Origins of the idea

The need for a YBNCT meeting came from a dissatisfaction with some of the final sessions of the large ISNCT conference in LaJolla California in 1998. Overall the conference was very successful, but these final sessions involved some very senior people who appeared to be able to decide matters on behalf of the whole community. There appeared to be no voice in these sessions for the younger researchers who had delivered the vast majority of the scientific content of the conference. The sense of frustration that this engendered was a strong motivator for change and stimulated conversations in LaJolla and later in Birmingham, that ultimately led to the first YBNCT meeting. Key people in these conversations were Wilko Verbakel, Caitlin Mansfield, Sarah Brooke, Mark Gainey and Stuart Green.

Purpose and Principles of the YBNCT meeting

The YBNCT concept aimed to put the responsibility with the community of younger researchers to organise their own meeting, to decide on the structure and scientific content and to make all associated arrangements. Those young researchers therefore had the opportunity to organise a conference and to overcome all the practical issues of securing funding, arranging a venue and coordinating accommodation for visitors. Some key principles were as follows:

• Cost should be as low as possible – to make it easy for young researchers to attend
• Discussion and questions should be encouraged – and no question was too “stupid” to be asked. In the first meeting this meant that some senior invited speakers were actively discouraged from attending the whole meeting so as to not stifle discussion
• All delegates should attend all sessions, physics, chemistry, biology and clinical, to encourage them to reach-out beyond their specialisms into the multi-disciplinary field that is BNCT

These are principles which remain important today – more than 20 years later.

Delivering the first meetings

The first meeting was in 1999 and was led by Wilko Verbakel. Based around the Petten facility in the Netherlands, Wilko arranged a meeting with no fee, where accommodation in holiday houses was arranged and funded with sponsorship and even the food and an Amsterdam boat-ride were provided at no cost to the meeting attendees. Similar very low cost meetings followed in Studsvik (Sweden) /Otami (Finland) – including the boat-ride in-between (2001), Pisa (2003) and Birmingham (2007). Organising these young member meetings was also a good learning trajectory for the organisers which has helped them in their future careers.

What we have learned

The YBNCT meetings have played, and continue to play, an important role in the International BNCT community. They provide the ISNCT with a source of dynamism that younger members naturally bring. Crucially they provide the opportunity for those young researchers to build relationships (and friendships) with their peers from around the World, even outside their own field of interest – establishing a community and collaborations that can grow and flourish throughout their careers.