Final remarks from the Congress President and Congress Secretary

Dear Colleagues and Friends,

It is with the greatest of pleasure that we look back on the XLI ERA-EDTA Annual Congress in Lisbon, and thank those who helped to make it an outstanding success. This includes all the delegates who attended – the final number of 5200 has set a record in attendance at ERA-EDTA annual congresses. We hope all of you who attended enjoyed this extremely high-level meeting as much as the beautiful and exciting city of Lisbon, and for those who were unable to be present, we urge you to read the abstracts either in the book or on the website.

Our first words of praise must go to the Scientific Committee who worked hard to create an excellent blend of the latest developments in clinical nephrology, basic science and cutting-edge lectures and symposia. We would also like to thank the various companies who were responsible for the up-to-the-minute Industry Sponsored Symposia. Here, we must also mention the very real contribution of all those participants who submitted abstracts of the highest scientific quality. As a matter of fact, this congress set a new record in abstracts submitted: 2000, of which 65% were accepted, either as oral or poster presentations. We sincerely thank Professor Jürgen Floege, Chairman of the Paper Selection Committee, for his unparalleled efforts, and Markus Ketteler and Gunter Wolf.

Our sincere thanks go to the President of the ERA-EDTA, Professor Francesco Locatelli, for his unflagging support for and faith in this Lisbon congress, and to the ERA-EDTA council as a whole.

The congress president particularly wishes to thank the following scientific societies and groups for their outstanding contribution to the Lisbon Congress: European Kidney Research Association, International IgA Nephropathy Network, European Uraemic Toxin Work Group, Latin-American Society of Nephrology and Hypertension, International Society of Nephrology, Renal Pathology Society, American Society of Nephrology and the Portuguese Society of Nephrology.

We hope this has whetted your appetite for the 2005 annual congress in the historical city of Istanbul, the cradle of so many ancient civilizations. We sincerely wish Professor Serdengecti and all the organizers of this meeting the very best of success.

Dr Fernando Carrera	Dr Maria João Pais
XLI Congress President	XLI Congress Secretary