EAHL received three applications to host the 7th EAHL conference within the deadline of 1 December 2017. The applicants were based in Toulouse, Manchester and Thessaloniki. Due to affiliation with two of the applicants the board members Athanasios Panagiotou and Annagrazia Altavilla did not take part in the selection and decision-making process.
The board decided to evaluate the applications based on five criteria
a) relevance of conference topic for the promotion of health law research, teaching and practice throughout Europe
b) potential of conference topic to attract health lawyers from all over Europe
c) availability of (strong) cooperating partners at conference venue (e.g. to form a local organising team)
d) attractiveness/reachability/suitability of conference venue
e) experience from hosting similar events (both scientific and administrative)
Each board members scored the three applications based on a scale from 1 to 7 (where the latter is the highest), without knowledge of the scoring results of other board members. The total score should then be used for a discussion-platform for the final discussion.
Based on the scores the board had a discussion on the strength and weaknesses of the three applications. Based on this reflection process, the board has decided to offer Toulouse to host the 7th EAHL conference in 2019.The decision of the board is unanimous.
The board would like to thank all candidates for submitting such high-quality applications and would like to emphasize that all candidates are indeed capable of hosting an international health law conference. Thus, the board encourages applicants that did not succeed this time, to re-submit applications for upcoming EAHL-conferences or -events.