Editorial

In this issue, Satyendra Shenoy, a member of a few years from Mumbai tells us about the tribulations – if not trials – of realising his lifelong ambition to settle in Germany. What eventually made this possible was discovering, as a benchside scientist, how rewarding scientific and medical writing is, which enabled him to set up as a freelancer in Cologne. Although it is relatively easy as an EU citizen to work as a freelance writer in Germany, it is not quite so straightforward for non-EU citizens, and there is no shortage of advice in Satyen's article.

Another new member, Uwe Kollenkirchen, also working as a freelancer after a long career in research, gives us his personal opinion on one of the blocks in the Expert Seminar Series (ESS) introduced at the Dublin Conference in 2015 for experienced colleagues looking for in-depth exploration of topics. Sam Hamilton responds to his comments. The ESS was generally very well received, although both Uwe and Sam – and other attendees – felt that there should be much more opportunity for discussion and questions.

As a new freelancer, Uwe is also acutely aware of the cost of attending conferences and has some interesting comments on the cost effectiveness of attending conferences in an article he prepared based on a questionnaire about conference attendance cost.

A year ago, Janet Davies reported on setting up business as a freelancer in the Azores. In this issue, she takes stock one year on, and things are still looking very positive!

We wish you all the best for 2016 and look forward to seeing you in Munich in May.

Alistair Reeves

a.reeves@ascribe.de

Kathryn White

Kathryn@cathean.co.uk