Memorandum of Understanding

The partnership between the BioEM Society and the School of Bioelectromagnetism “Alessandro Chiabrera”

The School of Bioelectromagnetism “Alessandro Chiabrera” (referred to as “The School” in the document) is a long-lasting tradition in offering courses in Bioelectromagnetics since almost 20 years: it is the unique international school entirely focused on Bioelectromagnetics in a broad sense. For this reason, its peculiarities are the ones that best interpret the intrinsic multidisciplinary, multifaceted, polyvalent nature of this scientific field. Namely, the School is structured to cover all the topics of interest related to Bioelectromagnetics, balanced between health protection and medical applications, covering backgrounds spanning from physics and engineering to biology, medicine and epidemiology. The open-mind, inclusive approach underneath its operational organization made it over the years transnational and gender balanced, with many countries involved worldwide not only for the students attending but for the teachers as well.

BioEM (referred to as “The Society” in the document) established in 2021 as a merger of the Bioelectromagnetics Society (BEMS) and the European Bioelectromagnetics Association (EBEA) is an independent organization of biological and physical scientists, physicians and engineers interested in the interactions of electromagnetic fields with biological systems.

The Society recognizes the importance of the education of young scientists such as PhD students and Post-Docs who are the future of the Society, and thus the Society aims, among other purposes, to prepare students through the expertise of experienced researchers.

Since the beginning of its establishment, all the courses at the School of Bioelectromagnetism were scientifically co-organized with the EBEA in terms of topics selection and identification of course co-directors and teachers. Moreover, for all these years, the School acted in close collaboration with EBEA and BEMS. Suffice it to say, that all the past co-directors of the courses, as well as most of the teachers were EBEA/BEMS members and many were members of the EBEA council/ BEMS board of directors.

On these premises, the Society and the School aim to establish an effective educational partnership that allows to prepare a new generation of informed and well-trained young researchers on the fundamental principles and practices in Bioelectromagnetics.

This document aims to outline specific points of understanding at the basis of the educational partnership.

The basic starting point is that the School as such belongs to the “Ettore Majorana” Centre, and is intrinsically independent from any other Institution. The School Director(s), who is the reference to the Board of the Center, is responsible for the choice of the topics to be covered within each event (Course, Workshop) and can discuss and co-organize each event with other partners and Institutions. The nomination of the Director is ratified by the President of the Centre, Prof. Antonino Zichichi.

Terms of the MoU

The Directors of the School in agreement with the BioEM Board of Directors propose the following:

• Each Course or initiative will be proposed to the BioEM Board for a possible discussion of the specific topic and for a strong collaboration in its organization (economical support, search for other external sponsors, advertising and publicity, choice of the Course Directors etc.), it being understood that, where BioEM is not interested in the proposed initiative, the Director(s) will be free to decide whether to proceed anyway or not.
• In the case BioEM is interested in the proposed initiative, the Chair of the BioEM Education Committee will take care of the relationship between the School and the Society, promoting the collaboration with BioEM in the most appropriate ways.
• The School Director(s) will take in charge of putting in evidence (through posters, programs, web sites etc.) that the event has been organized in strict collaboration with BioEM.
• The School Director(s) will provide a technical digest (with ISBN code) of the Course/Workshop contents.

Website: Erice International School of Bioelectromagnetism