Guy Goodwin, United Kingdom, organiser

The first ECNP School of Neuropsychopharmacology was an exciting occasion. I had constructed a nearly five-day course borrowing from previous experiences with the British Association for Psychopharmacology certificate modules, the comments of representatives of the ECNP Board of National Societies who met in 2008, and my own sense of the participants' needs from reading their very impressive curricula vitae.
 
We were fortunate that the speakers, the venue and the 45 young people who attended from across Europe clearly clicked. The feedback was overwhelmingly positive; the contribution of the speakers was of the highest standard.

The challenge now is to create a sustainable tradition for the ECNP School which helps to promote the mission of the educational initiative identified by Yves Lecrubier - the improvement of standards of practice in neuropsychopharmacology over the next 20 years.

The programme was built up of blocks of plenary educational and interactive lectures, workshops on patient cases and presentations of national training experiences in the 17 European countries represented. At the end of the five days, the participants completed a questionnaire to provide feedback and suggestions for the future.
 
On the organisation, the participants reported that the ECNP School of Neuropsychopharmacology was well organised and very collaborative relationships existed between them and the organisers. There was a great atmosphere and a high level of exchange of experiences. For the next time some participants suggested a social gathering be organised early in the programme to allow everyone to get to know each other.

On the accommodation, all participants found staying at a real Oxford College, be it not one of the oldest ones, a great experience. The rooms were clean and adequately equipped, and staff was very helpful. The location of the campus near to the lecture area and close by the city centre has also been positively graded.

On the format, the majority of the feedback was very positive on the balance between formal presentations and the workshops, and in particular the informal, interactive format and the openness of the lecturers. Suggestions for changes in the format were particularly focused on the workshops, whose structure had been left to the speakers who led them. It has been proposed to provide future participants with a format in which they could present a case study. Other topics in a workshop format could include problem-solving strategies, specific topics like pharmacogenetics, and study designs. In addition, a mix of the plenary lectures and workshop settings over the day may result in more sustained attention.

From the many suggestions for additional topics, such as child and adolescent neuropsychopharmacology, basic and clinical neuroscience, RCTs, addiction and agingrelated effects, it is clear that not all can be covered in the given five days. Several participants therefore even suggested considering a follow-up programme!