Retrospective: Semmering 2003

The first Semmering Conference took place April 10-13, 2003. It was the first international vaccine conference of its type and the topic was "The Future of Vaccines - Cancer Meets Infectious Diseases". The organizers pursued the target of initiating the exchange of ideas and concepts between two most important scientific fields in terms of biotechnology and medicine: cancer and infectious diseases.

The significance of the workshop becomes even clearer by the fact that there are relatively few occasions where scientists of the fields of cancer and infectious diseases meet to discuss shared challenges in the area of immunology and vaccine development.

With the workshop "The Future of Vaccines – Cancer Meets Infectious Diseases" the organizers pursued the following aims:

• Support of synergies between the scientific fields cancer and infectious diseases
• Support of the cooperation between Academia and Industry
• Support of young scientists by granting 4 scholarships
• Present Austria as a country with a strong international R&D-position in the field of technology
• Increase the international reputation of Austrian vaccine developers and manufacturers

The conference was well attended by about two hundred scientists and vaccine developers and turned out to be a great success.