International ME Colloquiums and Conferences
Invest in ME Research Colloquium/Conference Site
Invest in ME Research (IIMER) is a UK charity facilitating and funding a strategy of biomedical research into Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME or ME/CFS) and promoting better education about ME.
Since 2006 the charity has been arranging an annual international CPD-accedited biomedical research conference on ME.
Since 2011 the charity has been organising an annual international CPD-accedited biomedical research Colloquium on ME aimed at increasing international collaboration on research into ME.
The IiMER annual conferences and research colloquiums arranged by the charity now attract presenters, researchers, physicians, patient groups and journalists from around the world.
On this page one will find a description of the latest conference and colloquium and links to previous conferences/colloquiums including details of the presenters and the videos from the conferences.
Chairman's Welcome MessageOur next Colloquium and Conference
The 2024 international conference week occurs from 25 - 28 June this year.
Recent/Upcoming Events
Organised by Invest in ME Research
Our Past Conference Events
This web site has details of all of the previous Invest in ME Research International ME Conferences that the charity has arranged and hosted since 2006. The presenters at the conferences represent the world's most current knowledgebase regarding ME/CFS. The conferences provide the latest research and clinical information about ME and allows for the creation or resumption of unique networking opportunities with some of the most knowledgeable and experienced authorities on ME in the world.
Read moreVideos from past conferences
We have videos from all presentations in all conferences available. These are not just educational but contain a historical record of research progress over the years. The education of healthcare staff must reflect the latest knowledge about the pathogenesis of ME which high quality biomedical research is providing. The presenters at the CPD-accredited Invest in ME Research International ME Conferences have represented the world's most current knowledgebase regarding this disease - providing the latest research and clinical information about ME and a unique location for networking with some of the most knowledgeable and experienced authorities on ME in the world. These videos provide useful information for researchers, clinicians and patients as well as providing a historical record of research into ME.
Read moreOur Past Colloquiums
The Invest in ME Research Biomedical Research into ME (BRMEC) Colloquiums are closed research meetings organised by the charity to encourage biomedical research into ME and international collaboration amongst researchers. This has been one of the main objectives of the charity. Invest in ME Research began arranging public biomedical research conferences in 2006 and have continued them ever since - mostly funded by the charity but with help from some wonderful supporters and some good friends. The Invest in ME Research International Biomedical Research into ME Colloquiums began in 2011 as a way of bringing together researchers from around the world in a round-table discussion of ME research and ideas. Over the years this has broadened into sharing of experiences, data and plans for future research and international collaboration. A culmination of much of this effort was the initiation of The European ME Research Group (EMERG) concept which formed in October 2015 in London in an attempt to set up a strategy of European collaboration in ME research.
Read moreYoung Researchers
The Thinking the Future conferences were research meetings organised by the charity to encourage biomedical research
into ME and international collaboration amongst young and early career researchers.
Read more
This has been a major objective of the charity.
An
international family of researchers working together has been facilitated by the Invest in ME
Research BRMEC* Biomedical Research into ME Colloquiums held annually in London, UK. To ensure that a foundation
of biomedical research into ME can be sustained and to encourage new ideas from new areas then we cannot rely just on
this family of researchers that has been built up from all parts of the world.
We need to
draw in knowledge and expertise from other areas – as we have been doing for many years with our research Colloquiums and international Conferences. Importantly, we also need to encourage early career researchers
– and young researchers.
Following the pandemic, in 2023 the charity restarted the young/ecr European network - Young EMERG.
Young EMERG is now an entity that can help attract more young researchers into research into ME and assist in building capacity in the field. YE will also foster European and international collaboration and create new idea and awareness - all objectives of IiMER.
Our Conference Journals
Our Conference Journals
For each conference we produce an edition of the Journal of IiMER.
Containing news, articles and conference presentation abstracts.
Comments about Invest in ME Research Conferences
Just wanted to congratulate you on an excellent conference last week. It was great to see so many of the leading researchers into ME all in one room, and all pulling in the same direction.
- Delegate
I really believe all this is due to the amazing job you have been doing through the years building up this network of research excellence connected to ME patients. It is said that if a boat is not pushed it will never advance… You are definitively the best motor the ME boat could have found. Also, without patient participation, researchers can do nothing. ( From BRMEC6 researcher delegate)
Thank you for again making this conference available for ordinary patients at such a reasonable price. The conference was extraordinary and brought hope to me and my family. Thank you for all you are doing.
- Delegate
Fantastic conference, many thanks for your hard work. I thought it was fantastic, massively informative, encouraging, inspiring, necessary. It was very powerful hearing so much material from the doctors, researchers and speakers themselves, very, very impressive.
- Delegate
I enjoyed it all - especially being given ideas that may be able to use in practice and to be given ideas for where to look for future research to keep updated in CFS/ME practice. I have been able to gain a better understanding of CFS/ME and diagnostic criteria and changes to it. It is also very useful to be aware of research that is going on and how practices differ in UK to USA.
- From Conference feedback form (from NHS professional)
Thank you for a wonderfully organized conference! The yearly IiME conferences have become the most important events in Europe, with the best speakers and with focus on subjects that really matters in the battle that we are all fighting.
- Delegate
The diverse background of speakers pulling together novel research reflecting similar pathological phenotypes in chronic fatigue with numerous underlying genotypes and infections
- Delegate
It was a professional and superbly run Conference.
- Delegate
This really was the best conference yet ---- WELL DONE indeed to you. Every aspect of the conference works so well and the conference is beginning to get a family feel about it giving some of us the one and only chance each year to meet up.
- Delegate
Opened new lines for looking at literature references, in order to enhance research on CFS/ME.
- Delegate
Congratulations on holding such an excellent conference on ME/CFS.
- Doctor
This was the first time I actually attended such a conference. I was very impressed.
It is encouraging to see how much research is taking place and how many great medical professionals are making towards diagnosis and more recognition. Having relatives with ME feels much like a solitary experience and it is good to come to an event where there are people who are experiencing the same thing.
- Delegate
Very good organisation of the event, wide variety of speakers and materials.
You are doing incredible work. The whole event was absolutely brilliant.
- Delegate
You are certainly running things efficiently and well and are to be congratulated on arranging and managing this excellent conference!
- Delegate
the conference was extremely well attended - in terms of feedback it was re-assuring to hear that the academics are making clearer connections and encouraging the clinicians to think about the implications of these variables when treating patients.
As voiced by many on the day, it seems a shame that the desperately needed tests and measures to confirm possible onset are not readily available and possibly the reason why there still remains a very" them and us" culture in the UK. The breaks and the opportunity to discuss patients individual experiences was also invaluable- I even came away with details of tried and tested interventions, which I will definitely pass on to my patients.
Just wanted to congratulate you on an excellent conference last week. It was great to see so many of the leading researchers into ME all in one room, and all pulling in the same direction.
- Delegate
We would like to convey our sincerest gratitude to Invest in ME for organising such a fantastic conference. Without people like you, we and many, many others would be lost. Thank you for caring and for wanting to make a difference in the lives of suffering people. You all deserve a medal!.
Fantastic! The best ME conference I have been to and thanks to Invest in ME for making the price so realistic for pwme. I learned so much from this day. Keep up the good work.
To all at IiME Thank you so much for another fantastic conference. It was a joy and a relief to be able to listen to people who are starting to understand the biomedical complexities of this condition. Some extremely interesting speakers this year. We have to keep pushing and pushing. It goes without saying that your hard work is greatly appreciated.
Dr. Gibson spoke openly with regards to the inquiry into M.E. I hope that his report will reflect the true biomedical nature of M.E. Finally, may I say “Thank you” to the team members who were in charge of ordering, packaging and posting the DVD parcels. This must have been a mammoth task in itself!.
Having watched the DVD I am so glad that there are still medical, charity and research professionals who are genuinely committed to helping ill patients. It is so refreshing to learn that doctors such as Bruce Carruthers and Byron Hyde still exist in our modern “evidence based” medical world. These doctors believe in listening to their patients and investigating their symptoms. They do not write patients off.
Thank goodness for researchers such as Professor Hooper, Professor Puri and Dr. Kerr who have had the strength of character to persevere and continue to research M.E, an illness which has been denigrated by so many other researchers.
Dear IiME, Thank you all for the hard work that went into making the ME Conference 2006 such a success. It was a huge undertaking and I am just so pleased that it was a success. I have just finished watching the conference on DVD for the second time and it was just like being part of the audience. The DVD recording equally professional.
The ME experts were excellent and able to speak to their audience in an informative and enjoyable manner. What struck me most about all the speakers was their genuine commitment to their patients, research or charity work. Although all working in slightly different areas, they all share one common bond…..working towards finding the cause and cure for M.E.
I watched the ME Conference DVD at the weekend. I have to confess that I cried all through the first DVD. Living with ME, you get so used to putting up with ignorance and misunderstanding, and so to hear a group of people gathered together in one room talking about ME sensibly, was just totally overwhelming. I can't thank you and everybody else enough for organising this event and for all the other work that you do.
Thank you for again making this conference available for ordinary patients at such a reasonable price. The conference was extraordinary and brought hope to me and my family. Thank you for all you are doing.
- Delegate
Fantastic conference, many thanks for your hard work. I thought it was fantastic, massively informative, encouraging, inspiring, necessary. It was very powerful hearing so much material from the doctors, researchers and speakers themselves, very, very impressive.
- Delegate
I enjoyed it all - especially being given ideas that may be able to use in practice and to be given ideas for where to look for future research to keep updated in CFS/ME practice. I have been able to gain a better understanding of CFS/ME and diagnostic criteria and changes to it. It is also very useful to be aware of research that is going on and how practices differ in UK to USA.
- From Conference feedback form (from NHS professional)
Thank you for a wonderfully organized conference! The yearly IiME conferences have become the most important events in Europe, with the best speakers and with focus on subjects that really matters in the battle that we are all fighting.
- Delegate
Thank you for again making this conference available for ordinary patients at such a reasonable price. The conference was extraordinary and brought hope to me and my family. Thank you for all you are doing.
- Delegate
Fantastic conference, many thanks for your hard work. I thought it was fantastic, massively informative, encouraging, inspiring, necessary. It was very powerful hearing so much material from the doctors, researchers and speakers themselves, very, very impressive.
- Delegate
Thank you for a wonderfully organized conference! The yearly IiME conferences have become the most important events in Europe, with the best speakers and with focus on subjects that really matters in the battle that we are all fighting.
- Delegate
The diverse background of speakers pulling together novel research reflecting similar pathological phenotypes in chronic fatigue with numerous underlying genotypes and infections
- Delegate
It was a professional and superbly run Conference.
- Delegate
This really was the best conference yet ---- WELL DONE indeed to you. Every aspect of the conference works so well and the conference is beginning to get a family feel about it giving some of us the one and only chance each year to meet up.
- Delegate
Opened new lines for looking at literature references, in order to enhance research on CFS/ME.
- Delegate
Congratulations on holding such an excellent conference on ME/CFS.
- Doctor
This was the first time I actually attended such a conference. I was very impressed.
It is encouraging to see how much research is taking place and how many great medical professionals are making towards diagnosis and more recognition. Having relatives with ME feels much like a solitary experience and it is good to come to an event where there are people who are experiencing the same thing.
- Delegate
Very good organisation of the event, wide variety of speakers and materials.
You are doing incredible work. The whole event was absolutely brilliant.
- Delegate
You are certainly running things efficiently and well and are to be congratulated on arranging and managing this excellent conference!
- Delegate
An amazing achievement to produce all of these presentations of the conference. I found it so informative and you have performed an incredible task in doing all of this.
I thoroughly enjoyed the conference and learnt a great deal, as well as brushing up my rather rusty immunology! I thought that the standard of the presentations was extremely high across the board, and covered a band of relevant and applicable topics; I shall certainly be attending next year’s conference if at all possible.
The content is rivetting..especially being a physio/ mum of ME child, regarding the evidence behind exercise.
Thank you so much for the wonderful Conference last Friday. I came away feeling more positive about the future for people with ME (my two children aged 17 and 13 have been diagnosed with it) than I have since they became ill.
I attended the conference last Friday and had a great time – I enjoyed the event a great deal and felt that it was a huge success – you should be very pleased.' 'Many thanks for your help and many congratulations again on an excellent event.
The conference was so fantastic. I now feel fully armed to battle in ignorance about this disease in Denmark. How can any doctor look at the facts and doubt it is a physical disease. And yet...there was a least one doctor there who still was a Wessley-schooler. On the second day, I sat next to this man and when I told him I had ME/CFS he told me to try deep breathing techniques and asked me if I was a person who had a lot of self-doubt...... so...you can lead a fool to facts, but you can't make them think! Thanks again for all the effort that went into this conference.
I found the conference to be quite a revelation. I had no idea how bad the political situation is with ME. It has galvanised me into action, with writing to my MP and a comprehensive and vigorous defence of Dr Myhill. And I'm going to the Edinburgh Conference too. Thank you so much for the enormous undertaking you have embarked on. I shall be doing all I can to support you all.
I was delighted to see in attendance also my consultant and two of his staff which I think was vital for him to gain a better understanding about severe ME. I was especially pleased of the video that was shown really showing severe ME as this I think gave a very moving account of what it was to be in that position and would of had a huge impact on those watching it. Once again thanks for an exciting conference with excellent speakers. I shall look forward to the DVD.
Thank you SO MUCH for all your great work. And we are so glad you are doing the conference DVD's again this year, last years were a great resource of info and encouraging. I've just downloaded your first journal and will read it, slowly!!, with great interest. Will also tell others of the journal and the conference DVD's in the hope that they will buy them too.
I thought it was a great conference. I met many new people, but I also missed seeing many of those involved in the new CFS/ME services.
Many thanks for the wonderful conference. It was a great atmosphere and very uplifting to know of the wonderful work and people involved in helping us ME Sufferers. Back you all the way, and hope you will all recover soon from the tremendous effort you put in on our behalf and those of the researchers. It was a conference of excellence and it honoured us as well as raising us up!
Congratulations on your second successful ME/CFS Conference. I am so pleased that there will be a DVD of the conference. I am looking forward to watching it and finding out about the latest scientific research and facts on ME. I have just downloaded the first IiME Journal. It is very informative and professionally presented. I would like to say, "Thank you IiME," for all your hard work.
Dear Invest in ME Just wanted to congratulate you on an excellent conference last week. It was great to see so many of the leading researchers into ME all in one room, and all pulling in the same direction. So thank you for all your efforts in making the conference happen, it's very much appreciated.
Thank you so much to make that big event come true. I have a slight idea how much you worked to get the conference to such a success, to organise everything so perfectly and to bring together so many scientists and practitioners to tell us about their work and their progress in research and treatment.
I'm sure this event will bring us together more closely, and only as an international community we will be strong enough to change things for the better. So I'm sure that not only those who were so lucky to attend the conference are very grateful to you but all the hundreds of patients who were not able to come but will profit from its results.
Those were two great days full of extraordinary lectures, positive information and so many important contacts! I profited so much, I learned so much, I've met so many people I haven't met before - including you -, all this was so impressive. It will take me some weeks to process all the information I got which I will pass it on to the German spoken CFS/ME community. Thank you from Germany
Congratulations to everyone involved for a very successful Conference last week. Both days were interesting, fascinating, useful, well run and uplifting.....Thank you very very very much to everyone for all the work you are doing for people with M.E.
Just saw on your website that you did get a DVD done in the end - my massive thanks to everyone, there's a whole load of people out there who appreciate the work you're doing!
"Thank you to the organisers and speakers for a very interesting and stimulating meeting."
"Just wanted to say thanks for organising a conference with such impressive speakers & at such reasonable cost. As a humble parent, most conferences are completely out of my price range, so was really delighted to be able to attend. I picked up lots of info & have realised that I need to do loads more h/w to really be on top of all the stuff that’s been discovered since my daughter first became ill – 10 yrs ago."
"Congratulations on the Conference, it was very well organised with some excellent speakers. I was very pleased to see a number of our local CFS team present at the conference
"I am interested in the DVD & thank you all again for a great conference"
I enjoyed participating enormously and think the whole conference was a great success. Well done!
"You are certainly running things efficiently and well and are to be congratulated on arranging and managing this second excellent conference! I am only just recovering from the efforts of attending the 2 day event and was about to send you a note of thanks for all your efforts and succeeding in facilitating a truly remarkable conference. It was great to see so many familiar faces, both amongst the audience and the presenters, and as you rightly say, the information conveyed was amazing and exciting. H aving said that - so much was known sooooo many years ago already! -
Perhaps two of the most important new developments were those reported by Ellen Piro on what has happened in Norway, and the new Clinic in Nevada reported on by Annette Whittemore and Daniel Peterson - they are very lucky in both instances! Thank you all again for all your hard work and all the trouble you have gone to in organizing, arranging and managing this remarkable event. Such conferences should have been arranged by the major UK ME/CFS charities long ago - Byron Hyde arranged the 1990 Cambridge event.
"I have come back home determined to help your cause. I am working on a plan to get the Local Press interested in doing a big piece on M.E. in our paper which is read by a very high percentage of people living in Guernsey - hopefully during May. My idea at the moment is to say that I have attended the Conference in London and have come back inspired and elaborate on what you have achieved.
You are a Great Team and deserve to be encouraged in every way possible. You are doing such a fantastic job. Oh boy, do these poor patients need encouragement!!!!! I happen to be one of the lucky ones and that is why I am happy to join in to help fight for those far less fortunate and with little support."
Fantastic conference, many thanks for your hard work. I thought it was fantastic, massively informative, encouraging, inspiring, necessary. It was very powerful hearing so much material from the doctors, researchers and speakers themselves, very, very impressive. I do agree that the speakers all came across as deeply humane. As a patient there was an enormous amount of useful applicable material and info on research hot from the lab so to speak.
Thanks for enquiring if I was OK, was only disorientated due to multiprocessing mayhem, which is worst symptom. A very good venue too, I noticed others remarked on what a pleasant environment, the term 'the organisers did us proud' came to mind. I've been thinking about it all day, as these are serious times requiring strategies. Thanks again, it was brilliant, you must be knackered. A brilliant effort, weight in gold.
"Just to say well done for once again organising such a great conference with brilliant, knowledgeable and dedicated speakers! We are moving forward!!"
To all the wonderful people who helped organising the ME Conference in May 2007!! Just a short note to say Thank you very much for all the hours that you must have spend to give us the opportunity to attend the Conference.
The conference was excellent!
The conference was great and it was really a good feeling to be among others who are working for the same aim. It was also great to see and to hear all these medical researchers who are able to explain at least a good part of this illness and to have the occasion to speak to them.
Well done for yet another excellent conference, keep up the good work.
I attended the second day - an excellent conference - many thanks.
It was a great pleasure to met up with you all again in London this week and congratulations must once more be extended on your terrific organisational talents in getting the job done. As well as the huge flow of information gained from the lectures (OK - some of it went over our heads), WE found it very beneficial to be able to meet with the important players in the ME world, those we were already acquainted with and some we weren't.
Hello To all the hard workers who made this conference come to fruition, you did a splendid job, and you so were so very kind to me, and that means so much to a ME sufferer, when back in my own environment you are looked on as a malinger, and probably have psychological problems. Well, I shall battle on undaunted spreading words and literature the best I can. A big thank you to all of you.
You organised the most impressive conference. I learnt so much and am very grateful to you.
Thanks once again for such a wonderful Conference in London, the best I´ve ever seen.
Thank you for a great day in London, the 29 of May. It was an interesting conference.
Thank you for a really excellent conference. I particularly found Dr Nicolson's presentation helpful to bring all the strands together.
I would just like to thank you for putting on a wonderful conference full of excellent speakers and a wealth of information regarding severe ME. I consider myself to be one of those severe sufferers that you were highlighting this year and I also have a fiancee at home who also has severe ME for the last 20 years, so I am grateful to Invest in ME for bringing it to the attention of a wider audience.
Thank you for a wonderfully organized conference! The yearly IiME conferences have become the most important events in Europe, with the best speakers and with focus on subjects that really matters in the battle that we are all fighting.
the conference was top !!!.
Thank you for your excellent organization of the conference and for looking after me while juggling a thousand other details.
an excellent meeting
It was a wonderful series of meetings
The conference was fabulous.
Am still reeling from such a wonderful conference and colloquium
.. terrific meeting. It gets better year by year
Thanks again to you for organizing this important meeting. I think that there are going to be more far-reaching effects than before
Thank you very much for all your efforts for the success of this event.
..enjoyed the conference and I look forward to reporting exciting progress with our collaboration...
thank you, once more, for the excellent organization of BRMEC6 and IIMEC11. ... just amazed of the good care you have taken in every single detail so that absolutely all would come up perfect. This year I specially felt researchers connected and ready to advance faster by collaborating. Also, I felt ME patients are much more encouraged. I really believe all this is due to the amazing job you have been doing through the years building up this network of research excellence connected to ME patients.
the conference was excellent.
thanks for another great conference, I hope you know your considerable efforts are appreciated by a lot of patients, who are unable to respond effectively.
Thank you for a wonderful conference in London last week!
thank you for a wonderful colloquium and conference. The research is getting so exciting! You must have worked so hard to get it all together.
wanted to thank you as well for another excellent conference
I was extremely impressed by the colloquium/conference and by the obvious extensive work you put down! This disease is so devastating.
It is always an honor to be able to participate and present at the top CFS ME meeting in the world
Thank you once again for your superb organization of the IIMER events – I had such a great time and was grateful to participate.
Thanks for another wonderful ME colloquium and conference. Everyone thought it was all the best ever.
I just wanted to say how much we enjoyed the conference and learnt so much from the participants
Thank you so much for a very interesting colloquium and conference! I learnt a lot and met many dedicated people.
Thank you for an excellent conference.
it was my honor to join all of you at the conference, and I am so excited by the progress in the last year.
You and all of your volunteers are to be commended for what you have done to move the research forward
The conference was incredible and one can't help listening to the presentations that the next few years are going to bring so many new and impactful discoveries.
Amazing meeting.
I send you and your team my heartfelt thanks for the last two days.
I would like to thank you for the great meeting!
Thanks for a very interesting conference!
Thanks for a very interesting conference!
I will definitely come next year.
Thank you for all you are doing to enhance research into this terrible disease.
An excellent conference with amazing insights to the research being undertaken in ME.
I thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity and found it very useful.
Thoroughly enjoyed it.
The best ME/CFS meeting I have been to by a long way. Some real science now coming out of this field.
I think your meetings are the best opportunity for networking outside the US.
I want to thank you for organizing this fantastic conference, every year. It is very helpful and contributes to clarify more about ME, not just by sharing researche performed in different countries but also the conversations had with ill people, relatives and carers during breaks. Lunch time gives clinical doctors, a lot of information to understand our day in and out with our ME patients in our clinics.
Thank you also for the post conference dinner, I met with a lot of people, we shared experiences and finally we all learned and felt less lonely, with hope to change things, and I could share emails and phone numbers with other doctors and patients to keep in touch.
Thank you very much to you and all the trustees for another excellent conference
I really would like to thank you for inviting me at the Colloquium/Conference. It was a great experience to be part of such an amazing group. The work you are doing for the community is beyond words.
still taking in all the knowledge we gained in London. My sincere thanks to you for staging an important event
thank you, for the geat effort you put every year into this wonderful meeting
Thank you for inviting me to this excellent meeting, this year was for me the most interesting so far.
Very inspiring as usual.
Congratulations for organizing such an outstanding conference! I learned a great deal
Another well-done conference series!
Thank you so much for the invitation to attend the conferences last week. They were both very well organized and the quality was fantastic.
Thank you for a wonderful meeting in London last week. I hope you know how much we appreciate being a part of this "familiy". And yes - I agree that we are on our way to real and convincing progress.
Thank you for a fantastic conference. A very special feeling when you sit in the auditorium filled with engaged interested ME persons - so great and important that you can travel back to your (own) country and feel that after all it DOES matter what we all do in our daily ME-work.
I wanted to thank you for another wonderful conference
It’s always an inspiration to meet in London. We will be back next year.
Thank you for organising such a wonderful colloquium and conference in London and for giving me the opportunity to attend. It was extremely interesting and great to hear about all of the research that is being undertaken in ME.
Just wanted to say well done on another great conference. It was my second year of attending and it’s such an informative and uplifting experience as a patient. So positive to know that there are such talented scientists who care enough to be working hard to figure it all out.
Invest in ME Research do such a great job getting everyone together and long may that continue because boy do we need you.
thank you so much for a very interesting and meaningful week in London