Dear ESERA members,

On behalf of the whole ESERA executive board and with this last issue of the 2012 ESERA e-News, we wish you a Merry Christmas and all the best for the upcoming new year. Let’s use our scientific network to continue improving the quality and intensity of science education research in Europe and worldwide, and to support the development of our doctoral students and post-doctoral scientists.

2012 again was a special year and full of new developments. Here is a short summary. The executive board can proudly report that it held two meetings in 2012 – one in Heidelberg and one in Bad Honnef. At these meetings we discussed future plans and activities to fulfill the ESERA policy. The electronic proceedings of the ESERA 2011 Conference have been published on the ESERA website, a contract with Springer has been signed for a new ESERA book series: Contributions from Science Education Research. Three Special Interest Groups (SIGs) have started their work. ESERA held a special symposium at NARST 2012. During this conference in Indianapolis three executive board members met with NARST representatives. We had contacts with representatives of the European Commission and a meeting in Brussels with Policy Officers for Science Education within DG Research & Innovation. ESERA was represented at the INTEL Educator Academy in Bratislava (23-26 September 2012) where we were able to discuss with representatives from the EU RoundTable of Industrialists, SchoolNet and Project INGENIUS the importance of researcher involvement in science education innovation projects. The ESERA summer school 2012 took place in Bad Honnef, Germany, and was a great success.All PhD students presenting at this summer school have been invited to participate in a special poster symposium at ESERA 2013. ESERA sponsored four ESERA Travel Awards in 2012 for doctoral students and post-doctoral researchers. The call for travel awards 2013 has been published, with a deadline for applications of 1st January 2013. With an enormous amount of energy, the Cyprus team moved the old ESERA website and set up a new and interactive one with lots of useful features in order to support communication within the organization. Finally, the call for the ESERA 2013 conference has been published and the application and review process will now be organized via our new website.

As the end of 2012 approaches, let’s thank all members of ESERA who have been active and supportive in our organization – as reviewers and members of commissions, as organizers of meetings and conferences, and as members of the executive board. We are grateful for an active membership and lots of constructive support throughout the year.

Have a good and healthy start into 2013.
Sincerely,
Manuela Welzel-Breuer and Costas Constantinou