RDA 15th Plenary Meeting CANCELLED

Dear Plenary 15 delegates and RDA members,

It is with a very heavy heart and great sadness that I inform you, on behalf of the organisers,  that we are cancelling the 15th RDA Plenary Meeting, scheduled to take place from 18-20 March 2020 in Melbourne Australia. 

Due to the rapidly evolving COVID-19 situation and the declaration by the World Health Organisation of a pandemic, CSIRO, ARDC and RDA have just made the very difficult decision to cancel the meeting in the interest of the health and safety of our members, you the delegates.

The local organisers and the RDA secretariat have been working very hard over the past months, weeks and days, drafting contingency plans and mitigation strategies for the many scenarios that have arisen, in view of this I ask you all to be patient and understanding over the coming days while we work out the next steps in terms of logistics, which we will communicate as soon as possible.

On behalf of the RDA, I want to extend my heartfelt thanks to CSIRO and ARDC, our local host organisations, who have invested tireless and unlimited resources and effort into planning and organising this meeting. To all of the RDA members who planned to attend, I am truly devastated that we are unable to come together next week, but we will make every effort to ensure that we host another plenary meeting in Australia some time in the future.

I would invite any international delegates who are already in Melbourne to contact me directly hilary.hanahoe[at]rda-foundation.org so I may communicate with you.

Many thanks to you all for your comprehension and your support for RDA.

Warmest wishes

Hilary