Frequently Asked Questions

All delegates of the Annual Scientific Meeting can find their attendance certificates in the 'Annual Scientific Meeting' section of 'Your ECVS'. The certificates for all meetings attended since 2019 can be downloaded there. (Before 2019, certificates were issued on paper on-site only.)

You can find a list of confirmed future Annual Scientific Meetings under the 'Save the date' section of the current Annual Scientific Meeting page.

Yes, all interested veterinarians are welcome to submit an abstract for the ECVS Annual Scientific Meeting. Read instructions on how to submit an abstract.

The timeline of the abstract submission and evaluation process is detailed in the 'Abstracts' section of each Annual Scientific Meeting's page.

Cancellation of an Annual Scientific Meeting registration must be submitted to [email protected]. The cancellation deadlines and refund conditions are detailed in our Terms & Conditions. Delegates who find themselves unable to attend the congress in person may also consider switching their attendance type to online participation so as to not only avoid cancellation fees, but also be able to watch the lectures. All congress content will be accessible online for a period of 6 months after the congress.

All lectures at the ECVS Annual Scientific Meeting will be streamed live and then be made available as on-demand content one week after the end of the congress. The recorded lectures will be edited professionally after the congress and are therefore not immediately available for online viewing.

Yes, online participation will count towards recertification for ECVS Diplomates. You can find your attendance certificates in the 'Annual Scientific Meeting' section of 'Your ECVS'.

Yes, the ECVS welcomes all interested veterinarians at its Annual Scientific Meeting. Please email [email protected] for a log in to register.

The ECVS allows the resident registration fee to all Residents and former Residents until they have passed the exam (or run out of years to do so).

Your status at the time of the meeting determines the registration category. Prospective Residents are welcome to sign up as a Resident as long as their residency start date lies before the start of the Annual Scientific Meeting. Should the application not be accepted by the Credentials Committee for some reason, the difference in fees is then to be paid.

The congress fee is determined by your status at the time of the congress. PhD Students / Interns / Students / veterinary nurses will be required to provide written evidence of their status when they arrive and register at the Meeting. If you attend online, you will be asked to send us this proof by e-mail.

The ECVS offers the possibility to announce courses and events on its website for a fee. We will only email information on courses and events run by third parties if there is an exclusive offer for ECVS Diplomates and / or Residents, such as a special discount which is not available to other veterinarians. Such announcements will be sent by the ECVS Office only; the ECVS never shares its members' contact details with third parties.

All documents, forms, guidelines etc. can be found in the ECVS Document Library under the Services menu. You can filter the documents by category - for an easier overview - or search on key words.

The ECVS Office collects all exam registrations until the registration deadline (25th October). After this deadline, confirmation emails will be issued to all candidates. If anything is missing for a complete registration, the candidate will be reminded to follow up with the missing elements. No individual confirmations of registration, payment received etc. will be issued prior to the registration deadline.

The exam registration will open for all eligible candidates during autumn of the year prior to the exam. All candidates will be informed by email when this is available and can sign up between then and the registration deadline of 25th October.

Invoices for all ECVS activities (membership fees / Annual Scientific Meeting registration / annual reports / credentials / job ads) are available for download through 'Invoices/Receipts' in 'Your ECVS'. The invoicing address can be changed / additional information added via the 'Change address' link. Once payment has been received, a receipt can be downloaded from the same place.

The requirements to become an ECVS Diplomate are detailed on our website and especially in the "How to become a specialist" document.

Diplomates have the possibility to voluntarily discontinue their ECVS membership. The processes, requirements and deadlines are described in the Book of Procedures, chapter 6.IV. Voluntary Resignation from the College. Resigned Diplomates who have trained as ECVS Residents and passed the passed the ECVS exam have the possibility to re-enter the College as a non-certified Diplomate by paying the current year's membership fee plus a re-instatement fee equal to two annual membership fees. Diplomates who have been granted membership on the basis of their ACVS membership must re-apply as per the College's processes and conditions.

The majority of ECVS committees will recruit one new member per species per year (with the exception of more long-standing committee such as the Recertification Committee and the Appeals Committee). All committees will propose their choice of incoming member to the Board of Regents for ratification at the February Board meeting. In the autumn / winter newsletter, the committees will inform, in their respective newsletter article, which criteria they are looking for in their next member. Diplomates interested in joining a committee are asked to apply to the ECVS Office by 15 January so that their application can be discussed by the committee in time for the February meeting. Please note that all committees always strive for a balanced composition of male / female, orthopedics / soft tissue, native English / other languages, private practice / academia, various countries etc. If a person is not selected, it is usually due to the fact that another candidate is better suited to the committee's requirements in that specific round, and a person's qualifications may be called for at another time.

The official ECVS logo is reserved for College use only and should not be used by Diplomates. There is a dedicated ECVS Specialist Surgeon logo that may be used on letterheads, business cards, and other promotional material in connection with the name of an ECVS Diplomate. The logo can be downloaded from our website in 'Your ECVS'. You can also use the EBVS logo as available in the EBVS toolbox.

All applicable ECVS membership fees, late payment surcharges, extra fees (e.g. for the Veterinary Surgery hard copy) are detailed in the SOP Annual Membership Fee.

To pay your membership fee via bank transfer, please follow the annual renewal process (for further information see SOP Annual Membership Fee) and select 'Pay by bank transfer or other means'. The contact details are displayed on screen at this stage, and you will also receive an automated email with the account details. If you do not receive this email, please also check your spam folder. Sometimes it ends up there. When making bank payments to the ECVS, please make sure to carry out payment in EUR's (not Swiss franks) and to cover all banking charges on the senders side.

The invoice for the membership fee can be downloaded by each Diplomate themselves through 'Invoices / receipts' in 'Your ECVS'. If additional / other address information on the invoice is required, please refer to the respective section in the FAQs on how to change invoicing details.

Yes, all ECVS Diplomates are required to pay the annual membership fee, regardless of their recertification status. Diplomates who wish to discontinue paying the fee have the option to voluntarily resign from the college. The exact procedures and conditions are laid out in the Book of Procedures, chapter 6.IV. Voluntary Resignation from the College. Voluntarily resigned Diplomates are no longer members of the ECVS and shall use the title 'Dipl. ECVS (retired)'.

Diplomates who have attained 65 years of age may change their status to 'retired Diplomate' and then are no longer required to pay the ECVS membership fee. However, as per EBVS guidelines, the Diplomate status can only be retired from the year when a person turns 65, even if they retire from their job before that age. Retirement from one's employment does not automatically affect the ECVS status.

Occasionally fake email addresses are used pretending to be from Board members (e.g. president@...). Delete these emails and do not click on any link. You will only ever be contacted by a recognisable ECVS office email address as shown on our website. Please notify us on [email protected] if you receive such an email.

The ECVS never releases or sells any email addresses to outside organisations. Please read our data privacy policy.

The process for raising a concern is described in the ECVS Complaints Procedure. The ECVS is not a regulatory body, so if your concern relates to professional conduct, it is often better to approach the veterinary regulatory body in the country in which the Diplomate is practising. The ECVS cannot intervene in employment disputes. For concerns about a training programme or resident, it may be best to notify the credential committee who may already be aware of an issue. Please read the ECVS Code of Conduct.

The recertification confirmation will always indicate the 5 year period prior to the year when a Diplomate recertified. This is based on the logic that the Recertification Committee can only assess the activities of the previous 5 years and confirms that a Diplomate has fulfilled the requirements during this period of time. While the recertification is valid for 5 years, indicating a recertification period into the future would suggest a prediction that a Diplomate will fulfill the requirements during the years to come.

In EBVS terms, the recertification status is valid from 1st January until 31st December, 5 years later. In order to communicate the Diplomates' recertification status to EBVS in time for 1st January, the ECVS must conclude its processes at the Board of Regents' September meeting in the previous year, which means that the Recertification Committee must obtain all documentation by 31st July.

All certified Diplomates can download a certificate of their recertification status through 'Your ECVS Recertification Status' in 'Your ECVS'. An EBVS certificate is available for download to certified Diplomates via their personal EBVS login.

All Diplomates can find their individual recertification form through 'Your ECVS Recertification Status' in 'Your ECVS'. Click on "Start recertification" to begin the process.

Residents can use the title "Resident in Training", but no title other than that. At the end of the training period, the post residency candidate MAY NOT use terms such as 'Board eligible', 'Board qualified' or 'residency trained' or 'trained surgeon' or any term implying a level of ECVS certified expertise. Please also refer to https://www.ebvs.eu/frequently-asked-questions#Diplomates

The ECVS does not publish a list of open residencies nor does it facilitate residencies for interested persons. It is the applicant's responsibility to secure their own place of residency training. A list of all accredited training programmes currently accredited by the ECVS can be found here. Whether these programmes currently have openings for new Residents needs to be inquired directly. Some open residency positions will be posted on the ECVS Jobs Market but not all training institutions advertise with ECVS, some may advertise on their own website or via their national veterinary job advertisement facility.

Access to RED to start logging one's activities is given once the Credentials Committee has officially accepted the Resident's application and confirmed the start date of the training. From then on, the Resident can log activities retro-actively (starting with the first date of their training), but they cannot start logging before the official acceptance letter from the Credentials Committee has been received. The Credentials Committee evaluates applications at their February, July, and September meetings, and applications must be received by the 15th of the previous month (15 January, 15 June, 15 August) in order to make it onto the agenda for the upcoming meeting. If you start your training position before one of these dates, or your application is not submitted for the immediately next meeting, you will have to wait until you have received the final acceptance letter from the Credentials Committee after their following meeting in order to be able to log activities on RED. However, while you are waiting for this acceptance letter, you can make a note of your activities from the start of your training position and ready to add them to RED once you have access and have been given an official start date.

All changes to an approved residency programme (staff changes, staff parental leave, changes to outrotations, owner changes, changes to facilities and equipment etc.) are to be communicated as soon as they are known to [email protected]. All changes to a training programme must be communicated by the Programme Director to the Credentials Committee.

No, the credentials evaluation fee is only to be paid once by each Resident. If the credentials are rejected and need to be re-submitted, re-evaluation is included in the previously paid fee.

Once all the criteria of a SVSRP or AVSTP have been met, only a credentials application should be submitted. The annual report of that year does not need to be submitted; it is substituted by the credentials application.

A poster presentation does not count as a presentation as defined in the Training Brochure. If a poster is selected for oral presentation at the meeting, this may be used as the major presentation for credentials. However, Residents must be aware that only 8 posters per species (SA / LA) are selected for oral presentation at the congress, so depending on the number of posters in the pool, the chances of being selected for on-site presentation may be slim.

Non-urgent questions are discussed by the Credentials Committee at their February, July, and September meetings, and the Resident will receive a reply usually within 2 weeks after the meeting. Questions must be received by the 15th of the month prior to the meeting (i.e. 15th January, 15th June, 15th August) in order to make it on the committee's agenda. Only in very exceptional and highly pressing cases will the Credentials Committee discuss a request and provide a reply in-between the official meetings. Normally, all requests will receive a reply after the meeting for which they were submitted for discussion.

Residents are required to pay for their annual reports, for credentials evaluation and for the exam. No further fees for Residents apply.

The instructions how to access Veterinary Surgery online are accessible in each subscribed Diplomate's 'Update your details' page (at the bottom) in 'Your ECVS'.

Log in to 'Your ECVS' with your email and password. Click on "Update your details" and scroll down to the bottom of the page. Choose your type of subscription: 'online only' or 'hardcopy' (the hard copy option includes online access, but is associated with an additional cost).