It is a true honour and privilege to take over the reins as President of the Society for Free Radical Research – Europe. I will do my utmost to respect the inheritance of my predecessors.

First of all, I would like to express to you my sincere gratitude and appreciation for your continued support of the Society and our shared goals.

Secondly, I would like to thank the former President, Michael Davies, as well as Juan Sastre, former Secretary General, and Josiane Cillard, Past President of the Society, in addition to all the Council members that completed their term in 2020. They did a tremendous job to grow the reputation of the SFRR-E. I have learnt a lot from all of them in the two-year period as President Elect and I will rely on their support and advice during my mandate.

It is my pleasure to welcome Juan Sastre as President-Elect, Clare Hawkins as Secretary General and Niki Chondrogianni as a new Meeting Officer, as well as Aphrodite Vasilaki, Brigitte Winklhofer-Roob, Giovanni Mann and Enrique Cadenas, who will continue for another term within the Executive and Advisory Board. A special welcome to all Council members. I expect that their enthusiasm and motivation will represent the main engine for novelty and innovation within the Society.

At the core is the membership of our Society. In these unprecedented times, nothing is more important to SFRR-E than continuing to serve our scientific community by promoting and supporting redox research and related research areas through its journals, conferences, courses, fellowships and other initiatives. Exchange and cooperation between scientists working in different areas and promotion of young scientists’ training and early careers shall represent a priority. Thanks to the growing number of members and the support of our sponsors, particularly Elsevier and the Oxygen Club of California, we are able to expand the Society outreach programme to provide support for symposia and plenary lectures at joint meetings, as well as to actively encourage participation of young scientists through fellowships and awards.

Due to the challenges posed by COVID-19, the SFRR-E Annual Meeting and Summer School scheduled in 2020, have had to be postponed. Both events have already been rearranged: the SFRR-E Annual Meeting will be held virtually from Belgrade on 15-18 June 2021, hosted by Prof. Bato Korac, while the Summer School, organized jointly with FEBS, will now be held in Spetses in September 2022 under the supervision of Aphrodite Vasilaki and Niki Chondrogianni. Thanks to the efforts of local organizers, the SFRR-E Annual Meetings in Liege (2022) and Vienna (2023) have also been reorganized and secured. As you know, the SFRR-I Bi-annual Meeting was cancelled in 2020. This meeting has also been rescheduled, and will now be held virtually from 15-18 March 2021. I urge you all to keep up-to-date through our website and to take advantage of all initiatives you can benefit from as SFRR-E members.

Despite the difficulties, the year 2020 marked the onset of new SFRR-E initiatives. The online Winter Seminar Series commenced in November 2020, and will continue to the beginning of March 2021. The program has been very successful and promises to represent a great opportunity to disseminate our science, connecting senior and young scientists within Europe and beyond. All videos from the Seminar series will remain freely available in the members’ area of the SFRR-E website.

The first two SFRR-E Women Radical View Newsletters, coordinated by Maria Carmen Gómez Cabrera and Maria Paola Nitti, have been released and disseminated, highlighting the contribution of Rebeca Gerschman and Catherine Pasquier to free radical and redox-related research.  Finally, in addition to the growing impact of the established journals, Free Radical Biology & Medicine and Redox Biology, a new SfRBM and SFRR-E official journal, Advances in Redox Research, has been launched by Elsevier and is open for submission.

To conclude, I know that substantial uncertainties remain in relation to the safety and feasibility of many activities and events for several months ahead, both in Europe and worldwide. Nevertheless, I believe in science and in resilience. So, I am looking forward to meeting you again in person, and I’d like to wish everyone a happy and productive New Year.