Event Endorsement Policy

1. The meeting or resource must be consistent with the BSG mission statement:

• To maintain and enhance high standards of patient care.
• To enhance capacity of members to discover, disseminate and apply new knowledge to the benefit of patients with digestive disorders.

2. Endorsed courses or meetings are those that the Society will badge officially as being relevant and important for its members:

• The course or meeting must be relevant to the Society.
• The applicant responsible for the course or meeting content should be a BSG member of good standing and should have no pecuniary interest in the meeting.
• The content of the course or meeting should be determined predominantly by the applicant.
• The content of the course or meeting must not have any restrictions or qualifying requirements imposed by any commercial sponsor.
• At a meeting with commercial sponsors, the Declaration of Sponsorship slide must be shown at the beginning of every presentation.
• Sponsorship support and extent must be clearly stated on any promotional material and on the ‘declaration of interest’ introductory slides.
• Please note: The course or meeting must have CPD approval from the RCP or one of the Royal Colleges in advance of your application (please allow time for this before applying to the BSG), unless, the course/meeting is primarily aimed at trainees. You can read the process at CPD approval  Please also read the CPD Approval Overview.
• Please note:  with effect from 12th September 2022, the Federation will no longer accept applications for CPD approval that come directly from pharmaceutical companies, device companies and other commercial organisations that provide healthcare products used on patients. Where an event is provided by one of these companies it will no longer be eligible for Federation CPD approval. This approach is to bring the Federation in line with one of the standards published by the International Academy of CPD Accreditation (IACPDA) in 2020 and is also in line with other accrediting bodies in North America and Europe. Educational events that are organised by BSG members with sponsorship would still be accepted for endorsement by the BSG. Please be mindful with limiting the use of Pharma logos on the programme. We recommend that the names of industry partners and their logos are listed only on the last page of the event brochure without any logos on other pages. The BSG logo should not be placed near any sponsorship logos/material. With effect from 1st January 2024, the Federation will no longer accept applications for CPD approval from advertising, marketing or communication companies whose clients are pharmaceutical companies, device companies and other commercial organisations of the types listed in section 1 of the policy document. The full policy document can be read here.
• The course or meeting should offer preferential rates at a minimum of 30% reduction to BSG members.
• The BSG logo should be used in promotional materials. BSG support should be acknowledged at the course or meeting.
• From March 2024 Fees for an endorsement of a course or meeting are as follows: 
• Academic courses with no industry funding £350 + VAT.
• Courses partly, or fully, funded by industry with multiple sponsors, and any commercial limited companies £750 + VAT.
• If endorsement is for a series of webinars, the fees above will be charged for each webinar in the series.

3. Endorsed meetings or resources should be approved by a minimum of 3 people; the Education Committee Chair or nominee, the relevant section chair, a VP of the BSG, and at least one elected Council member or member of the Education Committee.

4. Endorsed courses or meetings must be UK-based.

5. A course or meeting will not be considered for endorsement if it is scheduled to be held within 4 weeks either side of the BSG Live Annual Meeting (usually mid June).  In addition, a course or meeting will not be considered for endorsement if it is scheduled to be held during the same week as BSG Campus (usually in November).

6. For a repeat course or meeting, feedback from the previous course must demonstrate at least 80% positive feedback responses.

7. When the BSG agrees to endorse a course or meeting, the Society will:

• Include the course or meeting on the BSG website events calendar.
• Include the course or meeting in the fortnightly events-focussed BSG e-newsletter (this is subject to space).
• Promote the course or meeting via our social media channels.
• Circulate the course or meeting details by email from the BSG to the relevant BSG section after request approved by the relevant section chair.

8. After agreement that the BSG will endorse a course or meeting, the course organiser and/or sponsor agree to:

• Apply a minimum 30% fee reduction for BSG members.
• Pay the fee that applies to your event +VAT to the BSG within 14 days of receipt of invoice.
• Display the BSG logo on all materials associated with the course or meeting.
• Observe the BSG’s Code of Conduct for Symposium below.
• Provide feedback to the BSG Education Committee within 6 weeks of any meeting in both detailed and summarized format. This feedback must include a question about whether the meeting was biased in favour of a sponsor. If the meeting evaluation indicates that the meeting content was biased, a ‘no-endorsement’ sanction will be imposed on the meeting for a period of 1 year.
• Sponsorship support and extent must be clearly stated on any promotional material and on the ‘declaration of interest’ introductory presentation slide.

Code of Conduct for Symposia - Examples

• This symposium is directly/indirectly sponsored by XXX
• The sponsor has not directed inclusion of any content or required involvement of any presenter
• No promotional material has been included in the presentation
• The content of each presentation has not been vetted by the sponsor
• The content represents the opinion solely of the presenter and is not an endorsement of any product

• This symposium has been organised/directed by YYY
• The organiser solely has selected the presenters
• The content of each presentation has not been directed or vetted by the organiser
• The content represents the opinion solely of the presenter
• Unlicensed products may be included only in a historical or scientific context and this is not to be taken as a recommendation of their use
• The presenter has/has not received an honorarium for this presentation

• This presenter has the following declarations of relationship with industry
• Personal payments/honoraria/fees
• Research grants
• Educational grants, travel grant, or fellowship
• Equipment grant
• Sponsorship of fellow within department
• NONE

Sustainability, and Equality, Inclusion and Diversity