The series of ECCE Congresses on chemical engineering was launched by the European Federation of Chemical Engineering (EFCE) in 1997 in Firenze, the venue for the first ECCE-1. Since 1997, ECCE has been organized in France (Montpellier, 1999), Germany (Nürnberg, 2001), Spain (Granada, 2003) and Denmark (Copenhagen, 2007). In 2005, the ECCE-5 has been combined with the World Congress of Chemical Engineering in Glasgow. For 2009, it was decided by the EFCE not to compete with the 8th World Congress of Chemical Engineering in Montreal but to combine the ECCE-7 with the CHISA 2010.

The objective of this exceptional joint Congress is to provide engineers, scientists, researchers, technologists, students and others a platform to present their latest results, to interchange ideas, to make new contacts, to establish new collaborations, and many more. The Congress addresses the full spectrum of chemical and process engineering practice, including current trends and future needs.

Like all the CHISA and ECCE Congresses before, even this joint one will cover a range of important topics and will offer many real interdisciplinary links. The logistics of the Congress program, which includes the satellite PRES 2010 conference as well as the standard sessions and specialized symposia, should enable the interested people to listen also to the presentations, which are close to their fields of research yet outside their everyday horizons.

We shall also continue our effort in setting stronger measures on the quality of standard contributions, both oral and posters. Let me to mention one aspect which concerns just the posters: during the last couple of Congresses I have observed that some participants consider posters to be something less important than lectures. They are not satisfied if the Scientific Committee decides that their contributions should be presented in the form of posters and try to use any possible argument to change this decision. It is clear that the poster sessions are unavoidable at big Congresses because of the limited number of time slots for lectures. It should be however stressed that the posters do have equal scientific value as the oral lectures. Very often the poster, which is accessible for the whole day during the poster session, may stimulate much more intensive discussion and may have much higher impact than a time-limited oral lecture – provided the poster contains original results, is well structured and designed (and of course the author is present during the poster breaks!). On the other hand, I know that many participants ask in advance to present their contributions as posters and I have also noticed that the quality of posters’ design steeply increases.

I can promise that the organisers will do their best to make the poster sessions even more attractive. I certainly know that there are other matters which have to be improved – we are ready to reflect your ideas and recommendations.