Welcome | BEAVRS 2018

Dear Colleagues, Welcome to the BEAVRS meeting in Liverpool. St Paul’s first hosted the BEAVRS meeting nearly 30 years ago. The history of St Paul’s, however goes back a little further. In 1871, a generous benefactor, Mr George Walker FRCS founded St Paul’s Eye and Ear Infirmary as a private charity for the poor in Liverpool. Some say that the hospital owed its name to its early location in St Paul’s Square. Others say the name might have biblical reference to the apostle, Saint Paul whose sight was restored on the road to Damascus. To the locals however, St Paul’s has always been known to the scousers as the “site” for sore eyes.

Nowadays, St Paul’s Eye Unit is part of the Royal Liverpool University Hospital. Within the city, St Paul’s works hand in hand with the Royal Aintree Hospital to provide a comprehensive ophthalmology service. In recent years, in addition to St Paul’s, Vitreoretinal Services in the region are provided by Arrowe Park Hospital and Chester Royal Infirmary. The academics in the Department of Eye and Visual Science of the University of Liverpool continually interact with the clinicians in the hospital to ensure that our collaborative research effort brings direct benefit to patients. Although there has been some unexpected delay in the opening of the new Royal Liverpool Hospital, we are all very excited about this half-billion pound development at the heart of the Knowledge Quarter, an expanse within the city centre that include institutions such as Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, University of Liverpool, Liverpool John Moores University, Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts, Liverpool Science Park, City of Liverpool College, National Oceanography Centre and the Royal College of Physicians Northern Headquarters. The Knowledge Quarter is the pride of the city of Liverpool.

Already, the area is supposedly generating over a billion pounds in wealth annually and is providing employment to 14,000 people. When fully developed, it will be a powerhouse of research and development in the north and a hub for education to 60,000 individuals.

This year’s BEAVRS meeting will be hosted in the magnificent St George’s Hall. We have hopefully organised an interesting programme. Still, we wish that you will find time to visit the two Cathedrals, to try the many eateries along Hope Street in the Georgian Quarter or to enjoy the UNESCO world heritage river front. Above all, we hope that BEAVRS will be a great success and that the meeting will come back to the city before too long.

David Wong, Carl Groenewald, Heinrich Heimann, Rumana Hussain, Ian Pearce, Teresa Sandinha, Theodor Stappler

On behalf of BEAVRS