In this issue, we are bringing to you many updates on different aspects relevant to our medical writing community. Tim Koder from Oxford PharmaGenesis introduces the Open Pharma project, which aims to promote and aid a faster and more transparent publication of medical research. Lillian Sandø, one of the few EMWA members with an ELS suffix, shares her experience with the BELS exam organised for the first time since 1966 in collaboration with the EMWA conference in Birmingham. I personally adhere to her words, and would like to encourage both our editors and writers to take this exam in the future. Also, since our website has been switched to an improved platform, Diarmuid De Faoite tells us all the improvements that this update entails. We urge you to visit the new website if you haven’t done it so far. Finally, Amy Whereat shares the news from the medical writers’ gettogether this summer in Paris.