The Czech Republic & Slovakia Affiliate of ISPE was founded in 1999. At that time there were 18 individual ISPE members in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. In November 1999 the founding conference of ISPE was held in which the Affiliate Constituent Committee was elected and plans and strategy for the Affiliate's activities were set. It was decided on the common Affiliate for the Czech Republic and Slovakia. In March the Committee was established and in September 1999 the Czech Republic & Slovakia Affiliate of ISPE came officially into existence.
In the years following the Affiliate's offical creation, activities were confined to individual visits to ISPE events and irregular contact of the Committee members. Since the autumn 2002, partly as a reaction to an impulse coming from the European Office, the Affiliate has made the first steps to become an active and useful part of ISPE. In February 2003 the meeting of the Committee was held in Prague, with participation of Mr Roger Trew, an official of the European Office. In this meeting the Affiliate's bylaws were discussed (both Czech and English version) as well as the future steps.
The Committee met in Prague on the 16th June 2003 with the aim to evaluate and coordinate the intervening activities. This year, the Committee meeting took place 19th March in Prague, with the kind participation of Mr. Roger Trew. The activities connected with the Board elections were projected, the current trends were evaluated and a tentative plan for oncoming years. Since then, the Committee meet two to three times a year, evaluating the Affiliate activities and events and planning the next ones. This year, three new people were invited to become the Committee members (go to the section Affiliate Board & Committees the see the Committee’s composition).
Currently, the ISPE Affiliate Czech Republic & Slovakia of has one hundred and one (101) members. Eighty two (82) members are from the Czech Republic, four (4) are from Slovakia and nine (9) represent ISPE members from non-affiliated countries: Hungary (2), Lithuania, Ukraine (2), Croatia (2), Bulgaria, Russia (3), Macedonia, Serbia & Montenegro, Romania (2). The representation of different branches is as follows (including the foreign members): Forty-nine members are representatives of engineering companies, forty-three of pharmaceutical companies, three of academia (Institute of Chemical Technology, Czech Academy of Sciences), two of consult firms, two of biotechnological enterprises and two of R&D firms.