European Renal Association

The European Renal Association (ERA) is one of the biggest nephrology associations worldwide, with more than 19,000 members.

ERA aims to reduce the burden of chronic kidney disease by supporting basic and clinical research in the fields of clinical nephrology, dialysis, and renal transplantation. The Association organises annual congresses, e-seminars and continuing medical education (CME) courses, and supports fellowships.

History
The early history of ERA began in the 1960s when nephrologists Stanley Shaldon, William Drukker and David Kerr predicted that the future of nephrology would require more activity in the technical aspects of treating humans, rather than just academic interest and animal research.

Since the founding of the West European Dialysis Association (WEDA) in 1963, the ERA has aimed to continually adapt its activities to maintain its role as a leading organisation in the European nephrology community.

In 1981, with the evolution of clinical nephrology and with the idea of including all the specialties linked to nephrology that were growing rapidly, the society changed its name from European Dialysis Transplantation Association (EDTA) to European Dialysis Transplantation Association-European Renal Association (EDTA-ERA). The 1983 congress was the first time that abstracts related to clinical nephrology exceeded those dealing with dialysis. Later that year, the EDTA officially acknowledged nephrology as one of its key missions and changed its name to reflect this. The EDTA-ERA became the European Renal Association–European Dialysis Transplantation Association (ERA-EDTA). The Association's then president, Vittorio Andreucci, played a prominent role in this change.

In 2021, with President Christoph Wanner, the Association changed its name and ERA-EDTA became ERA.

Journals and congress
ERA publishes two journals: Nephrology Dialysis Transplantation: an international basic science and clinical renal journal  (NDT) and Clinical Kidney Journal: Clinical and Translational Nephrology  (CKJ, open access).

Until 2020, the Annual Congress was always an in-person meeting attended by approximately 7,000 delegates. In 2020, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the 57th Annual Congress was fully virtual, as was the 58th, while from the 59th onwards the congress has been both face-to-face and virtual.

ERA Registry
ERA funds the ERA Registry, a European Registry collecting data on kidney replacement therapy via the national and regional renal registries in Europe and in countries bordering Europe or the Mediterranean Sea. It analyses these data and distributes the results through registry reports presented at the yearly ERA congresses, publications in nephrology journals and through the ERA website.

The ERA Registry aims to complement and build on the analyses the national and regional kidney replacement therapy (KRT) registries carry out. The ERA Registry compares disease patterns and their treatment in member countries, studies treatment outcomes, carries out analyses where patient numbers in individual national and regional KRT registries are small, and builds up a demographic picture of KRT within the member countries. In addition, the ERA Registry performs focused studies using data from a segment of the catchment population to answer specific questions.