Dr. Marc Miravitlles, principal investigator of the Pulmonology group at the Vall d’Hebron Research Institute (VHIR), has been appointed President of the European Respiratory Society (ERS) for the 2026-2027 term. The appointment was announced during the ERS Congress, held in Barcelona from 5 to 9 September. Dr. Miravitlles thus assumes the presidency of the leading international organisation in the field of respiratory health, as had already been planned when he was elected Vice President and President-Elect in 2024 for the 2026-2027 term.

The major challenges in respiratory diseases

Respiratory diseases are the third leading cause of death in developed countries, with a major impact on mortality and quality of life. Among the main challenges ahead, the new ERS President highlights the need to strengthen prevention, particularly in relation to factors such as infections, smoking, pollution and the effects of climate change, as well as during the early stages of life.

At the same time, the development of new treatments, such as biological drugs and gene therapies, is making it possible to move towards increasingly personalised medicine.

Despite their high prevalence, respiratory diseases often do not receive the attention they deserve. “We need to raise greater awareness of the suffering they cause in order to achieve greater awareness and also more resources for their prevention and research,” Dr. Miravitlles stresses.

Continuing to promote the ERS’s three pillars

Dr. Miravitlles takes on this new responsibility with the challenge of continuing the ERS’s work across the society’s three main areas of activity: education, research and respiratory health advocacy.

In the field of education, the society has an extensive training programme, several internationally renowned scientific journals and resources such as ERS Channel. In addition, it organises the world’s most important congress in the respiratory field every year.

In terms of research, the ERS has grant programmes and promotes the Clinical Research Collaborations (CRC) programme, which encourages collaboration between groups from different countries to advance knowledge and the treatment of respiratory diseases. Dr. Miravitlles currently coordinates one of these CRCs at VHIR, dedicated to alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency.

The third pillar is advocacy, that is, the aim of influencing public policy to make respiratory health a political and social priority. In this regard, the ERS promotes initiatives at European level to advance respiratory health in schools, prevent smoking and encourage the early detection of respiratory diseases, such as the lung cancer screening programme. It also coordinates programmes in countries with fewer resources to improve the detection of lung diseases.

An opportunity to strengthen the international profile of Spanish and Catalan research

Dr. Miravitlles is the third researcher from Spain to serve as President of the ERS, and more than two decades had passed since the previous one. For this reason, assuming the ERS presidency is also an opportunity to increase the international visibility of pulmonology carried out in Catalonia and Spain.

In this regard, one of his objectives during his year as President will be to help ensure that professionals working in respiratory health in Spain have greater representation in international projects and networks. “I would like to help research teams collaborate on and lead an increasing number of international projects. Research is becoming increasingly demanding and requires more resources and infrastructure, which is why we need partnerships and need to work collaboratively with teams from other countries,” he says.

Dr. Marc Miravitlles’s career

His appointment as ERS President is also recognition of Dr. Miravitlles’s distinguished career in research and, in particular, his international scientific collaborations.

Dr. Miravitlles began his career at Vall d’Hebron and is the author of more than 700 scientific publications. Throughout his career, he has participated in international multicentre studies and clinical trials, delivered lectures around the world, and contributed to several clinical practice guidelines and international consensus documents in the field of respiratory diseases. He has also served as a mentor to numerous researchers, both from Spain and abroad. He is also a member of the Catalan Society of Pneumology (SOCAP) and the Spanish Society of Pulmonology and Thoracic Surgery (SEPAR).