The workshop is inspired by the EU-AIMS project, a €30 million multi-sited study on autism treatments, funded by the European Commission and the Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI) (http://www.eu-aims.eu/)-- European Autism Interventions - A Multicentre Study for Developing New Medications. In this workshop, which is sponsored by the EU-AIMS Independent Ethics Advisory Board, we will discuss the following kinds of questions around autism intervention:

• What does “intervention” mean in the context of autism?
• Does the idea of “intervention” square with the wide variety of symptoms and experiences of people with autism?
• Can we say anything about treating autism when we are not clear about the nature of autism itself?
• Should we think of “treating autism” as we think of treating cancer? Or should we rather think in terms of treating the problems autistic people have?
• Does EU-AIMS have the right research focus? Who is and should be deciding the research agenda in autism?
• What are the key messages on autism intervention research that this workshop wishes to convey to researchers and policy-makers?

The workshop will be participant-led, meaning that although experts will participate, and be able to comment on technical matters, the discussion will be driven by members of the autism community. Due to this quality of the workshop, we may ask some workshop members to prepare a 5-minute presentation on key questions above, in order to get the discussion going.

• Register for the conference