About the AQL

History of the AQL

The first AQL meeting took place in Erlangen, Germany in 1996 in an effort to create a collaborative workshop forum, at which several voice laboratories in Europe (mainly from Germany), could meet annually to provide updates on their progress in different aspects of quantitative assessment of laryngeal functions, voice and speech, and to set new goals. This collaborative effort was funded through their own funding of the member laboratories, which was obtained through the German Research Foundation (DFG), other European funding agencies, the laboratories’ institutional funding mechanisms, and / or through grants from private industry. The first four AQL meetings were collaborative workshops between the European member-laboratories; producing progress reports. Non-member participants from other laboratories and nationalities were also involved. 

The AQL initiative grew very quickly and gained the respect and recognition of the international voice community. Rapid expansion of the conference was seen over a period of four years (1996-2000) with the meeting expanding from an initial 15 participants to 50 participants. Consequently, the 5th AQL 2001 Conference in Groningen, the Netherlands, became truly international with worldwide participation and over 70 attendees. The next four AQL International Conferences: the 6th AQL 2003 in Hamburg, Germany; the 7th AQL 2006 in Groningen, the Netherlands; the 8th AQL 2008 in Stockholm, Sweden; and the 9th AQL 2010 in Erlangen, Germany; escalated in scientific quality, participation and achieved goals. These were outstanding international scientific events with strong impact on voice research and with published proceeding materials.

The 9th AQL 2010, took place in Erlangen, Germany, added new initiatives and values to the AQL tradition. It was the first meeting to combine the traditional scientific AQL conference format with student workshops aimed at disseminating voice science. The funding of the student summer school was achieved in cooperation with COST Action 2103 “Advanced voice function assessment”. The COST Action program funds dissemination of scientific knowledge among scientists and students from the participating European nations. In July 2012, another voice conference, the 8th International Conference on Voice Physiology and Biomechanics, was similarly organised in cooperation with the COST Action 2103.

The AQL was first held outside Europe in Cincinnati, the United States in 2013. The 10th AQL Conference in Cincinnati maintained and further improved the high-quality established by the previous AQL conferences. The AQL was then back to Europe in London, the United Kingdom in 2015 and was held in combination with the 4th International Occupational Voice Symposium. The 12th AQL to be held in Hong Kong, will be the first-of-its-kind AQL conference to be held around the Asia-Pacific Rim. We expect around 100-120 international delegates from overseas, mainland China and south-east Asia will participate.