It is with immense pride and satisfaction that I welcome you, on behalf of the Editorial Board, to the inaugural edition of the Journal of Vascular Societies Great Britain and Ireland (JVSGBI).

The concept of a UK based specialty specific vascular journal began just over 2 years ago. It was born out of a frustration voiced by vascular clinicians, particularly vascular surgical trainees, with difficulty getting research published. Vascular research of reasonable quality was frequently rejected by established surgical journals. This research was frequently low-level evidence (e.g. surveys, cohorts and qualitative work) but often crucial work underpinning larger planned research programmes. Publication of such work is essential for it to be citable on funding applications. The journal concept was presented to the VSGBI open council who suggested a survey of all societies involved in the care of vascular patients, assessing opinion and enthusiasm regarding establishing a UK vascular journal. The results of this survey are presented by Long et al in this inaugural edition, and are generally positive and supportive. A Journal Working Group (Andy Garnham, Jon Boyle, Keith Jones, Gail Ryan, Helen McDonnell) was established. I am hugely grateful for their incredible commitment and hard work to deliver this inaugural edition in such a short time period. The JVSGBI is an online, open access journal published quarterly, which aims to deliver vascular research, education and news to the vascular community.

It would be remiss for the inaugural edition of the JVSGBI not to address the enormous challenges the coronavirus pandemic presented to vascular services, patients and clinicians. These challenges and our responses are succinctly explored and clarified by Sandip Nandhra (VERN President) in his guest editorial.
The in depth research priority setting endeavours of the VSGBI Research Committee and associated collaborators are also highlighted in this inaugural edition. The supplement (Vascular Priority Setting Partnership – setting the agenda for UK vascular research) summarises how patients and clinicians’ research priorities were collated, combined and ranked across the complete spectrum of vascular care. The final excellent article by Bosanquet et al precisely details how this was specifically undertaken for lower limb amputation. The support of the James Lind Alliance (JLA) throughout this process merits specific acknowledgement and gratitude. We envisage these priorities will guide vascular research for the foreseeable future and hope other funders follow NIHR in promoting JLA identified research questions.

Finally, I hope you enjoy reading the JVSGBI, find it informative and will contribute to its future success by submitting articles for publication.