The European Federation of Organisations for Medical Physics (EFOMP) was founded in May 1980 in London to serve as an umbrella organisation representing the national Medical Physics societies in Europe. It took just twenty-seven months from the first initiative, by the Council of the Hospital Physicists' Association (HPA, now the Institute of Physics and Engineering in Medicine) in February 1978, to reach agreement on the formation of the EFOMP. The inaugural meeting took place in London, UK on the 9th of May 1979 and the first President of EFOMP was John Clifton.