Training

ECDC has the mandate to coordinate and support training programmes to ensure that Member States have enough trained specialists. The Centre works to strengthen and maintain the workforce in Member States and at the EU level by training key national experts to ensure adequate capacity for communicable disease preparedness, prevention, detection, assessment, and control.

More in detail, this is ensured through:

• The ECDC Fellowship Programme, a two-year learning-by-doing programme, with a path for intervention epidemiology (EPIET) and one for public health microbiology (EUPHEM);
• The Continuous professional development training offer that targets mid-career and senior public health professionals.

In 2020, 31 fellows graduated from the ECDC Fellowship Programme and the EPIET-associated programmes (cohort 2018). At year’s end, 73 fellows were enrolled.

The project to update the core competencies on applied infectious disease epidemiology continued. ECDC continued to provide scientific leadership for MediPIET, the Mediterranean and Black Sea field epidemiology training programme network. ECDC continued its contribution with the Global Laboratory Leadership Programme, together with WHO, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE), the US CDC and the American Association of Public Health Laboratories (APHL).