Continuous professional development (CPD)

ECDC offers continuous professional development that cover topics of interest for participants to keep abreast of developments in the field of communicable diseases and provide tools for the communication of public health evidence to decision-makers. Some of these courses are self-paced and available online at any time. Others are only for invited participants and not open for public enrolment.

Continuous professional development activities at ECDC aim to meet the institutional needs of the Coordinating Competent Bodies of Member States to sustain a workforce that is sufficiently skilled to effectively address cross-border health threats. 
 
In general, the target audience is professionals in EU/EEA Member States who can benefit from acquiring skills and competencies for addressing serious cross-borders threats to health. 

ECDC Virtual Academy (EVA) 

The ECDC Virtual Academy (EVA) platform hosts ECDC’s courses and presents a catalogue of the training offers.

Professional exchange 

ECDC will also offer Professional Exchanges. These initiatives will provide an opportunity for the exchange of senior public health experts from Member States. Participants will be able to familiarise themselves with the working methods of other EU countries, creating a network among colleagues and support for the European dimension in public health cooperation and training. This training format is based on exchange visits and aims at providing bilateral learning opportunities. 

Genetic Epidemiology and Bioinformatics Training Programme (GenEpi-BioTrain)

ECDC offers a training programme in genomic epidemiology and public health bioinformatics to ensure efficient use of whole genome sequencing (WGS) infrastructure investments and to further strengthen laboratory capacity in EU Member States, 

The programme has been launched in parallel to the WGS infrastructure support and should facilitate the use of genomic data in EU-level surveillance and outbreak response. The overall objectives of the trainings are to support countries in building up their capacity in genomic epidemiology and bioinformatics for public health purposes, and to increase the interdisciplinary collaboration between bioinformaticians, epidemiologists and microbiologists within a country to facilitate the routine use of genomic information for surveillance, preparedness, and outbreak response. 

Activities shall also enhance data sharing and collaborations between public health institutions and ECDC. Enhanced networking activities will foster cross-border collaborations. The training programme, GenEpi-BioTrain, was initiated in January 2023 and will continue over the next four years.

Read more about the GenEpi-BioTrain programme

AURORAE training programme: Influenza and SARS-CoV-2 laboratory training for Europe

Since July 2022 and over an expected period of four years ECDC is providing microbiology-related trainings under the AURORAE consortium, which combines the expertise of 12 institutions in 8 EU/EEA member states. The overall objectives of the AURORAE trainings are to support countries in building capacities in the areas of diagnosis, detection, identification and characterisation of primarily influenza and SARS-CoV-2 viruses

The training formats include face-to-face training courses (wetlab and drylab), twinning visits of various durations, and virtual trainings (webinars, instructive videos, self-paced online trainings). 

Read more about the programme and how to participate