Edastuskiri

Dear NFPs for Preparedness and Response and NCs,

The EU Health Task Force is hosting the “GOARN Tier 2.0 Outbreak Response Scenario Training” and we need your support to identify suitable participants.

Call for interest: EUHTF is hosting the “GOARN Tier 2.0 Outbreak Response Scenario Training” – 7 to 12 September 2025

The EUHTF is organising in partnership with GOARN the “GOARN Tier 2.0 Outbreak Response Scenario Training”. The training will be held face-to-face in the Stockholm area, from Sunday afternoon 7 September to Friday evening 12 September 2025 (expect to travel on 13 September). This intensive 5.5 day outbreak scenario-driven course will train European Union/European Economic Area (EU/EEA) experts on rapid outbreak response with a coordinated multidisciplinary focus, while simulating the technical and operational challenges of outbreak response. Participants will acquire skills to exercise outbreak leadership, act as a member of a rapid response team and use technical and operational standards to respond to a public health emergency. The training will prepare the participants to be deployed nationally and internationally.

Target recipients for this training?

• 24 mid-career public health experts, within three multi-disciplinary outbreak response teams, who are willing to be part of the EUHTF Expert Pools and to potentially partake in future deployments to field settings for emergency/outbreak response.

• Expert profiles needed within each simulated outbreak response team:

• Public Health Epidemiologist

• Public Health Microbiologist/Laboratory expert

• Emergency Clinical Management expert

• Infection prevention and control (IPC) expert

• Animal health/One health expert

• Risk Communication and Community Engagement (RCCE) expert

• The working language is English and nominees must have the ability to engage, read and write in English.

Logistics for the training:

• The training will take place at a simulated field location within the Stockholm region. The training is considered to be a 24/7 training and participants need to be fully engaged during the full duration of the training.

• Participants are expected to attend mandatory pre-training online modules beforehand, the time required is approximately 4-5 hours.

• According to the Rules of Reimbursement, ECDC will organize and cover the costs of the participants travel and accommodation according to the training agenda and a daily subsistence allowance.

What are we expecting from you, our NFPs?

We would like you to nominate two persons with different expert profiles matching the above expert profile list. The two experts from your country should be willing and available to participate in this Outbreak Response Scenario Training and to join the EUHTF External Expert Pool and, therefore, potentially be deployed to field settings by the EU Health Task Force in response to future outbreaks/emergencies.

What happens after your nomination?

• The EUHTF will reach out to the nominated experts to gather more information about their backgrounds and collect their CVs. The nominees will have one week after they have been contacted to provide the requested information to ECDC contact points.

• The EUHTF will evaluate all expressions of interest and will proceed with the selection process, taking into account several factors such as country of origin, gender, and experts’ professional background in order to ensure that the simulated outbreak response teams have the appropriate compositions. The final decision to select experts to participate in the training will be made by the ECDC Coordination Team of the EUHTF.

• Given the fixed number of participants, unfortunately not all nominated experts will receive an invitation. However, all eligible candidates will be placed on a reserve list.

• An official invitation will be sent to the selected experts in due course. If the selected expert declines the offer for training, experts from the reserve list or from the EUHTF pool or ECDC staff will be called in.

We would be grateful to receive the names and email addresses of the experts you wish to nominate for consideration to be included in the Outbreak Response Scenario Training by 9 May 2025, by responding to this email.

Sincerely,

ECDC Coordination Team of the EUHTF