Infokiri

Hello!

I am reaching out since we haven’t heard back from your project regarding the below invitation to the upcoming HERA Sequencing Symposium.

Could you please confirm whether you will participate as soon as possible by registering? Please share this registration link with the team members you consider appropriate to participate in this event, considering we expect a representation of 2-4 people (maximum) per project. https://eu.eventscloud.com/hera-sequencing-symposium

Please note, as indicated in the draft agenda, we are planning short progress presentations from each member state whole-genome sequencing project in the day 1 morning breakout sessions. These presentations should be about 10 min respectively + discussion.

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Best wishes,

Max

Maximilian Görlitz
Policy Officer
 

European Commission

Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Authority (HERA)

Unit HERA.02 Intelligence Gathering, Analysis and Innovation

L-15 02/P41

1000 Brussels

Belgium

Dear all,

Thanks to all of you who have already registered! To those of you who haven’t, a kind reminder to please do so as soon as possible so we get a more precise understanding of the attendee numbers and participation in specific breakouts.

https://eu.eventscloud.com/hera-sequencing-symposium

For clarification, every person who intends to attend should register individually. You cannot have one registration on behalf of a team.

Also please note, as indicated in the draft agenda, we are planning short progress presentations from each project in the day 1 morning breakout sessions. These presentations should be about 10 min respectively + discussion. Please confirm you are presenting by registering.

Additionally, please let us know about specific discussion questions/ideas for the breakout sessions relevant at this stage of your project implementation that would be helpful for you to exchange on with the other projects.

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Best wishes,

Max

Dear member state whole-genome sequencing grant coordinators (CP-g-22-01.04),

As you know, we are planning the “HERA Symposium on Strengthening Genomic Sequencing Capacities for Outbreak Preparedness and Response” on June 4-5, 2025, in Brussels. (Venue location: La Tricoterie, Rue Théodore Verhaegen 158, 1060 Bruxelles).

We would like to thank you for your prompt feedback and interest. Today, we are sending a more detailed concept note and draft agenda. The agenda and concept note have been inspired and adapted to your feedback and recommendations from last year’s HERA Grants Symposium, including parallel sessions to present the progress of your projects. 

We want to build meaningful and participative sessions and have chosen a dynamic and more innovative venue. Therefore, we would also like to invite you to provide your project’s feedback on the agenda to accommodate discussion questions/ideas for the breakout sessions on day 1 relevant at this stage of your project implementation.

The final agenda will be shared soon after receiving your feedback.

Please share this registration link with the team members you consider appropriate to participate in this event, considering we expect a representation of 2-4 people (maximum) per project. Please bear in mind the attendance is expected in person with no streaming option.

https://eu.eventscloud.com/hera-sequencing-symposium

Finally, let us know whether you would like to use the venue for an in-person meeting on the afternoon of June 3^rd (without HERA/HaDEA presence); there is an option for this in the registration link.

For any questions, please email [email protected]

We are looking forward to hearing from you and seeing you in person soon!

Best wishes,

Teresa, Margarida & Max

Maximilian Görlitz
Policy Officer
 

European Commission

Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Authority (HERA)

Unit HERA.02 Intelligence Gathering, Analysis and Innovation

L-15 02/P41

1000 Brussels

Belgium

Dear member state whole-genome sequencing grant coordinators (CP-g-22-01.04),

We hope this email finds you well. Please save the date:

Based on your valuable feedback from last year’s HERA Grants Symposium expressing a desire for more exchange opportunities, we are delighted to inform you that we are organising a follow-up edition on June 4-5, 2025, in Brussels (optionally also the afternoon of June 3^rd). This event will be the “HERA Symposium on Strengthening Genomic Sequencing Capacities for Outbreak Preparedness and Response”.

As your projects have now been running for some time, this symposium will provide an excellent platform to share your progress and results achieved so far. The date was chosen to coincide with the week of the HERA Industry Days on June 2-3 (HERA Industry Days - European Commission).

Considering the lessons learned from last year’s event, we are planning to focus this event more on your direct grants to member states on sequencing capacity projects specifically, with discussions on genomic based sequencing capacities for the characterization and detection and routine surveillance of pathogens. The exact agenda is still to be determined.

We acknowledge that these planned dates are only two months away and the invitation comes at relatively short notice, but we sincerely consider this is a good occasion to bring all the projects together in-person to share, learn and discuss outcomes, challenges, and expectations.

For this event, we will be working hand in hand with HaDEA and will invite ECDC and other relevant COM services and projects.

Please book travel and accommodation yourselves. The costs thereof will be eligible under the current grant agreements, within the limits of the maximum grant amounts. We hope this will allow for the presence of 1-3 representatives from each project.

Best wishes,

Teresa & Max on behalf of the sequencing symposium team

Summary:

Dates: 3-5 June (4^th and 5^th are main days; 3^rd is only afternoon and optional—see below), immediately following the HERA industry days.

Full event title: HERA Symposium on Strengthening Genomic Sequencing Capacities for Outbreak Preparedness and Response

Short Title: HERA Sequencing Symposium

Venue: La Tricoterie (Brussels, Belgium)

Concept: As a follow-up to the HERA grants symposium in 2024, we are planning another symposium more focused on the member states sequencing capacity grantees.:

• Agenda based on input from the project coordination teams.

• Facilitate further collaboration between the 21 projects in Member States.

• Strengthen communication between the grantees MS organisations and EU institutions (ECDC, HaDEA etc.) and EC.

• Discuss and share experience on common technical problems, bottlenecks experienced by different projects.

• Short talks on progress and outcomes, lessons learned and sustainability.

• Create synergies with other genomic sequencing-related EU funded projects, e.g., on wastewater surveillance.

• Group dinner on 4^th June.

• Main event to take place on the 4^th and 5^th June.

• On the afternoon of 3^rd June, the venue could optionally be used for in-person consortium meetings of the projects (e.g., Steering Committee). Please think about whether you want to make use of this possibility. HERA or HaDEA colleagues wouldn’t be present on that day.

Maximilian Görlitz
Policy Officer
 

European Commission

Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Authority (HERA)

Unit HERA.02 Intelligence Gathering, Analysis and Innovation

L-15 02/P41

1000 Brussels

Belgium