Genetic Epidemiology and Bioinformatics Training Programme

GenEpi-BioTrain is an ambitious 4-year training program launched by ECDC in January 2023 to enable public health professionals to use and share genomic information for surveillance, outbreak response, and preparedness routine and to foster national and international collaboration among them.

Candidate selection is conducted by country-specific National Focal Points and subsequently approved by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC).

The training is organized into distinct blocks aligned with pathogen waves. Each pathogen wave spans six months.

Since the program’s inception, 280 participants have been trained through 21 face-to-face training courses. Additionally, 17 one-day virtual sessions focusing on public health bioinformatics were held, attracting over 8,400 registrations. Each year, training focuses on two of the eight defined pathogen waves, beginning with respiratory viruses (SARS-CoV-2 and Influenza) and antimicrobial-resistant (AMR) bacterial pathogens, which constitute pathogen waves 1 and 2. In 2024, the training was centered around food- and waterborne diseases (FWD) and vaccine-preventable infections (VPI), representing the subsequent pathogen waves 3 & 4 in the program.

All participants in face-to-face courses demonstrated improved knowledge. Before the training, self-assessed levels were distributed as follows: 22% ‘unaware’, 42% ‘aware’, 27% ‘knowledgeable’, 8% ‘skilled’, and 0% ‘expert’. After the training, these shifted significantly to 0% ‘unaware’, 10% ‘aware’, 49% ‘knowledgeable’, 40% ‘skilled’, and 2% ‘expert’.

Currently, We are conducting workshops associated with pathogen waves 5 (tuberculosis) & 6 (AMR) IN 2025 -2026.

ECDC funded training program to support capacity building in genomic epidemiology and bioinformatics.