28th to 30th January, Stockholm, Sweden.

The ECDC Winter Workshop 2020 will focus on “The science of using science to support policy making for prevention and control of communicable diseases”. The overall aim of this workshop is to strengthen capacity among public health specialists in Member States of the European Union (EU) and of the European Economic Area (EEA) in the application of scientific principles and concepts to inform and influence policy making decisions related to the prevention and control of communicable diseases.

The Winter Workshop will bring together country experts with various backgrounds to exchange experiences, views and gain knowledge and skills about how to inform policy makers in relation to preparedness, detection, assessment and control of public health threats with a cross-border dimension at the EU-level, in the area of communicable disease prevention and control. A similar workshop took place at the beginning of 2019. The results of the evaluation were very positive and improvements have been made to this 2nd edition of the workshop, taking into account the participants’ feedback.

The 3 day training course covers the following key areas

• Introduction to the policy process and evidence-informed policy-making.
• Designing a plan to enhance and support the use of evidence to inform and influence policymaking in the area of communicable disease prevention and control

Pedagogical approach for the Winter Workshop

• An online (through EVA platform) pre and post-workshop activity of 8 hours each is expected.
• Participants will be invited to actively contribute and if possible present their experience in the topics covered by the workshop.
• Interactive lectures from experts in policy making will provide the basis for discussions.
• A group work will be structured to design a strategy to enhance and support the use of research evidence in policy making.
• A structured breakout session will be dedicated to support the participants in developing a knowledge transfer activity in their professional setting.
• Opportunities for feedback from experts and colleagues (participants) will be integrated at different stages of the workshop.