Ecraid & ESCMID Launch New Course

Organised by Ecraid and ESCMID, in collaboration with CERCLE, IDDO, TGHN and CoMeCT, the course is delivered by recognised experts in the field and brings you up-to-date in a rapidly evolving biomedical research landscape. 

This comprehensive course will equip participants with the skills and knowledge necessary to navigate biomedical data and sample governance. Tailored for researchers, data stewards, and administrators, the course covers critical topics, including:

• Understanding and implementing the FAIR principles.
• Constructing and implementing data and sample governance frameworks.
• Navigating ethical, legal, and regulatory concerns, including GDPR and the Nagoya Protocol.
• Addressing issues in data and metadata quality for effective reuse.
• Choosing trusted repositories and metadata catalogues for biomedical data and samples.

Participants will engage in four pre-recorded one-hour modules, supplemented by training materials and live discussions with global experts. Each module integrates case studies and practical tools, fostering hands-on learning.

How to enroll: Enrollment is now open on the ESCMID website. Visit the ESCMID enrollment page to secure your spot and join a global community that advances biomedical research through robust data governance practices.

The initiative is financed by the EU-funded ECRAID-Base project.

Course organisation

Ecraid Foundation

The European Clinical Research Alliance on Infectious Diseases (Ecraid) Foundation is a nonprofit organisation that advances clinical research in the field of infectious diseases through international collaboration. Next to a broad portfolio of services, Ecraid offers a single point-of-access to key academic opinion leaders and a ‘warm-base’ clinical research network spanning over 1,250 clinical sites and more than 1000 laboratories across 42 European countries.

Course coordinator:
Lauren Maxwell, Heidelberg University's Institute for Global Health, Germany

ESCMID

The European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ESCMID) is a non-profit international organisation with headquarters in Basel, Switzerland. It supports lifelong learning for professionals in clinical microbiology and infectious diseases through global education programmes. Education is central to ESCMID’s strategy, evolving to meet member needs and drive positive contributions to science and healthcare. As a key partner in ECRAID-Base, ESCMID leads Work Package 11 on education and training, focusing on tailored training needs assessments, blended learning programmes combining online and onsite training, and the ECRAID-Base E-Learning Hub developed with the European Respiratory Society (ERS).

IDDO

The Infectious Diseases Data Observatory (IDDO) exists to promote the reuse of individual participant data across the global infectious disease community. IDDO curates submitted data from many different sources in-house, to produce freely available harmonised datasets, enabling scientists to answer new research questions from existing data.  IDDO’s goal is to provide the methods, governance and infrastructure to translate clinical data into evidence to improve health outcomes worldwide. IDDO incorporates the pioneering WorldWide Antimalarial Resistance Network (WWARN), a collaborative data-sharing framework that proved it is possible to produce policy-changing scientific evidence from pooling existing data. Learn more.

CERCLE

The Coalition for Equitable ResearCh in Low-resource sEttings (CERCLE) is a coalition of more than 1000 researchers and other stakeholders from 98 countries working together to address structural inequities in the global research landscape and to advocate for equitable solutions to infectious disease threats. With 75% of members coming from low-resource settings, CERCLE serves as a hub for South-South collaboration, fostering partnerships between LRS researchers. With no single leading organization to prevent institutional bias, CERCLE’s work is guided by its Steering Committee, whose members include representatives of leading health institutions in Africa, Asia, Europe, and South America. Learn more.

TGHN

The Global Health Network is a collaborative, open-access knowledge hub dedicated to building capacity for health research in regions where evidence is most needed. Hosted by the University of Oxford, it provides free learning resources, research tools, and community networks to support and accelerate high-quality, equitable research in global health. The platform connects over 1 million members worldwide, offering online training, research support, and opportunities for collaboration across diverse disease areas and settings. The Global Health Network plays a key role in enabling research preparedness and response to emerging health threats, particularly in low-resource environments. Learn more.

CoMeCT

The CoMeCT project aims to enhance Europe's clinical research preparedness and response to infectious disease outbreaks with epidemic potential. The COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated the importance of focusing efforts on large-scale, pragmatic trials to reduce research fragmentation, and duplication, and to lead to efficient use of resources and results. CoMeCT will ensure preparedness for any future pandemic through coordination of efforts. With a sustainable and robust Coordination Mechanism that connects strategic adaptive platform trials, cohort studies and other relevant stakeholders, CoMeCT will focus on the establishment of a continued dialogue, identification of current challenges, and co-development of best practices for the different elements of clinical studies, preparedness and operation in epidemic and pandemic times. Learn more.