EU-WISH International Workshop in Dublin, Ireland – A Great Success

From September 9 to 11, Dublin hosted the EU-WISH International Workshop, bringing together over 150 participants from 30 countries, mainly across Europe but also beyond, and representing more than 80 organizations (public health institutes, research centres, universities, and more).

We would like to extend our special thanks to our hosts, University College Dublin, Ireland, for their warm welcome and support in making this event such a success.

Alongside consortium members, the event welcomed major organizations such as the World Health Organization (WHO) and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), among others. The European Commission, represented by HERA and JRC, were also present to witness the progress of the project.

Over the course of two days, the workshop alternated between plenary sessions - followed both onsite and remotely by more than 80 online participants - and interactive working sessions.

Key topics included:

• Prioritization of surveillance targets: respiratory viruses, antimicrobial resistance, chemical substances, and other health-related biomarkers;
• Wastewater surveillance integration for decision-making: comparability of results across European countries, strategies for sampling, and effective approaches for long-term monitoring;

The working sessions proved to be highly productive, and the synthesis of the outcomes into a clear and concise summary is currently in progress.
These will be shared with you very soon – so stay tuned!

This workshop highlighted the importance of acting together towards a common mission: strengthening and improving national capacities for wastewater-based public health surveillance. The strong engagement of both the consortium and other major organizations demonstrates not only the scale of the challenge but also the shared dedication to move forward collectively.

In the meantime, we are happy to share some highlights in photos.