facilitating collaboration and the use of a common language among professionals

Harmonising the competencies used in applied epidemiology will facilitate collaboration and enhance the use of a common language among professionals who tackled cross-border health threats in Europe.

The competencies framework contains a list of 157 competencies grouped in six subject areas:

• Essential methods for applied infectious diseases epidemiology
• Preparedness, surveillance and response to infectious disease outbreaks
• Communication and advocacy
• Practice of infectious disease epidemiology
• Contextual influences on infectious disease management
• Leadership and management

The potential uses for this competency set include:

• training needs assessments in public health institutions
• individual assessment
• writing of vacancy notices
• professional development planning.

To facilitate the use of the competency set, the ECDC has also developed a self-assessment tool, which aims at helping individual professionals analyse their competency level in each domain and identify relevant resources provided by ECDC and its stakeholders. Case studies that show the use of the competency set will also be made available in the near future.