Sessions at ESCAIDE

The scientific programme at ESCAIDE is made up of plenaries and abstract-led sessions.

Plenaries

Plenaries provide an opportunity to discuss public health challenges and scientific advances, bring together experts in cross-cutting fields to enable evidence from infectious disease research and epidemiology to be translated into improvements in public health.

The content of plenaries is developed by the ESCAIDE Scientific Committee (11 cross-field members), who invite high-level speakers to deliver inspiring presentations and address questions from the audience. The sessions are chaired by the Scientific Committee members and the format of each varies from panel discussions, interviews and debates.

Abstract sessions

Abstracts are submitted to ESCAIDE and reviewed by a group of reviewers and the Scientific Committee. Those selected represent the latest in cutting-edge research from a broad spectrum of fields including infectious disease epidemiology, microbiology, surveillance, implementation science, modelling, preparedness and more.

Abstracts are selected to be presented as oral or poster presentations. The format of these has varied through the years and evolved to suit the online environment at ESCAIDE 2020 and 2021, and the hybrid editions of 2022 and 2023. At in-person editions, abstracts were either presented in parallel oral sessions or in moderated poster sessions. At online editions of ESCAIDE, oral abstract pitch videos and abstract posters were made available in online galleries on the conference platform (Swapcard), which could be viewed at any time during the conference. In 2020, moderated fireside sessions provided the audience with an opportunity to put their questions to oral abstract presenters, who could delve deeper into their work. This format continued in 2021 and was accompanied by poster tour sessions, which also provided this discussion opportunity for poster presenters. In 2022, sessions were made to be hybrid for the first time, with presenters and audience joining online and in-person.