The ECDC Fellowship Programme has the following programme objectives:
- To strengthen the surveillance and control of infectious diseases and other cross border health threats or issues of public health concern in the EU/EEA Member States and at EU level, supporting the implementation of Decision 1082/2013/EU;
- To enhance response capacities for effective field investigation and communicable disease control at national and community level to meet public health threats;
- To strengthen the European network of public health professionals through use of shared standards and methods, good practices and common public health objectives;
- To support cascading of training and capacity building within the Member States;
- To facilitate multi-disciplinary cooperation in the above fields.
It has two paths: a path for field epidemiology and a path for public health microbiology
- Field epidemiology path (EPIET): This path focuses on training and practical experience in intervention epidemiology at the national and regional centres for surveillance and control of communicable diseases in the European Union.
- Public health microbiology path (EUPHEM): This path focuses on training and practical experience in laboratories with public health functions or training sites with a consortium of different laboratories in Europe.