As we enter into the new year, it’s time to look ahead and see what’s in store for ESCMID. We have had many rapid changes over the past few years and intend that your Society continues to innovate and improve upon activities and offerings for the next year. Join me as we look at some of the highlights coming up in 2026.

Science and Research

In the previous year, we began the process of creating a brand-new subcommittee focused on vaccines with the appointment of Maheshi Ramasamy as Director and opening a call for members to join. In 2026, the ESCMID Vaccines Subcommittee will take shape and begin work providing support and direction on vaccination policies and practices to enhance public health impact. These are the first steps of introducing vaccines into the ESCMD strategy alongside our other two key scientific pillars which, as you know, are AMR and Emerging Infections.

Diversity, equity and inclusion are core values of ESCMID. We are proud to introduce another group of grants included in our individual research grant call. The “Women in science” research grants focus on the quality of the scientific project and as such, ESCMID membership will not be required to apply for this new grant. It is our intention that this grant recognises excellent female researchers and gives them the support they need to develop their careers in the field of infection.

Education

ESCMID is pushing into the world of digital learning. The ESCMID Academy is our new space for on demand digital learning. This past year we launched the first course on this new platform co-organised with ECRAID covering data governance. This is just the beginning with a new long-form online course covering antimicrobial resistance set to be released in the first half of this year. More courses from EUCAST and EUCIC are in development and members can expect updates on these later this year.

The 24th edition of our Summer School will take place in Budapest, Hungary from 28 June to 04 July 2026. This one-week programme is a highlight of the ESCMID education programme and a firm favourite with members. Allowing young professionals to connect with experts and build important professional skills, this is a must attend event. Registration is open now! Numbers of places are strictly limited!

Congress and Events

ESCMID Global will return bigger than ever in Munich, Germany in April this year. We received a record number of abstract submissions and paired with the exemplary invited programme coordinated by the ESCMID Global Programme Committee, this congress is shaping up to be one of our best yet. Key features this year include:

• Education Friday: A full day of sessions as well as a suite of highly interactive small group workshops designed to boost your educational experience.
• Pipeline Monday: The R&D pipeline track is back connecting academia, healthcare, industry, and policymakers. Join these innovative sessions to see what’s coming up in diagnostics, therapeutics and more.
• Personalisation of your ESCMID Global Experience: Attend your own conference within the congress! With more personalisation features and the addition of a new paediatrics track, there are more ways to ensure you get to see what really interests you.

After the sell-out success of the first Global AMR Innovators Conference (GAMRIC), we have begun work on the next GAMRIC along with our partners. This edition will be larger and offer more opportunities to participate while also continuing to showcase the latest breakthroughs and challenges of developing new therapeutics, diagnostics, vaccines and preventatives addressing AMR. We look forward to welcoming you all to GAMRIC 2026 which takes place from 22-24 September 2026 in Lisbon, Portugal.

Guidelines and Journals

We are very excited to welcome Jesús Rodríguez-Baño as the new Editor-in-Chief (EiC) of CMI. Jesús released an editorial note earlier last year when the announcement was made where he gave some insights into what readers can expect.

“We will [continue to] publish articles that are in the interest of better care of patients with infectious diseases, including prevention, diagnostics, stewardship and clinical management aspects.”

Be sure to read the full note and congratulations to Jesús for the appointment. We are all looking forward to seeing where you take CMI!

Our open-access journal, CMI Communications is also continuing a trend of growth in the coming year. The journal has started a two-year fellowship programme to train early/mid-career professionals in editorial practices, with the first class starting soon. Additions to the editorial board and the creation of an advisory board further solidify the journal’s dedication to excellence in scientific publication. Furthermore, CMI Communications will organise a course this year as part of the CLARITY initiative.

ESCMID is pleased to announce the new Guidelines Director, Jacob Bodilsen, who will take office at ESCMID Global 2026 in April replacing Luigia Scudeller who has been elected to the ESCMID Executive Committee. ESCMID will continue its guidelines programme and open five new projects in 2026 alongside the publication of completed projects ensuring that we keep up with the best practices in clinical care and beyond.