Join the upcoming NCOH Annual Scientific Meeting in Amsterdam – an event with brimming scientific insights, a captivating PhD pitch competition, and valuable networking opportunities with fellow One Health enthusiasts.

‘Making connections’ was the overarching theme of the Netherlands Centre for One Health Science Café in the Van Swinderhuys on 9 November 2023 in Groningen. This year’s meeting was organised by the University of Groningen. After a warm welcome and introduction of Groningen Research by University of Groningen’s Bert Poolman, NCOH’s chair of the executive board Annemarie Rebel addressed the Science Café attendees whereby she underlined the importance of connecting the science at the Dutch top research institutes in the field of One Health.

Annette Westgeest of Leiden University Medical Center won the Science Café pitch award by audience vote with the pitch on her research. MRSA is commonly known as a deadly superbug. Generally, the bacteria are carried in the nose. The Netherlands has a low prevalence of MRSA due to the search and destroy strategy, but there are still unanswered questions. Westgeest focusses on narrowing down the vulnerable part of the population.

Beginning of this year the Executive Board was eagerly preparing a new application for the National Growth Fund, aimed at increasing the national preparedness for infectious disease outbreaks. These efforts were combined with Pandemic & Disaster Preparedness Centre (PDPC) and a joint application was submitted.