The Western-Eastern European Partnership Initiative on HIV, Viral Hepatitis and TB (WEEPI) launches a new open call for proposals! This 3rd Call for Proposals seeks clinical and implementation research projects aimed at improving prevention, testing, and care for HIV, viral hepatitis, and tuberculosis in the central and eastern European part of the WHO European Region.
Key Focus Areas:
Reducing barriers to testing, prevention, and care, including addressing stigma and focusing on key populations.
Improving quality of care for people living with HIV, viral hepatitis, and TB by implementing European guidelines and quality control measures.
Generating evidence on innovative approaches to services for HIV, viral hepatitis, and TB, and sharing the results widely.
Building national capacity through healthcare provider training and education.
Establishing partnerships with national or international health institutions (projects with national health authority support are encouraged!).
Eligibility: Organizations/institutions from central and eastern WHO European Region countries are invited to apply. Partnerships with researchers in Western Europe are highly encouraged!
The Organising Committee of EECA INTERACT 2025 has decided to postpone the Workshop in Tbilisi, Georgia, to November 20-21, 2025. Please find further details in the enclosed letter from the Scientific Committee. We thank all who submitted abstracts and encourage updates or new submissions during summer 2025 for scientific peer review.
Thank you for your understanding and continued support of EECA INTERACT, a vital forum for advancing science, building networks, and strengthening capacity across the EECA region. We will provide you with more updates soon.
Best regards,
The team of EECA INTERACT
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The call for abstracts EECA INTERACT 2025 is open. Please, apply!
Attention researchers! EECA INTERACT 2025 invites you to submit your abstracts on HIV, TB, and hepatitis by November 30. Share your work with the region’s leading experts in Tbilisi!
The online application is open from 7 October until 30 November. Submit your abstract via this form.
EECA INTERACT 2025 will bring together scientists, clinicians, members of civil society, and government officials to tackle topics facing individual countries while building capacity and strengthening research and clinical networks. We encourage researchers from Eastern and Central Europe, Balkans, Caucasus, Central Asia, and the Baltics to submit abstracts for peer review. There are a limited number of scholarships for the highest scoring abstract presenters to attend the INTERACT workshop in person. We invite researchers to submit abstracts on the following topics:
Health & science
Epidemiology, including surveillance and data collection
Antiretroviral treatment and HIV care
Access to diagnostics, medicines, and medical products
Basic science and HIV cure, vaccines, and monoclonal antibodies
HIV co-infections, including hepatitis, tuberculosis, sexually transmitted infections, and (re)emerging pathogens
HIV and co-morbidities
Laboratory monitoring/diagnostics
HIV prevention
New PrEP technologies and PrEP rollout
Paediatrics and prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT)
Implementation science,
Financing, cost-effectiveness, and impact modelling
Information technology innovations for HIV (MHealth, electronic records, social media)
Society
Community/civil society/stakeholder engagement
Community-based participatory research
Innovative approaches to priority populations that are at risk and underserved
Socio-behavioural research
Women and HIV
Stigma and discrimination
Regulatory, ethical, and research conduct challenges
Policy
Structural determinants of HIV vulnerability
Health systems strengthening
Knowledge translation to policy and programming
Abstract requirements
max. 500 words / 3000 characters. The text should be under four headings: Background, Methodology, Results, Conclusion. Graphs, images, and tables are not allowed. Please note that the conference secretariat cannot be held responsible for any typing or language errors in submitted abstracts. Abstract Review criteria:
Is there a clear background and justified objective?
Is the methodology/study design appropriate for the objectives?
Are the results important and clearly presented?
Are the conclusions supported by the results?
Is the study original, and does it contribute to the field?
The online application is open from 7 October until 30 November.
There are a limited number of scholarships, preference is given to young investigators (under 35) or less than 5 years out from PhD or MD. Information is available on request via info@eeca-interact.org.
EECA Interact 2025 is organized by AFEW International and the Amsterdam Institute for Global Health & Development (AIGHD).
Next EECA INTERACT will be held on 27-28th February 2025
We are happy to share with you that the fifth scientific workshop on HIV, TB, and hepatitis in Eastern Europe and Central Asia – EECA INTERACT – will be held on 27-28th February 2025 in Tbilisi, Georgia, in Ilia State University.
EECA INTERACT is an abstract-driven workshop on HIV, hepatitis, and tuberculosis in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. The Workshop strengthens scientific research capacity while simultaneously enhancing clinical, prevention, and research networks across the Eastern Europe and Central Asia (EECA) region. Bringing young, bright, early career researchers together with top scientists, clinicians, and policy makers, EECA INTERACT aims to ignite a conversation that will build a stronger scientific base to serve the region and connect to the world.
Read more about International Scientific Committee (ISC) here.
Please, note that the abstract submission process will be open from October 7th till November 30th 2024.
Follow us on social media and visit our website for updates.
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EECA INTERACT 2023 Virtual
The fourth scientific workshop on HIV, hepatitis C, and tuberculosis in Eastern Europe and Central Asia – EECA INTERACT 2023 – was held online on 14 December 2023.
This year’s live virtual event set the stage for EECA INTERACT 2024, which will be a face-to-face symposium in Fall 2024 that will include oral presentations by young scientists selected through peer review.
The EECA INTERACT 2023 scientific program reviewed the state of the art on HIV, TB and viral hepatitis in the region through keynote talks by experts and focused discussions.
EECA INTERACT 2023 had three panels focusing on:
Impact of the war on Ukraine and beyond Ukraine across the EECA region;
Prevention in the EECA region and PreP;
Session on (In)visible community: HIV and health disparities among MSM and Trans* people in EECA.
The scientific co-chairs of INTERACT 2023 are Professors Catherine Hankins (Amsterdam Institute for Global Health and Development), Anda Kivite-Urtane (Riga State University), and Michel Kazatchkine (Global Health Center, Graduate Institute, Geneva).
Speakers:
Stela Bivol, Unit Lead (Joint Infectious Diseases), WHO Regional Office for Europe
Mila Maistat, Policy and Advocacy Manager, Medicines Patent Pool
Stefan Baral, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
Timur Abdullaev, Board Member of TB people Global, Human Rights and Sustainability of the National HIV and TB responses in EECA at UNDP
Justyna Kowalska, MD, PhD, Senior Consultant, Hospital for Infectious Diseases in Warsaw; Professor of Medicine, Department of Adults’ Infectious Diseases at Medical University of Warsaw
Maksut Kulzhanov, Asfendiyarov Kazakh National Medical University in Kazakhstan
Nikolay Lunchenkov, Eurasian Coalition on Male Health (ECOM)
Nadira Masiumova, Eurasian Coalition on Male Health (ECOM)
Andrii Bogoslavets,PrEP.com.ua and ALLIANCE.GLOBAL (Ukraine)
Iason Shishniashvili, Equality Movement (Georgia)
For reference
The first EECA INTERACT workshop, hosted in Almaty, Kazakhstan in 2019, brought together clinicians, policy makers, and civil society representatives from Eastern Europe and Central Asia (EECA) to share knowledge about the epidemiology, treatment, pathogenesis, and prevention of HIV, tuberculosis, hepatitis C, and harm reduction initiatives. Over the two days, attendees focused on the particularities of the EECA region in regard to these epidemics, and how each disease can be addressed in the coming future.
The second EECA INTERACT workshop was held online in 2021 and served to set the stage for the 2022 symposium to follow. It consisted of three panels addressing integration of HIV, TB, and overdose prevention services; surveillance focused on data collection, validation, and analysis; and the impact of COVID-19 on health care services.
The EECA INTERACT 2022 summary report is released!
The third EECA INTERACT Workshop, held in Riga, Latvia on December 13 and 14, was convened by the Amsterdam Institute for Global Health and Development (AIGHD), AFEW International, and Riga Stradins University. It was led by Scientific Co-Chairs
Prof MD Catherine Hankins and Prof MD Michel Kazatchkine, and Local Chair Associate Professor Anda Kivite-Urtane.
The long-awaited and eagerly anticipated EECA INTERACT 2022 followed on the first edition of EECA INTERACT held in Almaty, Kazakhstan in 2019 and the second edition held virtually during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021. EECA INTERACT has established itself as the only scientific abstract-driven workshop that provides a bilingual platform for showcasing the results of scientific research in Eastern Europe and Central Asia.
During EECA INTERACT 2022, speakers and participants presented state-of-the-art research in the fields of HIV, tuberculosis (TB), and viral hepatitis, exchanging knowledge between East and West and building networks between clinicians, scientists, policy makers, and activists from across the region. The Workshop focused on service integration, surveillance, and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on regional HIV, TB, and hepatitis services, highlighting innovative adaptations to service delivery in the region.
Multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR TB) and progress in diagnostic methods and treatment of MDR TB received special emphasis. Throughout, the Workshop addressed the impact of the war in Ukraine on health, in both Ukraine and the broader EECA region, as well as the implications of the refugee crisis across Europe.
EECA INTERACT 2022 was supported by Gilead, the US National Institutes of Health (NIH), Aidsfonds, ANRS of France, MPP, MSD, EU4MD, and the International AIDS Society.
It was a great event and we want to thank all our guests, partners, sponsors, contributors. It was a great pleasure for us to collaborate with you during the workshop!
Our team worked very hard to make this year’s event successful and we want to make EECA INTERACT even better next year! We need your help and ideas, while your memory is still fresh. We are very grateful for your feedback and will use your suggestions in the preparations for the event EECA INTERACT 2023.
In January 2023 we will publish all the pictures, an abstract book, and other materials on our website, so you can recall EECA INTERACT 2022 in details.
We wish you happy holidays and New Year, and we hope to see you next year at EECA INTERACT 2023!
Sponsors: The National Institutes of Health (NIH), French Agency for Research on AIDS and Viral Hepatitis, The International AIDS Society, The Medicines Patent Pool, Aidsfonds, the EU drugs agency, MSD.
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A unique forum of scientific discussion on HIV, TB and hepatitis
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Welcome to EECA INTERACT 2022!
We are looking forward to meeting you in Riga, Latvia on 13-14 December!
Anda Ķīvīte-Urtāne, PHD, MPH, Associate Professor at Riga Stradins University, Department of Public Health and Epidemiology, the local chair of EECA INTERACT 2022.
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Registration is now open!
We are happy to share that registration for EECA INTERACT 2022 is now open! EECA INTERACT 2022 will be held in Riga, Latvia, on December 13-14.
EECA INTERACT is a research workshop that brings together scientists, clinicians, policymakers, and civil society from the region to debate topics facing individual countries while building capacity and strengthening research and clinical networks.
This year we are expanding EECA INTERACT to include the Baltics, the Balkans, and several countries in Central Europe.
The final programme of EECA INTERACT 2022 is in development and will be published no later than October 24, 2022.
