Course announcements from the UK

[submitted to NOSOVE by Huybert Groenendaal 24th July 2013]

Postgraduate Certificate in Risk Analysis in Health and Food Safety

&

Animal Agriculture and Food Safety Risk Analysis and Disease Modeling Course

The Royal Veterinary College and EpiX Analytics

Dear Colleagues,

We would like to make you aware of two upcoming opportunities for training in risk analysis, one is a Postgraduate Certificate course in Risk Analysis in Health and Food Safety starting March 2014, and the other is the short course “Animal Agriculture and Food Safety Risk Analysis and Disease Modeling” running from Sept. 2-13, 2013.

The Postgraduate Certificate in Risk Analysis in Health and Food Safety offered by the Royal Veterinary College and EpiX Analytics is now open for registrations. Register now to ensure you get a place in the course starting in March 2014. The program, among the first recognized academic qualifications in Risk Analysis in Health and Food Safety, aims at providing the skills for cutting-edge and in-depth practice in quantitative risk analysis in health and food safety. It builds on previously successful training programs delivered by the two institutions, and offers candidates the opportunity to develop hands-on work skills and tailor their studies to their own professional and development needs. Options are offered to accommodate the working schedule of participants including part-time study and online examinations. Applicants with prior knowledge in risk analysis and/or who have attended risk analysis training delivered by EpiX/RVC can also apply for an exemption from Module 1 (and discounted fees). For more information on the postgraduate certificate please visit: www.rvc.ad.uk/rahfs or www.epixanalytics.com/RAHFS.html or contact Barbara O’Neill at boneill@epixanalytics.com.

Candidates that cannot undertake the postgraduate certificate in 2014 may be interested in our course Animal Agriculture and Food Safety Risk Analysis and Disease Modeling, offered on September 2-13, 2013 at the Camden campus of the Royal Veterinary College in London, UK. This two-week course aims at providing participants with practical and critical risk analysis skills, and the course credits can be used for continuing professional development and selected postgraduate programs such as our postgraduate certificate. Details are available at http://www.epixanalytics.com/Animal-Agriculture-and-Food-Safety-Risk-Analysis.html.

Open for registration: Two upcoming training opportunities in risk analysis in health and food safety

The Postgraduate Certificate in Risk Analysis in Health and Food Safety offered by EpiX Analytics and the Royal Veterinary College (RVC), University of London is open for registrations. Register now to ensure you get a place on the course starting in March 2014!

Risk analysis is an increasingly important tool used by national and international agencies, veterinary services and the food industry to support decision around health and food safety. In this global context, the certificate is among the first recognized academic qualifications and aims at providing the skills for cutting-edge and in-depth practice in quantitative risk analysis in health and food safety.

Options are offered to accommodate the working schedule of participants including part-time study and remote examinations. Applicants with prior knowledge in risk analysis can also apply for an exemption from Module 1 (and discounted fee).

More information available at http://www.epixanalytics.com/RAHFS.html or www.rvc.ac.uk/rahfs, or contact Barbara O’Neill at: BOneill@epixanalytics.com.

If unable to undertake the postgraduate certificate in 2014, you may be interested in our two-week course Animal Agriculture and Food Safety Risk Analysis and Disease Modeling, offered on September 2-13, 2013 at the Royal Veterinary College in London, UK. This course provides participants with practical and critical risk analysis skills. The course credits can be used for continuing professional development and selected postgraduate programs such as our postgraduate certificate. Details are available at http://www.epixanalytics.com/Animal-Agriculture-and-Food-Safety-Risk-Analysis.html.

Vacant position as Professor/Associate Professor at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark

Dear Colleagues,

we are looking for a new colleague in the Population Biology group:

Vacant position as Professor/Associate Professor is posted online at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark.

Professorship / Associate Professorship in Quantitative Veterinary Epidemiology and Biostatistics. 

Closing date is 15 September 2013

For a full description of this job posting please see 

http://www.ku.dk/english/available_positions/vip/

If you have any questions please contact group leader Professor Hans Houe: houe@sund.ku.dk

Best wishes,

Liza Rosenbaum Nielsen

Professor in Disease Control and Prevention

Future NOSOVE course - Social Network Analysis

The conclusion of local preferences of the future NOSOVE course in Estonia is that the course will be on Social Network Analysis.

The course will be in the summer of 2014. More information will follow on the blog.

Lecture by Sander Greenland in Helsinki 23rd September 2013

23 September 2013, 10-16, Tieteiden Talo, Kirkkokatu 6, Helsinki

[Organised by the Finnish Epidemiology Society]

Professor Sander Greenland (UCLA School of Public Health) is a biostatistician and epidemiologist known for his contributions to meta-analysis, Bayesian inference and causal inference, among other topics. Greenland has published over 300 scientific papers, two of which have been cited over 500 times. He is the co-author of one of the standard textbooks on epidemiology, Modern Epidemiology.

The day will include elements from Sander's recent international presentations such as:

“Overthrowing the Tyranny of Null Hypotheses in Health and Medical Sciences.”

“Is Epidemiology too Difficult for Statisticians?"

“Causal Inference: Much More Than Just Statistics.”

“Integrating Bayesian and frequentist statistics, or: Seeing both sides of the same biased coin.”.

Registration by 31. August 2013 to Laura Laakso, email laura.k.salonen@helsinki..fi

Seminar Day fee 60 eur

Day includes lunch and coffee

FES account

NORDEA

IBAN FI96 1078 3000 2224 88
BIC/SWIFT NDEAFIHH
Please type your name into the message field as a reference of payment

NOSOVE board meeting 28th May 2013

NOSOVE board meeting via Skype

28.05.2013; 13:00-13:39

Attending: Brian Lassen, Hanne Kongsted, Liza Rosenbaum Nielsen, Marit Stormoen, Outi Hälli, Arvo Viltrop

Apologies: Ann Lindberg; Aivars Berzins

Minutes (kept by Arvo):

1.       It was discussed, whether we should keep the NOSOVE website for one more year so that it could point to the NOSOVE blog. This would mean that we should pay a fee to the Univ. of Copenhagen for keeping the website.

It was decided to abandon the website and to keep the blog only from now on. As the internet search engines take you directly to the NOSOVE blog, there is no need for the website any more.

2.       On sponsoring the SVEPM 2014 meeting.

NOSOVE agrees to support the SVEPM annual meeting to be held in Dublin in March 2014 with 1000 euro.

When the program for the conference is ready, NOSOVE would like to specify an activity at the conference that the society will be advertised as sponsor of, e.g. a session or workshop with speakers from NOSOVE-countries or themes of special interest to the NOSOVE-countries (i.e. Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Estonia, Lithuania, and Latvia).

3.       NOSOVE meeting and course 2014:

a.       Place and venue: Arvo and Brian (with the support from Outi) persuaded everyone that the meeting should be kept out of Tallinn. Arvo has suggested a little town with great history at west coast of Estonia called Haapsalu. It is located ~100 km from Tallinn, with very  good bus connections (1 hour 50 min drive). It was decided to go to Haapsalu. Arvo will start looking for the venue.

b.      Topic of the course: The poll in blog had serious technical problems, so it is not possibel to get any result out of it. So it was decided that the board members will  make personal inquiries during two following weeks among potential participants and try to figure out which of the two topics (Social network analysis or Sundromic surveillance) is prefered and would collect more participants. Decision will be made there after.

NOSOVE is looking for a new logo

NOSOVE has decided to update our logo. 

The need became apparent during the last GA where the point was raised that our current logo is not representing the Baltic States that have become present and active in the NOSOVE activites. 

We have already received one submission by Marie Nöremark that will be considered. 

We invite anyone interested to participate in illustrating a new logo for NOSOVE, please send it to brian.lassen[at]gmail.com. 

The competition will close 1st August 2013.
The submissions are considered highly appreciated but voluntary work.

All logo's will be listed in this post and we welcome comments from members on this blog post that we can take into account when making the final decision.

Submission by Maria Nöremark

Illustrators comments for logo: The basis of the logo is a compass with a needle pointing north, to represent the Nordic part of NOSOVE.  In the middle is a graph to represent epidemiology. The logo is made up of the letters of NOSOVE; the two Os are the ring of the compass, the N is north on the compass, the V (upside down) is both the compass arrow and part of the graph, the E is the x-axis of the graph, the S is a curve in the graph.

Search for risk modeller in Weybridge, UK

Do you want to put your mathematical modelling and/or quantitative risk assessment skills to good use? Are you interested in biological systems, animal health and food safety and would you find the challenge of these complex issues stimulating?
 If so, you could be part of a team that’s helping to judge the threat to animal and human health posed by everything from bovine TB to climate change.
 Defra is the UK government department responsible for policy and regulations on the environment, food and rural affairs. The department was established to protect the environment for future generations, make our economy more environmentally sustainable and improve our quality of life and well-being.
 In this key role, you will join DEFRA’s Animal Health & Veterinary Laboratories Agency (AHVLA). You’ll be part of AHVLA’s internationally recognised risk analysis workgroup that provides the UK government and EU with risk assessments that inform policies and contingency plans, as well as guidance on animal health and food safety.  As part of this team you will apply your quantitative skills to many high-profile topics such as bovine TB, avian influenza, vector-borne disease and antibiotic resistance. You will be involved in the entire risk assessment process, from defining the risk question and model design, to model implementation and the delivery of results.  Your efforts will help to shape future policies concerning animal health and food safety, while advancing the science of risk assessment. It is therefore essential that you have a degree in a subject with a significant mathematical or statistical component and also experience of applying quantitative risk assessment, mathematical modelling or simulation modelling, ideally in the field of biological systems, within a research environment.  If you have the expertise, communication skills and self-motivation we’re looking for, you could help the country to combat a wide range of possible threats.

Salary: £27,548 - £34,584.  Location: Weybridge, Surrey, UK.

To view a full job description visit www.civilservice.gov.uk/jobs/ and enter vacancy reference: 1299840. Alternatively contact us on 0845 603 7262 or email: ssd.applications@defra.gsi.gov.uk for a copy, quoting the reference.

Closing date: 21^st June 2013.

Emma L. Snary B.Sc. PhD.Risk Analysis Workgroup Leader Animal Health and Veterinary Laboratories Agency (AHVLA)Epidemiology, Surveillance and Risk GroupNew Haw,Addlestone,Surrey,KT15 3NB T: +44(0) 1932 357317GTN: 3956 2317F: +44(0) 1932 349983
E: emma.snary@ahvla.gsi.gov.uk www.defra.gov.uk/ahvla Animal Health and Veterinary Laboratories Agency (AHVLA) This email and any attachments is intended for the named recipient only. If you have received it in error you have no authority to use, disclose, store or copy any of its contents and you should destroy it and inform the sender. Whilst this email and associated attachments will have been checked for known viruses whilst within AHVLA systems we can accept no responsibility once it has left our systems. Communications on AHVLA computer systems may be monitored and/or recorded to secure the effective operation of the system and for other lawful purposes.