On 10-11 September 2026, partners of the EUVABECO project gathered in Riga, Latvia, for a two-day face-to-face meeting hosted by Rīga Stradiņš University (RSU) at its Anatomy Museum. Welcomed by Professor Dace Zavadska, the meeting brought together consortium members from across Europe to review evaluation results, align on next steps, and prepare the project’s final deliverables. The first day opened with a message from the project’s Coordinator, Professor Christos Lionis, followed by a General Assembly update from the consortium’s Steering Committee. The consortium was also joined by Julián Rueda, Project Adviser at the European Commission’s Health and Digital Executive Agency (HaDEA), whose presence and the continuous support of HaDEA throughout the project were warmly acknowledged.
The first day’s agenda then centred on the evaluation of EUVABECO’s five pilot tools – the Clinical Decision Support system, the European Vaccination Card, Forecasting, Data Linkage, and the electronic Patient Information Leaflet. Across two sessions, partners discussed what the analyses had shown so far, what remained to be completed, and the steps needed to finalise the evaluation.
A keynote lecture by Anda Ķīvīte-Urtāne, Director of the Institute of Public Health, discussed health progress and challenges in Latvia that related to the themes at the heart of the project. The afternoon turned to the cross-country surveys and to the sustainability of the pilot tools, with a focus on embedding these approaches in real-world settings beyond the project’s lifetime. Discussions continued informally over dinner in Riga, strengthening collaboration among partners.
The second day focused on communication and dissemination. Partners discussed the communication modules developed so far for each tool and how best to improve them to communicate EUVABECO’s implementation plans and tools to EU Member States, followed by planning for the final communication and impact event to be held in Heraklion. The day also included a discussion on the project’s publications, ensuring that the lessons learned from EUVABECO’s pilots reach wider audiences.
The Riga meeting marked an important step as the consortium moves into its final phase, shifting from testing toward evaluation, sustainability, and dissemination. By consolidating results and setting clear priorities for the months ahead, partners reaffirmed EUVABECO’s shared commitment to strengthening vaccination services across Europe.
