Kick-off meeting and Coronavirus
In October 2019 all the partners met for the first time during a 3-day kick-off meeting in Gothenburg, Sweden. It was positive that so many were able to participate and contribute to the start of our exciting project. Despite the new situation with the Coronavirus outbreak, the work within the various work packages got off to a good start with good cooperation between the beneficiaries. We have adapted to the new situation with new solutions for communication and have as far as possible managed to stick to the planned NorthTick schedule, despite the special circumstances.The NorthTick workshop, that was planned as a physical meeting in Norway, May 4th-5th, had to be cancelled. Instead we arranged a digital workshop where administrative matters (mainly in work packages (WPs) 1-2) and status updates for the three main WPs 3-5 were discussed.
The cooperation between the 11 partners have been excellent with fruitful networking, and we are currently working on how we can include different stakeholders in the project. In work package 5 ((Management of tick-borne diseases), for example, we are planning a workshop focusing on practices and guidelines used by physicians in the North Sea region. The goal is to open up for a discussion and in the end to form common recommendations. Patient organizations and physicians will be invited to interact. The workshop was planned to take place in autumn 2020, but will be postponed to a later date.
In the meanwhile, we wish you all a safe, relaxing and energizing summer!