The European Scientific Conference on Applied Infectious Disease Epidemiology (ESCAIDE) has its roots in the EPIET Scientific Seminar, and since the first ESCAIDE in October 2007 in Stockholm, the EAN has contributed to both the logistical and scientific organisation of the conference.

The EAN President sits on the ESCAIDE Scientific Committee, and the EAN Board provides travel grants to colleagues from low- and middle-income countries, awards prizes for the best oral and poster presentations at the conference, and since 2012, has also run a highly popular "photo from the field" competition. EAN members act as moderators/chairs for oral and poster sessions, as judges for prizes, and innovate with ideas such as BarCamp@ESCAIDE. They volunteer their time, ideas and boundless enthusiasm to ensure that, year on year, all these activities are a success.

We all know how easy it is to lose touch, and the annual ESCAIDE also provides members with the welcome opportunity to catch up face to face with each other and to participate in the associative life of EAN. The EAN holds its annual General Assembly during ESCAIDE, to which all members and current fellows are invited. Decisions affecting the network are made here, including the introduction and voting in of the new EAN Board.

But, ESCAIDE is also a social event. As alumni, we look forward to ESCAIDE each year and to the EAN Drinks & Dinner social event, knowing that it provides a welcome chance to meet the new fellows and to reconnect with old friends and colleagues, developing and maintaining those strong links between the community of field epidemiologists and public health microbiologists to which we belong.