The DECIDE consortium held its General Assembly online on 19 and 20 January 2026, bringing together more than 40 participants from across Europe to review progress, exchange insights and align on next steps for the project. The two-day meeting combined in-depth technical discussions with strategic reflections, with a strong focus on the development and uptake of DECIDE’s data-driven tools.
Day 1: Progress on DECIDE data-driven tools and early national implementation
The first day focused on the development, evaluation and early implementation of DECIDE’s data-driven tools across the different animal health domains. Following a welcome and overview of the overall project status, partners presented advances in tool development, modelling approaches and research outputs, alongside insights from stakeholder engagement activities and first steps towards national-level implementation.
For the salmon sector, updates covered the transformation of research results into operational data-driven tools such as Laksetap and the Salmon Mortality Monitor. Partners reported on modelling work supporting disease control decision-making, as well as on workshops with stakeholders that provided valuable feedback on usability, relevance and integration into existing practices. Lessons learned from these interactions and plans for further deployment were discussed.
Sessions on cattle, pig and poultry data-driven tools highlighted progress in predictive modelling, evaluation frameworks and the practical integration of DECIDE tools into livestock health management. Partners shared results from stakeholder workshops, including feedback from veterinarians, farmers and authorities, and reflected on how these inputs are shaping tool refinement. Several tools have reached first implementation stages at the national level, marking an important step towards real-world uptake. The day concluded with a joint discussion to synthesise cross-sector lessons and identify common opportunities.
Day 2: Work package updates and coordination
The second day was dedicated to structured updates from DECIDE’s work packages, providing a comprehensive overview of progress across the project. After a recap of Day 1, partners presented advances in methods for data analysis and modelling (WP2), highlighting how these underpin the robustness of the data-driven tools.
Further sessions addressed the integration of data-driven tools into disease control programmes (WP3), including evaluation activities, training and engagement actions. Updates from WP4 focused on the development of multidimensional disease burden metrics and welfare assessments, while WP5 presented progress on behavioural and implementation strategies supporting tool adoption. Communication, dissemination and exploitation activities under WP6 emphasised outreach to stakeholders and preparation for wider uptake. The meeting concluded with WP1 updates on data identification, federated learning and metadata standards, reinforcing the project’s data infrastructure.
The General Assembly confirmed the strong momentum of DECIDE’s data-driven tools, supported by active stakeholder involvement and first national-level implementations. The discussions provided a clear roadmap for 2026 and reinforced collaboration across disciplines to ensure that DECIDE delivers impactful, evidence-based decision-support solutions for animal health management.