NSCMID chairman´s report 2025/2026

Annual meeting 2025. The 41st NSCMID meeting was held 26th August - 1st September in Mariehamn, Åland islands, Finland. The scientific program included sessions on a wide variety of subjects in the field of infectious diseases, paediatric infections, infection control and clinical microbiology, including a pre meeting course on Tick-borne diseases. Topics included were Climate change – a medical and infectious disease threat also in the Nordics, Emerging environmental health risks, Antibiotics – choice, administration and dosing, (more about) Tick-borne diseases, Complications of hematogenously spreading infections, AMR surveillance, Diagnostic stewardship in the battle of AMR (in collaboration with NordicAST), Covid-19, Preparedness for new pandemics (in collaboration with NSCMID High level isolation group) and finally a session about Recent epidemics. In addition, the traditional sessions Hot topics, Invited Young Scientists, and a poster presentation were held. The Honorary lecture with the title “From carriage to disease” was given by professor Jaana Vuopio from Turku, Finland. 

The meeting was an on-site meeting with about 250 registered delegates and many of the presenters participated in the full congress and contributed to the scientific discussions. An impressive 73 abstracts were submitted and presented at the meeting. In addition to all the Scientific events the meeting also provided several social activities like welcome reception at the tall ship Pommern Museum, hosted by City of Mariehamn and the traditional congress dinner, held at the restaurant Smakbyn.

2025 NSCMID Annual General Meeting (AGM) was held in Mariehamn, Åland islands, Finland 30th August 2025. Terho Heikkinen was elected chairman and Lena Rós Ásmundsdóttir as secretary of the AGM. There following replacements in the board were decided: 

a) Nominations from national societies of clinical microbiology (CM) and infectious diseases (ID). 
 Hans Linde Nielsen (CM, Denmark) left the board at the end of his term at this AGM after six years (two 3-year terms) on the board, including being the meeting president of the 38th Annual  Meeting of NSCMID in Aalborg 2022. We thank Hans Linde Nielsen for his contribution to the society. The national CM society in Denmark appointed Mette Damkjær Bartels, consultant microbiologist and clinical associate professor, Amager and Hvidovre Hospital, as his replacement.  

b) Election of new members of the board. 
 No board positions were open for election at the AGM. 

The following board members continued: Ole Schmeltz Søgaard (ID, Denmark), Honorary Treasurer; Lena Rós Ásmundsdóttir (CM, Iceland), General Secretary; Asko Järvinen (ID, Finland), past Chairman; Annika Ljung (CM, Sweden); Truls Leegaard (CM, Norway), Chairman of the board; Ingrid Hoff (ID, Norway); Antti Hakanen (CM, Finland); Valtýr Stefánsson Thors (ID, Iceland) and Magnus Rasmussen (ID, Sweden). Maria Rubin (CM, Denmark) has been Young Scientist member for the Copenhagen meeting 2026, and Erik Forsblom (ID, Finland) has been webmaster.  

NSCMID board meetings. The NSCMID board met during the annual meeting in Mariehamn, Åland islands, Finland and again in Stockholm 17th March 2026. The focus for both meetings was on planning the coming Annual Meetings/Conferences, the SSAC-foundation and discussing regulatory matters. Some matters were decided by e-mail meetings in between the physical board meetings.  

SSAC Foundation meeting in Stockholm. The SSAC Foundation is a legal entity under the auspices of Svenska Läkaresällskapet where NSCMID members can apply for grants supporting research and scientific meetings. The SSAC Foundation board had a meeting for grant decisions in Stockholm on 16th March 2026. There were 18 applications. The board decided to grant 1 application with 400 000, two applications with 300 000 SEK, one application with 220 000 SEK and 4 applications with 120 000 SEK to the total sum of 1 700 000 SEK. Magnus Rasmussen is chairman of the SSAC Foundation.

Members. The current membership situation as of 15.8.2026:  
 1-year membership 118 (vs. 123 last year) 
 10-years membership 91 (vs. 64 last year) 
 Lifetime membership 236 (vs. 236 last year) 
 Total 445 (vs. 423 last year)

Compared to the membership status last year during the annual meeting in Mariehamn, Finland, there is a minor decline in the 1-year membership number but a clear increase in the 10-year memberships. The lifetime membership is the same. The total number of members has increased from 423 last year to 445 (an increase of 5%).

Treasurer’s summary of the financial situation. Following the decline in NSCMID’s equity during the pandemic years of 2020/21, the last five years, however, the organization has had a healthy economic recovery with sizeable profits of almost 2 million Danish Kroner in 2021/22 and 2022/23. The recovery is mainly driven by surplus from the conferences in Turku in 2021 and Aalborg in 2022. Currently, the organization’s equity stands at nearly 3.5 million DKK and has been stable over the past years. This means that the organization is well situated to abide by its commitment to cover all costs in the unlikely event of a failed conference.

NSCMID Working groups

The Working Group for High-Level Isolation Units (HLIU) consists of representatives from seven units across five Nordic countries. The 9th Annual Meeting of the Nordic High-Level Isolation Working Group was held in Mariehamn, Åland, Finland on 28 August 2025. Approximately 20 participants from Nordic HLIUs attended the professional program, which focused on experiences from the preceding year in each HLIU. The Steering Committee also convened its annual meeting on the same date. The next annual meeting of the working group is scheduled to take place in Copenhagen in conjunction with the NSCMID 2026 conference. The group is chaired by Gitte Kronborg, Denmark. 

NordicAST was chaired by Barbara Holzknecht with the scientific secretary Kaisu Rantakokko-Jalava and the treasurer Dennis Back Holmgaard. The group had two physical meetings and two online meetings in 2025/6. The annual 2-day workshop was held in May 2026 in Malmö with about 180 participants. The program included keynote lectures on rapid AST, genotype vs. phenotype and an update on resistance in H. influenzae. Amongst other topics covered were different aspects of Carbapenem resistance in Enterobacterales and P. aeruginosa as well as Quality Control aspects. Six participants had admitted abstracts and presented their own work as mini oral presentations which also qualified to register to the workshop for half the registration fee. Two webinars were held during the year, “NordicAST Basic AST 
webinar” in November 2025 and “What is new in the breakpoint table v16.0?” in February 2026. 

The Nordic paediatric infectious diseases group (NORPID) did not organize any general face-to-face meetings in 2024/2025. Instead, many of the members met unofficially at various meetings and discussed the best ways to proceed with Nordic collaborative studies. Terho Heikkinen continued as the chair of the group. 

Nordic tick borne disease group members have been involved in organizing the NordTick conference, held at Varberg kusthotell, Varberg, Sweden, 2nd - 4th June 2026, with professor Christine Wennerås as the project leader. The conference had 137 participants from more than 15 countries, with around 70 scientific presentations. The Nordic society, NoSTick, for research on ticks and tick-borne infections, has been further developed with over 100 members, from 14 different countries. Around 75 members are from the Nordic countries. Per-Eric Lindgren was re-elected chairman and Anna Henningsson a board member. Several group members are also participating in the One Tick project, within the EU Marie Curie programme. The coordinating partner is the Medical University in Bialystok, Poland.

Annual meeting 2026. This year´s annual meeting takes place in Copenhagen, Denmark 27-30 August 2026, and is chaired by Mette Damkjær Bartels. 

NSCMID newsletter. The first newsletter was published in December 2025 and the second in May 2026 thanks to an initiative by Ingrid Hoff. The plan is to continue with two annual newsletter about NACMID and SSAC-foundation activities. 

Final remarks. The Chairman would like to thank everyone who have contributed to make the Society a success, first of all the Board, the Annual Meetings organizers and the Working Groups members. NSCMID is an important tool for Nordic cooperation. We have so much in common and our combined efforts contribute greatly to science and improved clinical activities. NSCMID is to me a common field for friendship, shared experiences and collaboration. 

Truls Leegaard, NSCMID chairman