ECDC launches the second version of the EPIS-FWD platform.

As part of its mandate, ECDC identifies, assesses and communicates threats to human health from FWD [1]. ECDC launched in 2010 the first EPIS-FWD, a restricted web-based communication platform bringing together multidisciplinary experts to ensure the early detection and coordination of the response to multi-state outbreaks through the timely sharing of cross-sectorial information [2, 3]. Based on Microsoft SharePoint technology, this system gathers more than 350 epidemiologists, microbiologists but also policymakers and risk managers. The majority of them are from the 27 European Union (EU) Member States and the three European Economic Area (EEA) countries (Iceland, Norway and Lichtenstein); however, experts from Australia, Canada, Japan, New Zealand, South Africa, Switzerland, Turkey and the United States also contribute actively to the information exchange (as a followup of Enter-net [3]). For the past three years, EPIS-FWD has proved to be successful in strengthening the collaboration between stakeholders and also in ensuring the timely detection and smooth coordination of the response to food-borne outbreaks [4, 5].