Statens Serum Institut
Contact person
Tel. + 45 32 68 35 45
Description of the institute
Statens Serum Institut (SSI) is a governmental public health and research institution under the Danish Ministry of Health, situated in central Copenhagen. Statens Serum Institut prevents and controls infectious diseases, biological threats and congenital disorders. Based on core competencies within public health, microbiology, immunology, epidemiology and information and communication technology, SSI provides a wide range of services, nationally as well as internationally. The Institute is involved in various EU-funded surveillance activities and research projects.
Statens Serum Institut
- Performs epidemiological and microbiological monitoring of infectious diseases and a variety of specialised diagnostic tests; we provide educational, advisory and reference services, all directed mainly towards the national needs, but frequently more widely applied when we serve as supervisor, adviser or reference function to international health services and organisations.
- Is a major European research centre engaged in a broad array of collaborations with sister organisations in other countries, institutions, companies and health research centres throughout the world.
- Carries out a large number of international advisory and reference functions for the WHO and the EU. Foreign health services and individual doctors may request general advice or special analyses and expert typing of particular microorganisms which defy identification in their own laboratories.
- Is an official Danish contact point - Competent Body for the European Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, ECDC.
- Is the National Focal Point for WHO International Health Regulations 2005.
- Offers investigation of hygiene standards in a quality-certified laboratory which provides a wide range of analyses. Hospital hygiene and hospital infections in Denmark are also being monitored here.
- Offers monitoring treatment results within i.e. mycobacteriology and virology as well as virus validation for the pharmaceutical industry.
The SSI includes the Danish Centre for Biosecurity and Biopreparedness (CBB), the national authority that issues licenses to research institutions, pharmaceutical companies, hospital laboratories etc. to allow them to work with biological dual use components. CBB also maintains a 24/7 response capability to counter the effects of a biological incident whether of accidental or malicious origin.
Training opportunities
EPIET fellows will be based and receive their main training in the Department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology & Prevention. This department is the national centre for surveillance of infectious diseases. It also coordinates the investigation of general disease outbreaks in Denmark and other "epidemiology-in-action" activities. Moreover, the department monitors the Danish childhood vaccination programme and provides counselling and training on infectious disease prevention, control and epidemiology, nationally and internationally. The department is also engaged in several (research) projects, including European projects, and aims to conduct research into the epidemiology of the diseases under surveillance and be able to give evidence-based advice to the Danish health sector.
Present number of employees (2022): 65 (including two EU-track and one MS-track EPIET fellows and six EPIET alumni). The department published 75 peer-reviewed papers in 2022 (though, admittedly, a bit more than usual, which was due to covid-19).
The EPIET fellow will take part in the day-to-day work in the department. Tasks may include data surveillance analysis, development of evidence-based guidelines, investigation of foodborne outbreaks, presenting surveillance data in the weekly newsletter "EPI-NEWS", research projects, and participation in relevant European activities.
Supervision
The main supervision at the Department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology, SSI, will be provided by head of section Steen Ethelberg. Other supervisors will include the staff of the department as well as epidemiologists and senior staff from other departments where needed.
Language requirements
English of varying fluency is widely spoken and understood by most people in Denmark. The EPIET fellow must thus be fluent in written and spoken English. Danish language skills will be a significant advantage, as the working language is Danish and as the Danish language is necessary to provide services to e.g. local health officials or general practitioners, therefore learning Danish during the fellowship period is encouraged. However, it is possible for fellows to work without learning Danish.
Training history
Number of EPIET fellows trained at the institute: 23 (Cohorts: 1995, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022)
Number of EPIET fellows currently under training: three (Cohort 2022: one MS- and one EU-track fellow; cohort 2021: one EU-track fellow). Number of EPIET alumni working at institute: six.