The Joint Action ran from May 2018 until April 2022.  A total of 38 authorities (17 partners, three affiliated entities and 18 collaborating stakeholders) from 28 European countries and Taiwan CDC participated in the HEALTHY GATEWAYS Joint Action consortium. EU European Union (European Union ) HEALTHY GATEWAYS received a 12 month extension due to COVID-19.

Goal

The EU European Union (European Union ) HEALTHY GATEWAYS Joint Action aimed to support cooperation and coordinated action of Member States to improve their preparedness and response capacities at points of entry. This includes ports, airports and ground crossings, in preventing and combating cross-border health threats from the transport sector.

The Joint Action is expected to improve coordinated cross-sectoral actions to control infectious disease transmission and possible vectors for pathogens on ground transportation, on ships, and in aircrafts, in case of a serious cross-border threat to health affecting or inherently coming from the transport sector.

RIVM role

RIVM was the leader of Work Package 9: ‘Capacity building – training’.  The objectives of WP9:

• To support the development, coordination, organisation and implementation of Joint Action activities, including:
• Review on effective training methodologies
• Training needs assessment of ports, airports and ground crossings in the EU
• Develop and conduct training courses (online and face-to-face on EU level and on national level)
• Tabletop/simulation exercises
• Exchange of visits
• Webinars

RIVM colleagues Evelien Belfroid, Corien Swaan, Aura Timen, Doret de Rooij, Jeannette de Boer andThijs Veenstra were involved in the Joint Action HEALTHY GATEWAYS.

Funding

The Joint Action EU HEALTHY GATEWAYS received funding by the European Union under the Third Health Programme (2014-2020) under Grant Agreement No: 801493.