Volume 20, Issue 3

In order to achieve the ECCO REACH strategy, one of our most valuable assets remains the collective expertise and patient populations represented across European IBD National Study Groups. This issue of ECCO News highlights the ongoing opportunities for collaborative research through the ECCO National Study Group network and annual meeting, which takes place during the ECCO Congress.

This interview addresses aspects of the important recent study entitled “Global evolution of inflammatory bowel disease across epidemiologic stages”, which was published in Nature earlier this year [Hracs L, Windsor JW, Gorospe J, et al.; Global IBD Visualization of Epidemiology Studies in the 21st Century (GIVES-21) Research Group. Nature 2025;642: 458–66. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-08940-0

The 75th ECCO Educational Workshop took place in central Tallinn, Estonia on June 6, 2025. The event was organised by the ECCO Office and National Representatives Hendrik Laja and Vadim Brjalin with support from the president of the Estonian Society of Gastroenterology, Karin Kull.

The 76th ECCO Educational Workshop was held in Hungary on June 12, 2025, as part of the Annual Meeting of the Hungarian Society of Gastroenterology. The workshop provided a unique opportunity to discuss questions arising throughout the care of IBD patients, with the participation of renowned IBD experts such as Gionata Fiorino from Italy and Glen Doherty from Ireland. The workshop was co-organised and co-chaired by Tamás Molnár, head of the Gastroenterology Centre in Szeged, and Pál Miheller, head of the Department of Surgery, Transplantation and Gastroenterology in Budapest.

The 77th ECCO Educational Workshop took place at the Lima Convention Center, Peru, on August 29, 2025. This event, the first ECCO Workshop of the year to be held outside Europe, brought together more than 130 participants from different countries of South America and was celebrated during SPED 2025 (Gastroenterology Panamerican Week), which had started on the previous day. The workshop featured interactive discussion on various clinical scenarios and hot topics in IBD.

The 24th IBD Intensive Course for Trainees will be held on February 18, 2026, in Stockholm, just ahead of the ECCO Congress. Since its launch in 2003, this course has become a key part of ECCO’s educational offerings, providing advanced trainees with a focused and high-quality learning experience in Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD). It continues to serve as a vital stepping stone for young clinicians seeking to deepen their expertise and connect with peers and mentors from across Europe and beyond.