Milestone Achieved: CSIDNet First Annual General Meeting

This year marked a major milestone for our community of practice: we hosted our first-ever Annual General Meeting (AGM)! Interest to come together and foster this community of practice was so high that we decided to hold two gatherings simultaneously – one in-person and one virtual.

Together, these two gatherings brought in 100+ participants from more than 40 countries, creating a vibrant space for connecting across disciplines, career stages, and geographies. The discussions, in-person and online, built the trust and energy we believe are pre-requisites to co-creating impactful tools to track and respond to infectious diseases in a changing climate.

Across both AGMs, the energy was palpable. In Thailand, small-group conversations moved from “what’s possible?” to “who’s doing what next?” The virtual rooms echoed that momentum. People shared about their models and datasets, questioned assumptions, and looked honestly at gaps, especially around access, equity, and how communities are engaged as true partners.

Key topics and moments that stood out

Based on responses to the event feedback survey, both AGMs were successful in facilitating moments of connection. In Thailand, participants highlighted the working group session of co-working as a centerpiece, where people rolled up their sleeves to practice co-design and began to map shared priorities. These sessions fostered a sense of teamwork and purpose, beginning to show what can happen when we work collectively toward a common goal. Interdisciplinary exchange was another strong theme, with sessions on open science, citizen science, and the popular “Ask a Climate Scientist” conversation underscoring the importance of collaboration across fields. Informal moments like a boat cruise dinner on the Chao Phraya River, exploring Kanchanaburi town, and touring the Faculty of Tropical Medicine labs at Mahidol University, helped build camaraderie and trust that carried back into the scientific work.

For Virtual AGM participants, highlights centered on the depth of the plenary and breakout discussions. We opened with an interactive expo session on July 20th (you can still view the resources here!). Discussion sessions on ethical AI for CSID tools, interoperability of data, and early warning systems for epidemics provided both technical grounding and social context. The breakout on legislative strategies was especially memorable for its practical focus on how governance and legal frameworks can support surveillance, emergency response, and climate-sensitive health planning. Importantly, this momentum is already carrying forward: 31 out of 36 survey respondents across both the virtual and in-person AGMs said they are “likely” or “very likely” to apply or follow up on something from the AGM in their work.

Check out recordings from the Virtual AGM below:

• CSIDNet Virtual Expo
• Day 1: The Power of Data
• Day 2: Policy Systems & Governance
• Day 3: Centering CSID Community, Equity and Engagement 
• Day 4: Syncing with Thailand (in-person) AGM

Appreciation

We’re deeply grateful to everyone who showed up, presented, facilitated, translated, took notes, and asked hard questions. Special thanks to the Thailand co-host, Mahidol Oxford Tropical Medicine Research Unit (MORU) for the in-country support; our Events Committee for shepherding both AGMs; our Communication and Research Committee for leading documentation and interviews with organizers and speakers; session chairs, discussion facilitators, rapporteurs, and plenary speakers; and our funding partner, the Wellcome Trust, whose support made this double AGM possible.

More Details

We’ve prepared two companion reports with session summaries and key takeaways:

• Thailand AGM Report – Read the Thailand report
• Virtual AGM Report – Read the Virtual AGM report

Watch: Thailand AGM Highlights

What’s Next: Advancing CSID Programming

As our first-ever AGM season comes to a close, we’re energized by what was established. These gatherings were a proof of concept that our community can come together across time zones and borders, share openly, and begin to move from ideas towards collaborative action.

The work does not stop here. On the strong foundation of these inaugural AGMs, we are now turning toward establishing working groups that will carry forward the scientific heart of the Network. These groups will focus on shared priorities like data access and stewardship, comparability of models, community-centered evaluation, and generating lessons learned about decision support tools for climate and health.

Our hope is that the AGM becomes a yearly anchor point: a time when the community can reflect, realign, and celebrate progress, while the working groups provide the steady pulse of collaboration in between.

Thank you again to everyone who joined us for this first AGM and to all who contributed their time, ideas, and energy. We leave this first chapter more connected, more confident, and more ready for the work ahead. Onward to the working groups, and onward to making this an annual tradition that continues to grow.