The Joint FAO/IAEA Centre of Nuclear Techniques in Food and Agriculture invited the ERFAN to participate in the Conference “Coordination Meeting of the Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory Network (VETLAB Network)” held from 22 to 26 August 2022 at the Vienna International Centre.

The activities carried out by the VETLAB Network were shared at the Conference, and future actions to be taken with other international initiatives were discussed to strengthen capacities for the diagnosis of zoonotic animal diseases and antimicrobial resistance.

On 22 August, the opening day, Dr Laura De Antoniis from the ERFAN Secretariat presented a report entitled ‘ERFAN: the past and future of networking’. The Network was of particular interest; FAO and IAEA proposed common planning, especially with regard to capacity building activities, for designing, implementing and evaluating projects. During the meeting, the ERFAN partners discussed research and training initiatives to be implemented up to 2023, also in partnership with FAO and IAEA.