The second edition of the “South-West German Infectious Disease Modelling Workshop” (SWIM) took place on December 9, 2025, in the Interdisciplinary Centre for Scientific Computing at Heidelberg. The one-day workshop brought together disease modellers, epidemiologists, and biostatisticians from Baden-Württemberg and nearby areas. The workshop encouraged scientific exchange and allowed early-career researchers to present their work.
The workshop featured invited talks from
- Felix Günther (Robert Koch Institute, Berlin)-Effectiveness and efficiency of immunisation strategies to prevent RSV among infants and older adults in Germany: a modelling study
- Juliette Paireau (Institut Pasteur, Paris) – Assessing the effect of nirsevimab on hospitalisations due to RSV in France: combining epidemiological and modelling approaches for public health decision-making
- Sebastian Funk (London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, U. of London ) – Modelling of emerging threats and epidemics
Papers/ slides/ or details of talks can be accessed through the SWIM website.
The remaining sessions included presentations from all aspects of dynamic and statistical modelling of infectious diseases, including theoretical and applied aspects of modelling.
Some of the key topics of the workshop were forecasting, estimating disease prevalence, multivariate modelling, contacts and behaviour, and vaccination and immunity (See details of sessions, including presenters, topics, and chairs on the website).
The workshop was organised jointly by Heidelberg University and Karlsruhe Institute of Technology. (Johannes Bracher, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Barbora Němcová Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Joacim Rocklöv,Heidelberg University, and Luise Nottmeyer ,Heidelberg University)
The event also received funding from
- Helmholtz Information & Data Science School For Health
- Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) – German Research Foundation
- Alexander von Humboldt Foundation
Next year, the SWIM workshop will be based on the topic of Mathematical Modelling of Antimicrobial Resistance. It will be held in June 2026 at the Medical Center of the University of Freiburg with Gwen Knight (London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, U. of London) as a keynote speaker. Those who are modelling AMR or planning to work on this soon are welcome to sign up for updates: http://swim-workshop.de/
