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After 30 years, the European Congress on Tropical Medicine and International Health (ECTMIH) is returning to Hamburg. In September 2025, the Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine (BNITM) and its partners will host the 14th edition of this European congress. The overarching theme will be ‘Better health for all in a changing world’, which is also the vision of the European Global Health Strategy. The main themes will be under the umbrella of One Health, merging the ongoing planetary health challenges with human and animal health, climate change, and disrupted ecosystems, and looking for proposed solutions.
The congress intends to offer a platform for the dissemination of new insights and for presenting interdisciplinary approaches to global health (GH) problems. We invite researchers from all parts of the globe to present their latest research in all domains of GH, including infectious and tropical diseases, migrations, and right to health, to name just a few (see Box 2). We encourage participants to address the underlying social, cultural and economic dimensions of health, and to build on the principles of universal access to health, equity, and on climate justice. We will adopt a cross-cutting and interdisciplinary perspective to tackling health problems in the 21st century. The congress is planned for Monday to Thursday, 29 September to 2 October 2025, and will be held at the modern and attractive Congress Centre Hamburg (CCH).
| Box 1: From tropical medicine to planetary health The Hamburg congress in 1995 was focused on the main pillars of clinical tropical medicine (TM) and took the first steps towards international health. The ECTMIH 25 would like to offer a reflection not just on the changing of names and terminology, but on a paradigm shift of the lens from TM challenges, which by the way still hold, towards planetary health challenges. This transition was first reflected in the 2007 Amsterdam Partnership and Innovation in Global Health edition. This trend of widening the focus was also seen in the congresses that followed – such as the inclusion of an equity and human rights lens, and addressing the consequences of migration on health, among others in the congresses in Verona (2009), Barcelona (2011), and Bergen (2021). The 13th edition in Utrecht 2023 ‘Shaping the future of equitable and sustainable planetary health’ catalysed the transition and change we need for equitable, just, and sustainable societies to ensure that all populations – and especially those in low(er) resource settings – have optimal chances of health and wellbeing. |
| Box 2: Programme focus and tracks The focus of the ECTMIH Congress in Hamburg 2025 will be on advancing scientific collaboration, knowledge sharing, and global action to address pressing health challenges. The congress will explore a wide range of topics across its seven carefully curated tracks, each aiming to tackle critical aspects of global health (GH), particularly for populations in low-resource settings. With an overarching commitment to equity, innovation, and sustainable solutions, ECTMIH 2025 will provide an inclusive platform for experts and stakeholders to collaborate and shape the future of healthcare. The tracks will be: Interfaces: Immunology and Interaction Emerging Infections: Pandemics and Control Tropical Medicine: Diseases and Care One Health: Approaches and Solutions International Health: Travel and Migration Vulnerable Populations: Poverty and Neglect Non-infectious Diseases: Challenges and Society. Cross cutting topics include: equity in health, climate change, and implementation. These cross-cutting themes will enrich the discussions within each track, ensuring a comprehensive approach to tackling the most pressing GH issues of our time. |
| Box 3: Delegate profiles We encourage the active participation of researchers, global thinkers, and policy and decision makers in the programme, and the inclusion of debates on the role of cooperation agencies and scientific institutes in the field of GH. Although ECMTIH is a European congress, GH challenges do not have borders, and delegates from all over the world, in particular from LMICS, are invited to contribute and/or to participate. We would welcome and facilitate a large participation by young scientists, i.e. the future generation for taking on GH challenges. A disparate mix of international health professionals and researchers from the various branches active in GH, both in the North global health and South, will meet at this congress: Academia: researchers and undergraduate, graduate and post-doctoral students Professionals in the healthcare system: health specialists, physicians, nurses and other health workers, global health experts Professionals from governmental agencies such as health ministries, regulatory bodies, and health departments as well as from non-governmental organisations Representatives from private research & development organisations |
| Box 4: Organising parties The congress is organised by the European and German Societies for Tropical Medicine and Global Health (FESTMIH, www.festmih.eu; DTG, www.dtg.org), the Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine (BNITM, www.bnitm.de) and the University Medical Centre Hamburg-Eppendorf (UKE, www.uke.de). |
Invitation to participate
We invite all stakeholders, academic institutions, and TM and GH scientific societies interested in global health and in tropical medicine to mark the date and engage with us over the next months in the shaping of the congress. The call for proposals for organised sessions in any of the seven tracks is open from October 2024, and the call for proposals to submit abstracts will open sometime in December. On our website (www.ectmih-2025.de), you will find regular updates on the programme, enabling you to become part of the global and planetary health network.
