On 4-5 October, the EPAD communication team held a meeting at the VUmc Alzheimercentrum in Amsterdam to review the project’s communication strategy. On the first day, the agenda covered what the members of the EPAD WP6 communication team have achieved so far. The communications activities from 2015-2018 were reviewed to analyse their strengths, weaknesses and opportunities. The team looked back at some of the activities and tools including the website, social media, newsletter, videos and press releases. The next session was focused on the communications capacities at Trial Delivery Center (TDC) level. Representatives from four TDCs (VU university medical center, Barcelonaβeta Brain Research Center, University of Edinburgh, University of Oxford) had the opportunity to join the meeting to share their recruitment and retention strategies from a communications point of view. They presented an overview of some of their ongoing communication activities. This session was really useful and a lot of ideas were discussed.

The second day placed the emphasis squarely on the communication focus plan for 2019. Very fruitful brainstorming sessions took place in which both internal and external communication goals and expectations were discussed. Particular attention was paid to communication with TDCs and research participants and retention of research participants in the EPAD Cohort. The WP6 team also checked the upcoming project milestones for which external communications may be necessary.

The meeting was attended by Sean Knox (Biogen), Jean Georges (Alzheimer Europe), Cindy Birck (Alzheimer Europe), Laura Carrera Carballés (Janssen), Vanessa Bosmans (Janssen), Ana Belén Callado Gill (Barcelonaβeta Brain Research Center), Stina Saunders (University of Edinburgh), Judi Syson (University of Edinburgh), Sarah Gregory (University of Edinburgh), Andy Bolan (Biogen), Shona Forster (University of Oxford), Solange Cleutjens (VU university medical center) and Casper de Boer (VU university medical center). Iva Knezevic (Synapse) joined the meeting by phone.  It was a successful and productive meeting with a lot of discussions and suggestions. The team is looking forward to implementing them now!