On 24th March, we’re organising a workshop on Evaluation & responsible modelling in London. Not specifically “epinowcast"/real-time focus, but definitely inclusive of (and hearing from some great speakers,@kejohnson9 among them!).
Posting here as may be of relevance to some*, should be a fun and interesting day, and all very welcome. More details below.
*arguably everyone but then perhaps I’m biased
Evaluation & responsibility in infectious disease modelling
24 March 2026 | 10.00–16.30 | LSHTM, Keppel Street, London
How do we evaluate infectious disease modelling work, and what does that imply for modelling responsibly? We’re inviting participants to join a one day workshop on evaluation and responsibility in modelling.
Through the day, we’ll:
- compare perspectives on evaluation in epidemiological and public health contexts
- collaboratively map out what this means for professional norms, values, and responsibilities
- experiment with what this looks like in practice by co-designing training material for modellers
We intend to support participants by building up practical ideas, resources, and relationships. We encourage participants from all career experiences and interests to join.
More information and registration at: How do we evaluate modelling work, and what does that imply about modelling responsibly? – Evaluation & responsibility in infectious disease modelling
Please join us, and share this invite widely across your network.
Contact: Kath Sherratt, with co-organisers Sebastian Funk and Erica Thompson. katharine.sherratt@lshtm.ac.uk
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This sounds fantastic! I’m very sad to miss it.
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I’m very interested in this topic! Looking forward to reviewing the workshop materials after they’re posted. In case of interest, this training was recently developed in the US context for academic and non-governmental professionals engaging with government public health on modeling topics: Working with Governmental Public Health Agencies - CDC TRAIN - an affiliate of the TRAIN Learning Network powered by the Public Health Foundation (hopefully it’s accessible to all).
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I’m also really looking forward to this but its a shame that @kylieainslie and @tomasleon can’t make it (for obvious reasons such as the world being large). @kath-sherratt is there a plan for sharing stuff after the event? Could be interesting to think about ways to link in with others who can’t make it for the future?
@tomasleon this training material looks great! I am just about to go to a meeting about challenges and needs for STLT so I think I should do this course!
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Thanks for the interest @kylieainslie and @tomasleon- we will very much miss your thoughts. But I’m definitely seeing this as just one starting point for a wider discussion, so really glad to hear of the interest. I’ll post all the materials here and elsewhere, of course. Generally also making plans for broader collective thinking on evaluation/responsibility though and would really welcome all thoughts/ideas! Will look forward to collaborating 
The training material @tomasleon posted is super relevant, thank you. It’d be really interesting to hear about how it was developed, and uptake. I also browsed through it recently and thought it could be neat to collect a library of open access resources like this. In the UK context, I’m not aware of much guidance for research translation that’s specific to modelling for public health.
A bit tangential, but something I have been looking at a bit is how UK civil service frames quality assurance for “business critical models” . As far as I understand it, each model is supposed to have a designated “responsible owner” ; there’s a common set of guidelines for different evaluation standards (checklists etc), intended for auditing government teams that use modelling in any capacity .
AFAIK none is public health specific, though folks at UKHSA would have a better sense of this. Also generally sounds like it’s not entirely successful, but perhaps anything-better-than-nothing. Thought it was interesting as an example of operationalising evaluation and responsibility jointly.
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