Folkhelseinstituttet - EUPHEM

Contact person

Umaer Naseer (mohammed.umaer.naseer@fhi.no)

Tel. + 47 21 07 73 61

Description of the institute 

The Norwegian Institute of Public Health (NIPH) was founded in 1929 as a governmental institution in microbiology, vaccine production and immunology. Later, NIPH has expanded with different scientific fields and has now around 1000 employees.

The institute has six scientific divisions:

• Infection Control 
• Climate and Environmental Health
• Health Data and Digitalisation
• Mental and Physical Health
• Health Services
• Cancer Registry of Norway.

The Norwegian name of the institute is Folkehelseinstituttet (FHI).

The Infection Control domain is engaged in control and prevention of communicable diseases.

The main activities include:

• surveillance of infectious diseases and infectious agents
• outbreak investigations and response
• specialised microbiological assays
• recommendations and programs for vaccination and vaccine supply.

The division provides advice to local and central health authorities, to health personnel and to the Food Safety Authorities, in all aspects of infectious disease prevention and control. Research constitutes an integral part of the activities and provides the basis for information and recommendations from the institute. 

NIPH runs the National Surveillance System for Communicable Diseases (MSIS), the surveillance system for hospital acquired infections (NOIS), the National Vaccination Register (SYSVAK) and the national epidemic intelligence activities.

NIPH has a clear public health microbiology profile with various departments covering bacteriology, virology, molecular biology and immunology, including National Reference Laboratories for a wide variety of pathogens, and the National Laboratory for Preparedness. Activities include verification, identification and further characterization of isolates received from clinical microbiological laboratories throughout Norway. The NIPH is responsible for a national quality assessment program in bacteriology and virology and are sending out samples six times each year to about 20 different microbiology laboratories in Norway.

NIPH has extensive international collaboration with representation in the ECDC surveillance networks both in epidemiology and public health microbiology and with research activities both within and outside EU, in particular with countries in Africa and Asia.

Training opportunities

Since 2013 NIPH has also been a EUPHEM training site. 

The EUPHEM fellows will receive their training in a multidisciplinary environment in the division. The EUPHEM fellow will be trained in bacterial and virological methods used for characterization for microbiological surveillance and support of outbreak investigation. Training will also include serological methods for immunity to infections and seroepidemiological studies to monitor the national immunisation program. EUPHEM fellows will take part in the day-to-day work, including analyzing and publishing high quality surveillance data. 

There will be a close collaboration with infectious disease epidemiology and the EPIET program. A weekly meeting is held with the EUPHEM and EPIET fellows and their project supervisors to discuss current projects and to follow up the fellows’ progress.

Training supervision

The main supervisor, department supervisors and project supervisors are identified among the general staff (including several EUPHEM alumni), depending upon the subject matter expertise. A weekly meeting is held with the EUPHEM and EPIET fellows and their project supervisors to discuss current projects and to follow up the fellows’ progress. 

Language requirements

English is widely spoken and understood by almost everyone in Norway. The EUPHEM fellows in Norway must speak and write English well. Conversational skills in Norwegian (or another Scandinavian language) would be an asset, but is not a requirement. Attending Norwegian courses is strongly recommended.

Training history

A total of 33 EPIET and Nor-FETP fellows and 11 EUPHEM fellows have been trained at the institute, here summarized by year of graduation: 1999 (1), 2002 (1), 2003 (2), 2004 (1), 2005 (1), 2006 (1), 2007 (1), 2008 (1), 2009 (2), 2010 (2), 2011 (2), 2012 (3), 2013 (2), 2014 (1), 2015 (2 EPIET, 1 EUPHEM), 2016 (1 EPIET, 2 EUPHEM), 2017 (1 EPIET, 1 EUPHEM), 2018 (2 EPIET, 1 EUPHEM), 2019 (1 EPIET), 2020 (2 EPIET, 2 EUPHEM), 2021 (2 EPIET, 1 EUPHEM), 2022 (1 EPIET, 2 EUPHEM), 2023 (1 EPIET)
Number of EPIET/EUPHEM alumni currently working at institute: 19.

The previous EPIET, Nor-FETP and EUPHEM fellows trained at FHI are happy to answer your questions:

Markku Kuusi (Finnish, 1997-99)
Philippe Guérin (French, 2000-2002)
Egil Bjørløw (Norwegian, 2001-2003)
Line Vold (Norwegian, 2001-2003)
Hanne-Merete Eriksen (Norwegian, 2002-2004, Nor-FETP)
Hilde Kløvstad (Norwegian, 2003-2005, Nor-FETP)
Barbara Schimmer (Dutch, 2004-2006)
Agnes Hajdu (Hungarian, 2005-2007)
Irena Jakopanec (Slovenian, 2006-2008)
Karina Junussova (Estonian, 2007-2009)
Siri Helene Hauge (Norwegian, 2007-2009, Nor-FETP)
Thale Berg (Norwegian, 2006-2011, Nor-FETP)
Gražina Rimšeliene (Lithuanian, 2008-2010)
Tone Bruun (Norwegian, 2008-2010, Nor-FETP)
Ricardo Mexia (Portuguese, 2009-2011)
Janne Møller-Stray (Norwegian, 2009-2012, Nor-FETP)
Bernardo Rafael Guzmán Herrador (Spanish, 2010-2012)
Oliver Kacelnik (Norwegian, 2010-2012, Nor-FETP)
Horst Bentele (Norwegian, 2011-2013, Nor-FETP)
Anneke Steens (Dutch, 2011-2013)
Emily MacDonald (Norwegian, 2012-2014) – EPIET MS-track
Heidi Lange (Norwegian, 2013-2015) – EPIET MS-track
Margot Einöder Moreno (Spanish, 2013-2015, EPIET EU-track)
Didrik Frimann Vestrheim (Norwegian, 2013-2015, EUPHEM MS-track)
Hinta Meijerink (Dutch, 2014-2016, EPIET EU-track)
Natacha Alexandra da Fonseca Milhano (Portuguese, 2014-2016, EUPHEM EU-track)
Mohammed Umaer Naseer (Norwegian, 2014-2016, EUPHEM MS-track)
Lamprini Veneti (Greek, 2015-2017, EPIET EU-track)
Rikard Rykkvin (Norwegian, 2015-2017, EUPHEM MS-track) 
Laura Espenhain (Danish, 2016-2018, EPIET EU-track)
Lotta Siira (Finish, 2016-2018, EUPHEM EU-track)
Astrid Løvlie (Norwegian, 2016-2018, EPIET MS-track​)
Cecilia Wolff (Swedish, 2017 – 2019, EPIET EU-track)
Amato Ettore (Italian, 2018-2020, EUPHEM EU-track)
Robert Whittaker (Swedish, 2018-2020, EPIET EU-track)
Tone Bjordal Johansen (Norwegian, 2018-2020, EUPHEM MS-track)
Kristian Franer (Norwegian, 2018-2020, Nor-FETP)
Elina Seppala (Finnish, 2019-2021, EPIET EU-track)
Trude Marie Lyngstad (Norwegian, 2019-2021, EPIET MS-track)
Lin T. Brandal (Norwegian, 2019-2021, EUPHEM EU-track)
Andreas Rohringer (Austrian, 2020-2022, EUPHEM EU-track)
Ragnhild Tønnessen (Norwegian, 2020-2022, EUPHEM MS-track)
Jeanette Stålcrantz (Norwegian, 2020-2022, EPIET, MS-track)
Lea Franconeri (French, 2021-2023, EPIET EU-track)

The current fellows may also provide information:

Melanie Stecher (German, 2022-2023, EPIET EU-track)
Beatriz Valcarcel Salamanca (Spanish, 2022-2023, EPIET MS-track)
João Pires (Portuguese, 2022-2023, EUPHEM EU-track)
Arne Michael Taxt (Norwegian, 2022-2023, EUPHEM MS-track)