Those were some of the challenges at the EAP Leadership Academy 2026, held in Leipzig from 20–22 August.
This was not leadership training built around sitting and listening. Across the Academy, participants were repeatedly asked to frame an argument, communicate under pressure, influence an audience and turn expertise into action.
In total, 33 participants, faculty and EAP representatives from 21 countries shared the room, bringing very different health systems and professional experiences into the same conversations.
With Andrew Manasseh, participants tackled Media Training and Public Communication: looking at what happens when complex clinical knowledge has to become a clear, credible public message.
Peggy Diby turned the focus towards Advocacy and Policy Influence: how do you move from knowing what should change to actually influencing the people who can change it?
And Gökşen Çalışkan introduced a very different pressure test through Crisis Simulation: Advocacy Under Digital Pressure, placing participants in realistic scenarios where responses had to be developed while the clock was running.
And Gökşen Çalışkan introduced a very different pressure test through Crisis Simulation: Advocacy Under Digital Pressure, placing participants in realistic scenarios where responses had to be developed while the clock was running.
That question moved to centre stage on Saturday.
EAP President Berthold Koletzko took participants behind real examples of European paediatric advocacy: exploring how science, policy and credible communication intersect.
Professor Sanja Kolaček then addressed the question directly: “How to Successfully Message the Needs of Children to EU Policymakers; Can We (Paediatricians) Contribute?” Her session drew on her own journey from paediatrician to advocate, followed by a joint discussion on what effective engagement with policymakers actually requires.
It brought the Academy back to a central idea: clinical expertise gives paediatricians something important to say; leadership determines whether that expertise reaches the places where it can make a difference.
Rather than EAP telling you, we asked the people who were in the room.
Increasing the positive impact of nutrition.
Transforming the practice of medicine through breakthrough science.
New ways to test high-risk medical devices.
Manufacturers of medical devices need to test their products before being allowed to market them. Specifically, they require clinical data showing their medical device is safe and efficient. In this context, the EU-funded CORE-MD project will translate expert scientific and clinical evidence on study designs for evaluating high-risk medical devices into advice for EU regulators. The project will propose how new trial designs can contribute and suggest ways to aggregate real-world data from medical device registries.
It will also conduct multidisciplinary workshops to propose a hierarchy of levels of evidence from clinical investigations, as well as educational and training objectives for all stakeholders, to build expertise in regulatory science in Europe. CORE–MD will translate expert scientific and clinical evidence on study designs for evaluating high-risk medical devices into advice for EU regulators, to achieve an appropriate balance between innovation, safety, and effectiveness. A unique collaboration between medical associations, regulatory agencies, notified bodies, academic institutions, patients’ groups, and health technology assessment agencies, will systematically review methodologies for the clinical investigation of high-risk medical devices, recommend how new trial designs can contribute, and advise on methods for aggregating real-world data from medical device registries with experience from clinical practice The consortium is led by the European Society of Cardiology and the European Federation of National Associations of Orthopaedics and Traumatology, and involves all 33 specialist medical associations that are members of the Biomedical Alliance in Europe.
