On Saturday 3rd September the 1st EUthyroid satellite meeting was held in Copenhagen, Denmark. This event was organised in cooperation with the Iodine Global Network of Western and Central Europe satellite meeting as a pre-conference event of the 39^th annual meeting of the European Thyroid Association.

Over 50 people attended the event and were treated to presentations from EUthyroid consortium members on a range of topics under the theme of harmonisation of iodine nutrition in Europe to tackle the problem of iodine deficiency.

Presentations

• How we can cope with bias in iodine and thyroid research – Henry Volzke (Germany)

• What we can learn from birth cohorts – Robin Peeters (The Netherlands)

• A model to secure a stable iodine concentration in milk – Lisbeth Dahl (Norway)

• Dietary iodine supplements. Is it all in the mix? – Margaret Rayman (UK)

• How useful is serum Tg as a biomarker for iodine deficiency in non-pregnant and pregnant individuals? – Michael Zimmermann (Switzerland)

• Hungary – the iodine story – Endre Nagy (Hungary)

_{John Lazarus, Iodine Global Network, CA; Betina H Thuesen, Research Centre for Prevention and Health, DK}

_{Ludmila Ivanova – Sofia University, BG; Meeting attendee;
John Lazarus – Iodine Global Network, CA}

Europe remains a patchwork with respect to iodine deficiency prevention programmes, as national programmes are diverse and lack coordination. The EUthyroid project aims to coordinate national stakeholders and mobilise synergies. The second EUthyroid project meeting was held on 1 – 2 September 2016 and hosted by the Research Centre for Prevention and Health (RCPH) in Copenhagen. All work package leaders had the opportunity to discuss progress during the first 15 months of the project and outline their plans for the future.

44 representatives from 29 project partner institutions attended the meeting to report on their national activities and discuss progress in research. At the meeting all work package leaders provided an overview of thestatus within their work packages, to identify difficulties, discuss potential solutions and to introduce roadmaps towards successful completion of project objectives within the time remaining.

As the project moves towards its second half, the scientific advisors highlighted the accomplishments already attained. The coordinator Henry Völzke reminded of the ambitious timeline ahead and mapped a path to achieve the project’s aims. The project partners were positive and showed strong commitment to achieve lasting impact on iodine monitoring and fortification programmes in Europe.

_{44 representatives from 29 project partner institutions attended the meeting to report on their national activities and discuss progress in research.}

_{Henry Völzke – University Medicine Greifswald, DE}

At the UK meeting of the Iodine Global Network (IGN) held on March 17, 2016, several issues about iodine deficiency in the UK were discussed.

This included the role of iodine in pregnancy, the issue of mild-to-moderate iodine deficiency in the UK, and how pregnant women with normal thyroid function living in this environment unknowingly place their children at risk of neurodevelopmental disorders and learning disabilities.

Read the full report here

_{John Lazarus, Iodine Global Network, CA}

EUthyroid held a policy meeting in Brussels on April 28, in order to promote harmonisation of iodine deficiency (ID) prevention programmes in Europe. Presentations from Henry Völzke, John Lazarus and Rodrigo Moreno-Reyes summarised the aims of EUthyroid, the current iodine status in Europe and a review of ID from the past to the present. Yvette Azzopardi reviewed the legal issues around the ability of the EU to advise and legislate concerning health related topics.
It became clear that EUthyroid would contribute important research results to underpin ID prevention in Europe. However, with national situations being highly diverse, the EU is unlikely to deliver legislation about harmonised fortification strategies. Instead, activities should be concentrated on advocating harmonised monitoring, which would further improve the scientific basis by providing comparable data. The topic of adverse health outcomes due to iodine deficiency disorders (IDD) in Europe should be brought to the attention of the Council of Health Ministers and possibly the Parliament through individuals in support of IDD prevention programs. Towards this, EUthyroid will explore contacts with national representatives from Austria, Belgium, Finland and Portugal and with interested MEPs. An active discussion followed the presentations providing a durable basis towards a dissemination strategy targeting major stakeholders for the remaining time of EUthyroid, which ends in 2018 with a conference on IDD-prevention.

Attendees:

 ^{From left to right: Stefan Grünert, biolution & EUthyroid; Ans Eilander Unilever plc & Industrial partner of the Nutrient Intake Optimisation Taskforce of ILSI Europe; Iris Grünert, CEO biolution & EUthyroid; Laurence Doughan, Belgian Ministry of Health; Rodrigo Moreno-Reyes, Erasme-ULB & EUthyroid; Yvette Azzopardi, Department for Health and Food Safety (DG SANTE), EC; Henry Völzke, University Medicine Greifswald & EUthyroid; Wouter Lox, EuSalt; John Lazarus, IGN & EUthyroid; Lilou van Lieshout, ILSI Europe; Katja Hora SQM Europe N.V. & Industrial partner of the Nutrient Intake Optimisation Taskforce of ILSI Europe; Diana Albrecht, University Medicine Greifswald, Germany & EUthyroid}

_{From left to right: Wouter Lox, EuSalt; Rodrigo Moreno-Reyes, Erasme-ULB & EUthyroid; Tonino Picula, MEP Croatia}

_{From left to right: Lilou van Lieshout, ILSI Europe; Yvette Azzopardi, Department for Health and Food Safety (DG SANTE); John Lazarus, IGN; Wouter Lox, EuSalt; Rodrigo Moreno-Reyes, Erasme-ULB & EUthyroid}

Europe currently has no harmonised approach to ensure that the iodine intake of European citizens is sufficient to prevent health problems. EUthyroid project aims to investigate the iodine intake of the European population as a basis for developing measures for the harmonisation of European iodine intake in cooperation with national authorities.

The EUthyroid kick-off meeting was held on 7-9th September 2015 and hosted by Biolution in Vienna. This meeting gave all consortium members the opportunity to present their organisations and roles in the project and provided a forum in which to discuss the project aims and outline plans for the future.
Fifty representatives from all thirty project partner institutions attended the meeting to meet other consortium members and WP collaborators and discuss the roadmap towards achieving the ambitious goal of the EUthyroid project of moving towards the elimination of iodine deficiency in Europe.
Professor Henry Völzke (University Medicine Greifswald), scientific coordinator of the EUthyroid project, welcomed the attendees and presented an introduction to the project aims and an overview and description of the interaction between the work packages. He described the large odds that EUthyroid overcame to obtain funding and praised the EU for supporting such valuable projects.

At the meeting all work package leaders were given the opportunity to present their road map for the activities of the first year of the project to the consortium as a whole, as well as in small discussion groups.
The advisory boards and project officer in attendance praised the project for its ambitious aims and the clear road map set down towards their achievement. The project partners were positive and showed strong commitment to achieve lasting impact on iodine monitoring and fortification programs in Europe.

_{EUthyroid consortium from 28 countries © Stefanie Freynschlag}