About the EBN
The ESPR’s teaching branch
EBN courses are organized in four-year teaching cycles for neonatal trainees and each cycle will consist of eight modules.
The workshops are facilitated by a panel of international experts in their respective fields and will focus on the application of research-based evidence into clinical practice, flanked by plenary talks with ample time for discussion and debate.
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EBN course roster for the coming years
2022: Epidemiology & Infection
2023: Resuscitation & Nutrition
2024: Circulation & Pharmacology
2025: Pulmonology & Brain
2026: Epidemiology & Infection
2027: Resuscitation & Nutrition
2028: Circulation & Pharmacology
2029: Pulmonology & Brain -
Meet the EBN Council
EBN Chairperson
Maximo Vento, MD, PhD
Instituto de Investigación Sanitaria La Fe
SpainEBN Officer of Neonatal Databases
Olivier Danhaive, MD
Cliniques Universitaires Saint-Luc
BelgiumEBN Officer of Education & Training
Tomasz Szczapa, MD, PhD
Poznan University of Medical Sciences
Poland -
European Training Requirements (ETR) in Neonatology v2021
The European Training Requirements in Neonatology (ETR Neonatology) represent a curriculum that has been developed to support national training programmes in Neonatal Medicine, one of the Paediatric Specialist training programmes as defined by the UEMS (Union Européenne des Medicins Specialistes) through the European Board of Paediatrics (EBP).
The new, 2021 issue replaces the first and second editions of the Syllabus prepared by the European Society for Paediatric Research (ESPR) Working Group for Neonatology, formally approved in 1998 and 2007, respectively.
The document has the objective to define the minimum requirements for training in Neonatology by adapting it to modern-day, clinical work patterns and administrative realities. It strives to make the up-to-date process of training in Neonatology following the core-training in Paediatrics transparent, while facilitating the incorporation of high-quality national training programmes that were not easily reconciled with the modular system of the ETR Neonatology.
The revision was led by a UEMS-appointed board of examined specialists in neonatal medicine with years of experience at senior staff level, all being experienced neonatal educators with extensive knowledge in policy development and members of the ESPR. The process of generating the ETR Neonatology included the review of existing European policy documents on training requirements, the second edition of the ETR (Version 2007), national European syllabi and also recently-published, by an international collaboration, European Standards of Care for Newborn Health.
Furthermore, through the initiative of the European Board of Neonatology (EBN) – the ESPR's educational branch – consultations among representatives of >30 European national neonatal societies were sought to actively contribute items for inclusion in the ETR to ensure international applicability.
The result is a truly Pan-European curriculum for neonatal training, including suggestions suitable for countries throughout Europe independently of their level of income.
You can download the ETR Neonatoloy v2021 here.

National Programmes
The ETR Neonatology has been developed to support national training programmes and to improve transparency when it comes to national guidelines. For this purpose, the EBN has collaborated with the European Association of Perinatal Medicine (EAPM) and the Union of European Neonatal and Perinatal Societies (UENPS) to create an overview of the European countries´ national programmes for subspecialty training in neonatology.
Perspective
The improved insight into the countries´ national subspecialist training programmes in neonatology aims at establishing internationally acceptable and clearly defined standards of knowledge and skills needed to practice neonatology at a tertiary care level.
In this way, the EBN seeks to facilitate harmonisation of the national training programmes and foster the development of a European network of tertiary care centres for neonatology.