"IDEAL (Infectious Diseases Europe Africa Learning) has implemented an innovative teaching on Infectious Diseases for undergraduate and postgraduate medical students in order on one hand to face the infectious challenges related to the increase of multidrug-resistant bacteria, the emergence of new pathogens in the context of climate change and large-scale migration; and on the other hand to address the gaps in Infectious Diseases education in Europe.It brings together European and Ugandan universities and partner hospitals:- Université Paris Descartes (FR), coordinator;- Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore di Roma(IT);- NHS Lothian (SCOT);- Universiteit Antwerpen (BEL);- Mother Kevin Postgraduate Medical School (UG);- St Mary’s Hospital Lacor (UG).They made the following observation: the worldwide multiplication of multidrug-resistant bacteria, as well as the emergence of new infections and the spread of their vectors beyond their traditional geographical zones is a new challenge that requires new medical skills for a better care and follow-up of patients. At the same time, university medical education does not offer enough practical lessons to develop a ""know-how"", whereas Infectious Diseases teaching does not offer for now a global picture of this intrinsically transversal discipline at the interface of epidemiology, clinical skills, microbiology and hard sciences. European education does not sufficiently emphasize the situation of emerging countries, although these regions are those that face most current infectious challenges, such as HIV, malaria or multidrug-resistant tuberculosis.The overall long-term goal was to develop a joint program on Infectious Diseases for European undergraduate medical students by improving students' knowledge; preparing them for the challenges presented by Infectious Diseases in the context of globalization, immigration and climate change; and by developing e-learning tools promoting exchanges and sharing of knowledge between Europe and Africa.Three complementary teaching approaches were developed over the three years:> An Infectious Diseases Intensive Courses organized each year in Paris, Rome, Edinburgh and Antwerp (WP1). These sessions, designed around teacher mobility rather than student mobility, offered a peer-reviewed common curriculum in English that addressed current issues with an international approach. This 35-hour-course replaced the traditional 70-hour-course (Paris and Rome) or complemented it when there was no specific teaching on this subject (Antwerp and Edinburgh).> An annual summer school on Infectious Diseases, open to students from partner universities and other European and international universities (WP2).> E-learning and open-access resources available freely on IDEAL website: www.ideal-program.com The project has been a success as much in terms of teaching (all activities have been very successful with students, the attractiveness of the project has spread to other teachers and other institutions, many other innovative teaching projects have been created under the influence of IDEAL), that in terms of the strength of the partnership (the partners have set up new projects parallel to IDEAL and they continue to work together).At the end of the IDEAL project, the partners developed two new European projects, which shows the success and the willingness of all the actors to continue to work together and to find funding for the education of the doctors of tomorrow:> Erasmus + Strategic Partnership untitled IDEAL+ (Infectious Diseases Education through Active Learning): the project offers to go further in innovative teaching and bring together the 4 IDEAL European partners as well as 4 new European institutions;> Application in 2020 for an Erasmus + Capacity Building Project in Uganda: URIDEAL (Uganda Research Methods & Infectious Diseases teaching Europe Africa Learning)."

IDEAL+ stands for Infectious Diseases – Education through Active Learning. It’s a unique comprehensive programme on intercultural medical education through the scope of Infectious Diseases. IDEAL+ is a multiple-target project (undergraduate medical students, senior and junior European medical health educators and on a wider scale professionals and teachers from other disciplines, interested in innovative teaching methods) that tackles multi-level issues, from Infectious Diseases (ID) challenges to current medical higher education challenges. Infectious Diseases (ID) are a key challenge of the century and remain the second most important cause of death worldwide, with re-emerging pathogens like measles, and emerging of multi-resistant pathogens making previous simple infections a challenge to treat. To tackle these challenges, the physicians of tomorrow must be properly trained to diagnoses, decision-making, antibiotic stewardship and prevention during undergraduate medical studies. In most European countries, students are predominantly trained through ex cathedra lectures that do not sufficiently prepare them for these basic skills that cut across most medical specialties. Indeed, most medical educators are not trained to the teaching practices that could adequately address these key competences. The IDEAL+ projects is developing 3 complementary teaching approaches:An annual 3-day Teacher Training Seminar [WP1] for junior and mid-career faculty members of six ID teaching partner institutions, organized by four medical education teaching partners. In IDEAL+ we strongly believe that training the trainers is a core issue of tomorrow’s higher education, particularly in the field of medicine. We are confident that sharing good practices across Europe on innovative teaching methods is the best way to address the challenges of a globalized and modernized higher education. This seminar will train the trainers from partner institutions in teaching and learning techniques, and also, on a meta level, guide them in faculty development initiatives within their own institutions. Techniques will include hands-on methods such as team-based learning, problem-based learning, flipped classroom, case-based learning, serious games and simulation. These approaches, focused on clinical reasoning and practice, will address students’ needs. This new generation of trainers will then put into practice these techniques within the Student Infectious Diseases training courses [WP2] and the production of e-learning tools [WP3]An annual 5-day Student ID Training Course for medical students in each ID teaching partnering institutions [WP2]. Given that in European Schools of Medicine student mobility (such as the Erasmus programme) might be very difficult due to the variety of European medical curriculum, we decided with IDEAL + to foster internationalization at their home University. Hence students will benefit from an international intensive course during one week, with teachers from 6 different institutions teaching in their home University. The transmission of theoretical knowledge will move from frontal lectures to self-directed learning utilising digital resources. Thus, the ID training course will focus on hands-on training methods (case-based learning, simulation, serious games, team-based sessions, working groups with presentations, response moments, bedside teaching, etc) allowing the development of new skills among students especially case-based discussions, team-work, and communication skills. A digital learning platform providing a complete set of educational resources for ID teachers and students on an open source website, using social media to disseminate these resources to other trainers and students [WP3]. IDEAL+ will deliver digital resources on:- Infectious Diseases for undergraduate students. The open source digital resources will be available on a dedicated platform and used (i) as a prerequisite for students attending the ID training course [WP2], but also (ii) as self-directed learning tool to anyone interested.-Innovative education tools and methods for Medical educators. The open source digital resources will be available on a dedicated platform to Medical educators from the programme and beyond. In addition, ID educators will share a toolbox of specific hands-on resources in English for undergraduate ID teaching (built as a part of the programme, based on innovative teaching methods).Altogether IDEAL+ will provide expert-based trainers’ training, including options for a distance education and disseminate innovative tools for undergraduate ID teaching throughout Europe.