Thank you to everyone who joined us for the DES Fall Meeting 2026 at Nyborg Strand. With more than 80 participants, two days of inspiring presentations, lively discussions, and opportunities to connect across the epidemiological community, we are very grateful for the strong engagement throughout the meeting.
In this edition, you will find:
• A thank you for a great DES Fall Meeting 2026
• Early career researchers taking the stage
• The 2026 Schroll Junior Researcher Prize
• A new DES commentary
• A call for nominations for Honorary Membership of DES
• August Data of the Month
• A few moments from Nyborg
On behalf of the DES Board,
Sandra Feodor Nilsson
Editor
Thank you for a great DES Fall Meeting 2026
More than 80 epidemiologists joined us at Nyborg Strand on 22–23 September for the DES Fall Meeting 2026, Modern Methods in Epidemiology: Mediation, Decomposition, and Causal Inference.
Across the two days, we heard presentations from leading international and Danish researchers covering a broad range of contemporary epidemiological methods, including DAGs, counterfactual mediation, decomposition techniques, the Causal Roadmap, and target trial emulation.
We would like to thank all speakers and participants for contributing to two days of excellent presentations, stimulating discussions, and scientific exchange.
Early career researchers took the stage
A particular highlight of this year’s meeting was the strong contribution from early-career researchers.
Nine early-career researchers presented their own work in the DES Lecture Competition. The presentations covered a broad range of epidemiological topics and were of an impressively high scientific quality.
Congratulations to Marie Aarup Storgaard, Bruno Fernandes and Ida Asta Olsen, who received the DES Lecture Competition Award for Best Presentation. Early career researchers also played an active role in our poster session. During the poster walk, researchers had the opportunity to give short presentations of their work and discuss their research directly with other participants.
Thank you to everyone who presented and contributed to the discussions.
Schroll Junior Researcher Prize 2026
We were also pleased to present the Schroll Junior Researcher Prize for Excellence 2026 to Signe Bedsted Clemmensen.
The Schroll Prize recognises excellence in epidemiological research, methodological development or application, teaching, and/or dissemination at an early stage of a research career.
As part of the award, Signe Bedsted Clemmensen presented her research on tattoos and the risk of cancer, providing an engaging example of epidemiological research addressing an increasingly relevant exposure. Congratulations!
DES commentary: A Public Health Act needs real-time epidemiological evaluation
Prevention is finally high on the political agenda, and Denmark's forthcoming Public Health Act is a historic opportunity to improve population health. But ambition and good intentions are not enough. In a new op-ed in A4 Sundhed, Terese Høj Jørgensen, Reimar W. Thomsen and Amalie Timmermann from the DES board argue that epidemiological evaluation should be built into the Act from day one. Denmark's internationally unique registers make it possible to monitor and evaluate prevention initiatives continuously, including their impact on social and geographical inequality in health. Because prevention is often implemented on incomplete evidence, systematic evaluation is all the more important. If we take prevention as seriously as treatment, monitoring, quality assurance and causal evaluation must be an integral part of public health policy. Read the full text here: Forbedret folkesundhed kræver mere end ord: Behov for massivt fokus på data og statistik
Nominate a future honorary member of DES
Do you know someone who has made a long-standing and extraordinary contribution to epidemiology or to the Danish Epidemiological Society?
All DES members are welcome to nominate candidates for Honorary Membership of the Danish Epidemiological Society.
Honorary membership may be awarded to current or former members who have made long-standing and extraordinary contributions to the field of epidemiology, the profession, or DES.
Nominations should briefly describe the basis for the nomination and the candidate’s contributions. They can be submitted on an ongoing basis to dansk.epidemiologisk.selskab@outlook.dk.
All nominations received will be reviewed by the DES Board once a year in February. Honorary membership is awarded only when the Board considers nominated candidates to meet the criteria and is therefore not necessarily awarded every year.
New honorary members will be announced and invited to give a short presentation at the DES Spring Meeting 2027. More information about the Spring Meeting will follow soon.
We encourage DES members to consider colleagues who have made a lasting contribution to epidemiology and the epidemiological community in Denmark. You can read more here: https://www.dansk-epidemiologisk-selskab.dk/des-activities/honorary-membership/
Data of the month
As part of our recurring Data of the Month series, where we highlight key data sources available for research, this month we feature The Multigeneration Register Beta (MGR Beta).
The Multigeneration Register (MGR) is a research infrastructure that extends family relations in the Danish Civil Registration System (CRS) backward in time. Its purpose is to create new opportunities for combining cross-generational data in existing registers. MGR is established by the Danish National Archives, the Department of Computer Science at the University of Copenhagen, and the Center for Register Research at Aarhus University.
The project is ongoing, and new versions with additional family relations will be released during the project period. The data was created by combining information in the CRS with information from 22,000 handwritten church books covering all births in Denmark back to 1920. The church books were transcribed using advanced AI methods and then linked to corresponding information in the CRS.
The population in MGR Beta consists of individuals residing in Denmark when the CRS was established in 1968. This current version was enriched with family relations to their parents if both parents were included in the CRS and married in 1968. MGR Beta contains family relations for 919,768 individuals born between 1920 and 1959 who do not have parental information registered in the CRS.
The data source contains register-based information covering the entire Danish population and enables researchers to study family relations across generations.
Cohort profiles or examples of research:
The Multigeneration Register is described here: https://doi.org/10.1177/14034948221147096
Data from MGR has been used in a study published in The Lancet Psychiatry calculating absolute risk estimates of familial aggregation of mental disorders: https://doi.org/10.1016/S2215-0366(25)00196-8 see also interactive visualizations of the study here www.ncrr.au.dk/family_history/
Access and permissions (How researchers can request access):
MGR Beta has been transferred to Statistics Denmark and is available via the "Population Package" in Denmark's Data Window: Denmark's Data Window. MGR beta may be accessed for research purposes according to GDPR, whereas MGR lite also require personal permission according to the Archival legislation.
🔹 Data from MGR has been used in a study published in The Lancet Psychiatry calculating
absolute risk estimates of familial aggregation of mental disorders:
🔹 See also interactive visualizations of the study here:
Access and permissions:
MGR Beta has been transferred to Statistics Denmark and is available via the "Population Package" in Denmark's Data Window. MGR beta may be accessed for research purposes according to GDPR, whereas MGR lite also require personal permission according to the Archival legislation.
Contact information:
Chief Advisor Jeppe Klok Due
📞 +45 7141 7211
📧 jkd@rigsarkivet.dk
Do you know a data source that should be featured as Data of the Month? Please send an e- mail to dansk.epidemiologisk.selskab@outlook.dk.
A few moments from Nyborg
Thank you once again to all speakers, presenters, poster contributors, and participants for making the DES Fall Meeting 2026 such an enjoyable and inspiring meeting.
We look forward to seeing you at future DES activities!
