English Speaking Working Group

Topics: Board | Meetings | Relationship Testing Workshop | Publications

Next meeting

The next ESWG Scientific Meeting will be held in Oslo, Norway, on May 19-20, 2025. The meeting is open for all scientists and practitioners, not only ESWG members. Everyone is welcome to participate!! More information can be found at https://tinyurl.com/ESWG2025

Summary of the 2023 Scientific meeting, 15th - 16th May

The meeting was hosted by Denise Syndercombe-Court and colleagues at King’s Forensics at King's College of London. There were around 70 participants and 18 presentations covering various topics related to DNA analysis, genetics and kinship (such as biostatistics, SNP marker panels for kinship testing, investigative genetic genealogy, case reports, etc). Please see https://www.eswglondon23.com/ for the detailed program.

Summary of the ESWG 2022 member meeting

In connection to the ISFG conference in Washington, USA (September, 2022) the ESWG member meeting was held. The board was re-elected for another two-years period (Andreas Tillmar (Chairman), Denise Syndercombe Court (Secretary) and Bo Thisted Simonsen (Treasurer)). It was decide to have the 2023 ESWG Scientific meeting in London, and ESWG (in collaboration with the Norwegian and Swedish relationship testing labs) will continue to offer a Relationship testing focused proficiency test in 2023.

Proficiency Test

For a long period of time, proficiency testing has yearly been organized within the ESWG with a special focus on relationship testing (wet testing and paper challenges). In 2024, the ESWG will offer SNP genotyping as an “add on” to their proficiency testing. Labs can participate only in the SNP genotyping part if they wish. The deadline for registration is normally in April. If you need additional information, please contact Daniel Kling (daniel.kling@rmv.se). Previous Proficiency Tests The 2023 proficiency testing exercise was organized by the Department of Forensic Sciences, Norway in collaboration with the National Board of Forensic Medicine, Sweden. The results of the 2022 proficiency test have been made available at https://familias.name/ESWG/. The results of the 2022 proficiency test have been made available as an online video presentation that can be viewed here: https://familias.name/ESWG/kling_eswg2022_pt_test.mp4 The video summarizes the results as well as provide a walkthrough of the paper challenge. The results of the 2021 proficiency test are available as an online video presentation that can be viewed here: https://familias.name/ESWG/kling_eswg2021_pt_test.mp4 The results of the 2020 proficiency test are available as an online video presentation that can be viewed here: https://familias.name/ESWG/presentation_eswg_2020.mp4

Membership of the ESWG

Membership of the English Speaking Working Group (ESWG) is open to all English speaking members of the ISFG and may be obtained by application to the secretary of the group. There will be no membership fee in addition to that payable to the ISFG. Please go to your personal profile and tick membership of the ESWG.

Aims of the English Speaking Working Group are

• the exchange of experience, quality control and stimulation of cooperation between the members;
• making available scientific knowledge and findings in the field of interest;
• organisation of scientific meetings ­– but such meetings will be held only after consultation with the ISFG.

Here, you find the constitution of the ESWG.

History of the ESWG

The ESWG was founded after the ISFH meeting 23-27 September 1979 in London. Here you find some more details about the history of the ESWG.

Board

A board administers the ESWG that is responsible for organising any meeting of the group. The board consists of the chairman, the secretary and the treasurer who are elected by vote for a period of two years. The board represents the working group.

Chairman

Secretary

Treasurer

Publications of the Group

1. Syndercombe Court D, Lincoln P. A review of the 1991: 1994 Paternity Testing Workshops of the English-Speaking Working Group. In: Carracedo A, Brinkmann, Bär W (eds) Advances in Forensic Haemogenetics 6. Springer-Verlag, Berlin Heidelberg New York, pp. 683-5.
2. Bjerre A, Syndercombe Court D, Lincoln P, Morling N. A report of the 1995 and 1996 Paternity Testing Workshops of the English Speaking Working Group of the International Society for Forensic Haemogenetics. Forensic Sci Int 1997; 90: 41-55.
3. Hallenberg C, Morling N. A report of the 1997, 1998 and 1999 Paternity Testing Workshops of the English Speaking Working Group of the International Society for Forensic Genetics. Forensic Sci Int 2001; 116: 23-33.
4. Hallenberg C, Morling N. A report of the 2000 and 2001 Paternity Testing Workshops of the English Speaking Working Group of the International Society for Forensic Genetics. Forensic Sci Int 2002; 129: 43-50.
5. Thomsen AR, Hallenberg C, Simonsen BT, Langkjær RB, Morling N. A report of the 2002-2008 Paternity Testing Workshops of the English Speaking Working Group of the International Society for Forensic Genetics. FSI: Genetics 2009,3: 214-21.
6. Poulsen L, Friis SL, Hallenberg C, Simonsen BT, Morling N. A report of the 2009–2011 Paternity and Relationship Testing Workshops of the English Speaking Working Group of the International Society for Forensic Genetics. Forensic Science International: Genetics 2014; 9: e1-2.