The 2023 Launch Meeting of the HORIZON Europe-funded project “Enhanced and cost-effective biosecurity in livestock production” (BIOSECURE) was held in Ghent, Belgium, on the 9th and 10th of February (meeting of COST action BETTER was on 7^th and 8^th). With its beautiful medieval centre and its lively and lovely folk, Ghent has not let any of the participants down. Following a very interesting agenda, we have successfully kick-started the activities of this exciting project and will give regular updates about it on our website.