Research & Innovation on Pandemic Preparedness in the EU and Global Context

Preparedness for epidemics and pandemics requires action at different levels. Research & innovation is an important element to bring improved and new diagnostics, vaccines and therapeutics as well as new approaches to healthcare systems. The European Union (EU) has worked on epidemic and pandemic preparedness research & innovation for many years and significantly boosted these investments during the COVID-19 pandemic. Cooperation of European research funders of pandemic preparedness research & innovation is about to be raised to a new level with the BE READY European partnership.

Another partnership between the EU and countries in Sub-Saharan Africa Global Health EDCTP3, which supports clinical research in the area of infectious diseases, recently demonstrated its ability to act quickly in case of outbreaks with the launch of a call for proposals on Mpox. Furthermore, the EU has been working with funding organizations from across the world to quickly mobilize and coordinate funding activities in the frame of Global Research Collaboration for Infectious Disease Preparedness (GloPID-R). New initiatives such as the International Pandemic Preparedness Secretariat aim at promoting and coordinating research & innovation at the global level. The WHO R&D Blueprint for Epidemics functions as a global platform for collaboration for R&D collaboration.

The workshop will allow different partnerships and initiatives to present their activities. The workshop aims at launching a discussion on how to align global research & innovation on epidemic and pandemic preparedness, identify possible gaps and ways of addressing them.