Science4Pandemics

Duration

01/01/2022 - 31/12/2024

Coordinator

Begonya Nafria (Fundació de Recerca Sant Joan de Déu), Quique Bassat (ISGlobal)

Funded by

EIT Health

The current COVID-19 pandemic has indisputably shown the importance of infectious diseases as a threat to humanity and reminded us of how devastating are the effects of pandemics at a global scale.

But beyond COVID-19, malaria, tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS or multidrug-resistant bacteria remain major causes of morbidity and mortality.

A possible way of empowering society against infectious diseases

Science4Pandemics (S4P) is a European project that will develop a digital platform to educate the public on the prevention and management of pandemics.

Targeting the adolescent population in particular, the new project will use gamification and artificial intelligence (AI) as its main tools for enhancing the public’s understanding of this field.

Moreover, individual and community-level data generated and interpreted via the digital platform will help to improve research, preparedness and management of future pandemics.

This three-year project supported by EIT Health is being led by the Sant Joan de Déu Research Institute (IRSJD) and comprises various institutions from Spain, Portugal and Italy: the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal), the University of Barcelona (UB), the University of Coimbra (UC), the Borja Institute of Bioethics (IBB), the Pedro Nunes Institute, the Fondazione Penta Onlus and its paediatric research network, the company Exheus and the pharmaceutical manufacturers Sanofi and GSK.

Among other aspects, the educational project will cover the infectious disease cycle, basic biology and clinical features of outbreak-prone infections. It will also raise awareness about pandemic prevention and management measures to prevent the health system from becoming overstretched and increase confidence in the safety and efficacy of vaccines.

Science4Pandemics is a new way of empowering society through an educational initiative that will also provide real-world data for collaborative research on pandemics.