BE READY NOW aims to implement the European Partnership for Pandemic Preparedness. This Partnership will gather 74 organisations from 24 countries, including public funding agencies, public health institutes, clinical networks, ministries and research infrastructures active in pandemic preparedness. This consortium is aligned around the vision of building a European research and innovation ecosystem optimally prepared for future health crises caused by infectious diseases, therefore contributing to the objectives of the European Research Area (ERA). To achieve its ambitious vision, BE READY NOW will align stakeholders in pandemic preparedness around shared research priorities to foster a coordinated and efficient research landscape, producing sustainable scientific, health, and socio-economic benefits. Through Joint Transnational Calls, BE READY NOW will help close critical research gaps covering the whole spectrum of pandemic preparedness research (including basic research, diagnostics, therapeutics, vaccines, and public health interventions), through an interdisciplinary approach. It will therefore directly address the goals of Horizon Europe’s Cluster 1 Health. Building on the infrastructures, projects and initiatives supported by the European Commission and Member States, BE READY NOW will establish and sustain an "ever-warm" research ecosystem, capable of pivoting swiftly in response to emerging health threats. This ecosystem will include an innovative, ever-warm EU-wide network of networks of clinical research sites. In the longer term, BE READY NOW will improve the EU's capacity in the areas of prevention, preparedness, surveillance, risk assessment and response to infectious diseases, ensuring the international visibility of the EU as a recognised actor for pandemic preparedness research and response, and providing resilience for citizens and health systems beyond the Partnership’s duration.

The CancerProfile multidisciplinary project brings together highly complementary translational research institutes to develop a novel standard of patient stratification for predictive and personalized medicine of pancreatic adenocarcinoma cancer. The overall objective is to fully integrate cutting-edge AI-augmented anatomopathology, genomics, and tissue/liquid biopsy analysis in conjunction with functional drug response of tumors, to derive biomarkers indicative of a predictive treatment choice. We will apply an innovative Personalized Functional Profiling (PFP) proprietary technology consisting of direct large-scale analysis of the sensitivity of 3D-printed spheroids derived from patient biopsies in response to a panel of EMA and FDA approved anti-cancer chemotherapeutics. Overall, the objective is to clinically validate new prognostic markers and identify alternative treatment options for tumors resistant to standard chemotherapies.

The COVID-19 pandemic has confirmed and further highlighted the importance of planning and investing in research and innovation well before a health crisis occurs. For this purpose, the main goal of BE READY is to build a consolidated European Research and Innovation Area that provides the foundation of the candidate European partnership for pandemic preparedness so to improve the EU's preparedness to predict and respond to emerging health threats by better coordinating funding for research and innovation at EU, national (and regional) level towards common objectives and an agreed Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda. The Partnership is expected to build on existing pandemic preparedness networks, and work in synergy with the Health Emergency Response Authority (HERA), in close collaboration with ECDC, EMA and other relevant international and European actors. BE READY is composed by 24 organisations from 15 countries with complementary expertise and policy area ranging from Public Health Organisations, Ministries (of Science, University, Health, Innovation or Environment) and Research Performing Organisations that ensures a cross-cutting, interdisciplinary Global Health and One Health approach.

The END-VOC consortium will support the European and global response to the COVID-19 pandemic and Variants of Concern (VOC) through well characterised cohorts and linked with existing European and international initiatives. END-VOC consists of 19 partners in Europe (UK, Spain, Italy, Germany, Netherlands, Norway, Italy), South America (Brazil and Peru), Africa (Mozambique, South Africa, Nigeria and 13 ANTICOV African countries), Middle East (Palestine) and Asia (India, Pakistan, Philippines) with a focus on countries affected by VOCs and VOIs. We will elucidate the global circulation of the current and emerging SARS-CoV-2 VOCs and their characteristics, including transmissibility, pathogenicity and propensity to cause reinfection, to support best control strategies and the development of diagnostics; evaluate the impact of VOCs on the effectiveness of different vaccines and vaccination strategies; and assess the implications of VOCs on the choice of optimal treatment options. END-VOC will also investigate how VOCs alter long-term post-infection sequelae and where new VOCs emerge within hosts using our clinical cohorts. We will inform future preparedness and response working closely with international and national public health organisations and existing cohort consortia. Specific beyond state-of-the-art components of END-VOC include the use of novel phylogenetic prediction tools and mathematical modelling; generation of powerful cohorts through sentinel surveillance in low and middle income settings and cohorts of travellers to increase our global reach; use of novel predictive modelling of clinical outcomes by VOC and comorbidity/treatment and evaluation of differences in natural and vaccine immunity by VOC; antiviral screening models within cohorts and an artificial intelligence driven tool for the prediction of long COVID.

Humans are microbial, living in close functional interaction with their skin and mucosal microbiomes. Human-microbes interplay has proven essential for the maintenance of health and well-being and profiling of microbiomes will become an essential feature of the personalized preventive nutrition and medicine of tomorrow. Europe has gained a leading position in microbiome science and yet to fulfill societal expectations, an international consensus will be essential on key aspects. These include i) clinical trial design as well as analytical standards, ii) definitions of healthy microbiomes as a function of numerous factors, accounting for confounders, iii) means of demonstrating causality of altered host-microbes interactions in diseases and iv) processes for the development of clinically relevant, validated biomarkers. The International Human Microbiome Concertation and Support Action (IHMCSA) will tackle all necessary steps to open the perspective of managing nutrition and health of the microbial human. Involving key stakeholders representing the multiplicity of actors concerned, including citizens, IHMCSA will map existing material, delineate necessary steps and pathways for innovation and build consensus on priorities and means for the future of microbiome science and its translation. This will lead to recommendations, validated by an international Strategic Steering Committee as well as academies of medicine of the world, directed to the European Commission, international research programmes, funding and regulatory agencies and decision makers of health systems. To ensure sustainability of the proposed measures, IHMCSA will promote unified repositories for sharing standards, SOPs and data, and contribute to the structuration of the European Microbiome Centers Consortium with a role in gathering world microbiome networks of excellence. With IHMCSA, human-associated microbiomes will be recognized for their true value in contributing to secure the future of mankind.