During the summer of 2018, the EU experienced the worst outbreak of West Nile Virus (WNV) in history, with more than 1317 infected and 142 deaths reported. WNV can cause a fatal neurological disease in humans, for which there is no known therapy or vaccine. WNV is just one of the many Vector-Borne Diseases transmitted by mosquitoes (Dengue, Zika, Yellow Fever, Malaria, etc.) threatening Europe due to climate change. VECTRACK addresses this major problem through early detection and prevention of disease outbreaks, the key pillars in preventive control strategy. Obtaining high quality field information is notoriously costly and time-consuming. To effectively control these disease-vectors, specialized public and private bodies implement laborious and costly surveillance programs, where manual field trap inspections represent 95% of total costs. These costs can be significantly reduced through combining cost-efficient sampling strategies, remote sensing and spatial modelling techniques resulting in risk maps for targeted surveillance and risk assessments. VECTRACK will provide the first transnational and automated vector surveillance system, a long sought objective of the World Health Organization (WHO), the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC). This will be achieved through the development of an Earth Observation (EO) Satellite Sentinel service, including ground nodes with new optoelectronic sensors allowing fully remote and automated counting and classification of the target mosquitoes (sex, species, age and infection potential). VECTRACK will be commercialized as a service to the market segments already serviced by the industry partners, and new international clients. This will be achieved through the development of an innovative business plan, an extensive market demonstration and the implementation of a knowledge management and protection strategy for the exploitation of the technology in Europe and other international markets.

Pandemics have the potential to disrupt our daily lives and to affect every part of society. SARS-CoV-2 causing COVID-19 disease painfully showed how responding too late, in a fragmented mannar and/or with too little coordination across different sectors and countries, led to huge human and economic costs. ESCAPE’s main objective is to improve efficiency and scalability of early pandemic response plans by providing evidence-based guidelines, standardised research protocols, retrospective insights, and digital solutions that will support scientists in producing and integrating evidence and inform public health authorities in taking decisions to avert or reduce disease and societal burden. The project will provide knowledge and tools that will enhance Europe’s preparedness for a pandemic of pathogen X. These include a science-based blueprint for faster and better decision-making in managing pandemics, tools and frameworks to improve data availability, collection and sharing, as well as advanced analytics and models to understand and project transmission dynamics of pathogen X under candidate response scenarios. ESCAPE will also identify determinants of success and failure in managing pathogen X based on the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, helping to develop effective response strategies for future pandemics. In addition, the project will contribute to fostering a multi-stakeholder intelligent community allowing improved knowledge sharing and cooperation between policy-makers, the scientific community, the media and the public, ensuring a much more effective response to future pandemics. In the long-term, by improving pandemic preparedness and the effectiveness of response to a pandemic of pathogen X, the project will contribute to reducing health burden and potential negative societal and economic consequences during pandemics, as well as increase the confidence of policy makers and the public in science-based solutions.

The WHO estimates that vector-borne diseases (VBD) account for more than 17% of all infectious diseases. Every year, more than 2.5 billion people are at risk of contracting dengue alone, and VBDs cause almost 1 million deaths. In the last decades several species of invasive disease carrying mosquitoes have invaded the northern hemisphere of the planet through the transport of goods, increasing international travel and climate change. In 2018 a West Nile fever outbreak transmitted by mosquitoes occurred in the EU. For this disease there are no vaccines or medications. There were 1503 cases reported in 11 countries, and 181 deaths. VBD Mobile Bio-Labs could have assisted health authorities in containing this outbreak, reducing cases and preventing deaths. Unfortunately such a system does not exist. MOBVEC will be the first VBD Mobile Bio-Lab, providing: 1- Automatic information about vector populations, obtained in real-time by smart-traps, powered by machine-learning and edge computing: insect species, sex, age, and viral infection. 2- GEOSS compliant vector risk maps of adult insects and eggs/larvae, built on field + Copernicus data; 3- GEOSS compliant disease transmission models in mosquito populations, fusing data from Copernicus, clinical and diagnostic data of reference labs, and vector risk maps; 4- GEOSS compliant citizen-science platform to reinforce the surveillance of mosquitoes using citizens as observation nodes. 5- VBD mobile bio-lab with the capacities of points 1, 2, 3 and 4 + VBD Epidemiological maps and forecast models, to be rapidly operational in the heart of outbreaks to assist first-responders. This technology will the first line of defence against disease vectors worldwide, help prevent and fight devastating disease outbreaks, and will save lives while saving millions of euros in healthcare and lost working-hours. This has never been done before, and our consortium has the interdisciplinary research capacities to make it a reality.

CT-Luso intends to (1) draw an updated diagnosis and screenshot of the research ethics infrastructure in the 5 Portuguese-speaking African Countries (PSAC), (2) identify the needed transformations, draft strategic recommendations to carry out this transformation and design a policy roadmap for its implementation, (3) reinforce existing legislation and promote the necessary regulations for a robust ethical-legal framework, supporting the revision of internal regulations for the operation of RECs and NRAs, and promote the development of codes of scientific integrity in research institutions, (4) strengthen the skills of RECs and NRAs, researchers (senior, junior and post-graduate students) by drafting guidelines for the practice of the different roles required by the evaluation of CTs. It is necessary to work with all 5 PSAC simultaneously on four different levels, all equally indispensable and complementary: legislative, institutional, professional, and procedural, which in turn requires political commitment. CT-Luso proposes to reach the abovementioned objectives by (1) building an international team of legal experts and promoting dialogue for the co-creation of legislative and organizational recommendations (2) creating an interdisciplinary and cross-sectoral education (3) creating an advanced progressive training program for members of RECs, NRA, CTs Centres and researchers (4) hands-on experience developed in a finely tuned manner and according to country specificities, complementing the previous education and training programs (5) assess whether each PSAC has the necessary installed capacity to be included in the international CTs roadmap and in particular to create a Portuguese-speaking cluster by simulating the procedures under the development of an academic CT (6) in parallel, the legislative and regulatory transformations to be implemented will require the political power involvement, acting in a double approach, both bottom-up and top-down.

METROFOOD-RI is a distributed research infrastructure (RI) that promotes scientific excellence in food quality and safety. It provides metrology services in food and nutrition across various highly interdisciplinary, interconnected fields along the food value chain, such as agrifood, sustainable development, food safety, quality, traceability and authenticity, environmental safety, and human health. In May 2022, it completed its preparatory phase upon the H2020 METROFOOD-PP project (GA871083). However, a few bottlenecks were identified in the final evaluation report; furthermore, the consortium prepared plans for the next short- and medium-term phases and the Board of Governmental representatives proposed several suggestions. METROFOOD-EPI was established with the overarching mission to build METROFOOD-RI as an infrastructure consolidated for its full implementation and to begin the operational phase, addressing any critical issues. Four specific objectives have been identified: support the establishment of the legal entity that will manage the RI, specify the technical implementation of the RI as service-oriented, consolidate its position in the landscape and secure long-term sustainability. METROFOOD-EPI will act on four layers, covering: ERIC set-up, including membership consolidation, governance establishment, securing funding, and distributed architecture; technical organisation and implementation of the RI for its operation, including a definition of user requirement specifications for the e-component and set-up of the core components, data management solutions, access, and services; consolidation of the RI’s positioning in the agrifood research & innovation landscape, including an update of the scientific strategy and contribution to the ERA, community building, and liaising with other complementary initiatives; long-term scientific & financial sustainability, including impact, risk management and user engagement.