ISIDORe: A New Approach to Pandemic Preparedness Research in Europe
ISIDORe, “Integrated Services for Infectious Disease Outbreak Research”, is a consortium of consortia! But what does this mean, exactly, you may ask.
Bringing together 17 partner networks, which unite 154 research organisations and infrastructures, ISIDORe is an EU funded project (21M euros) aiming to reinforce scientific communities towards possible pandemics (https://isidore-project.eu/about-us/). Through ISIDORe, an unprecedented array of scientific products, services and infrastructures is made available to scientists, with the objective of preparedness and response to epidemics, whether these are already happening or before they even start (https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-00669-4)! In this project, already existing research infrastructures are coordinating, in order to offer a comprehensive list of services (https://isidore-project.eu/services/) that range from analytical characterisation and cell and in vivo models, to support for the development of therapeutics and vaccines, and even tools to facilitate social and epidemiological studies of pandemics. This One Health approach aims to tackle the lack of coordination and insufficient application of interdisciplinary approaches, previously noted in 21st century health crises (SARS, MERS, Ebola, Zika, and the ongoing COVID19 pandemic).
EVA is proud to be part of the ISIDORe project, bringing to the table the existing experience of the biobank in efficiently distributing virus-related products, routinely or in a pandemic. With 26 EVA partners participating In ISIDORe, EVA will ensure the availability of relevant viral resources to ISIDORe service-provider partners for performing experiments. More specifically, EVA will lead the selection, production and characterisation of infectious and non-infectious material (such as low-passage batches of virus, recombinant virus or viral proteins, antibodies for the characterisation of relevant virus-related products and reference material for diagnostics, among others). These will be provided as part of certain services carried out by EVA or other ISIDORe partners. EVA services, offered through the ISIDORe project, are labelled accordingly on the online portal (https://www.european-virus-archive.com/isidore-services). By applying for them through ISIDORe (https://isidore-project.eu/calls/#how-to-apply), you can access them free of charge (TNA access, https://isidore-project.eu/calls/#what-is-tna). Subsidised by the EU, TNA access covers the cost of the requested service. https://isidore-project.eu/calls/#eligibility
ISIDORe launched in February 2022 and will run for 3 years. Calls for proposals on SARS-CoV2/ Covid-19 and on Monkeypox virus are currently open (https://isidore-project.eu/calls/), and more are soon to come. Follow ISIDORes twitter account to stay posted (https://twitter.com/isidore_eu).
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