ISIDORe kick off meeting

ISIDORe – “Integrated Services for Infectious Disease Outbreak Research” was officially launched on the 24 February 2022. The 21M€ EU-funded large-scale project assembles an unprecedented One Health-driven, integrated portfolio of cutting-edge research services and resources, ranging from the most fundamental to the most applied, dedicated to the study of epidemic-prone diseases including SARS-CoV-2 variants. The Consortium brings together 154 partners under the umbrella of INSTRUCT, EUBIOIMAGING, EUOPENSCREEN, ECRIN, EATRIS, BBMRI, INFRAFRONTIER, EMBRC, ELIXIR, ERINHA, EVAg, VETBIONET, INFRAVEC, SONAR GLOBAL, TRANSVAC, MIRRI and EMERGEN. 

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has shown that there is a crucial need for a higher capacity of preparedness and responsiveness to epidemic-prone pathogens at EU and global levels. In all health crises of the 21st century, from SARS, MERS, Ebola and Zika, to the current COVID19 pandemic, there has been a lack of coordination and insufficient application of interdisciplinary approaches. These deficits need to be addressed if the next disease outbreak with a high-consequence infectious agent is going to be dealt with successfully.

ISIDORe will contribute to Europe’s readiness to any epidemic-prone pathogen through a global, integrated and preparedness-driven approach by providing free of charge access to cutting-edge resources and services to scientific user communities for supporting their research projects in the field of infectious diseases in “peaceful times” as well as during outbreaks or epidemics.