GloPID-R Activities Published in The Lancet

Coordinating Funding in Public Health Emergencies, a correspondence* describing the activities of the GloPID-R (Global Research Collaboration for Infectious Disease Preparedness) consortium, was published in The Lancet on May 27th. The letter highlights how GloPID-R’s 26 members are working to improve the coordination of global research efforts in public health emergencies.

GloPID-R’s immediate response to the Zika outbreak in December 2015 is given as a successful example of the ambitious goal to initiate a coordinated international research response within 48 hours of a declared public health emergency anywhere in the world. GloPID-R concentrated efforts on identifying immediate research needs and set up four Zika working groups on aetiology, vaccines, diagnostics and vector control.

To further its objectives, GloPID-R set out three main priorities for 2016 at its annual meeting held in March in Washington, DC:

• to pursue coordinated research response for the Zika outbreak,
• to draw up a readiness plan based on the experience gained from the Zika outbreak,
• to develop a framework for rapid and open data-sharing during public health emergencies.

The letter goes on to explain that through these steps GloPID-R hopes to have a significant impact on the way research is carried out in public health emergencies, and thus contribute to saving lives. GloPID-R is currently analysing how it can support the research needs of the current yellow fever outbreak.

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*Signed by the Chair and Vice Chairs of GloPID-R: Line Matthiessen, European Commission, Directorate General for Research and Innovation, Brussels, Belgium; Walter Colli, São Paulo Research Foundation, São Paulo, Brazil; Jean-François Delfraissy, Institut de microbiologie et des maladies infectieuses, INSERM, Paris, France; Eung-Soo Hwang, National Research Foundation of Korea, Daejeon, South Korea; Jeffrey Mphahlele, South African Medical Research Council, Cape Town, South Africa; and Marc Ouellette, Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Ottawa, Canada, on behalf of GloPID-R members listed in the journal’s appendix.