Horizon Europe Programme HORIZON-HLTH-2023-TOOL-05-08 “Pandemic Information to Support Rapid Response (PAIR)” 01.01.2024 – 31.12.2028

Project coordinator at NVRI: Professor Katarzyna Domańska-Blicharz PhD, ScD

Funding: €166,687.28

Project link: https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101133191/pl

PAIR (PAndemic Information to support rapid Response) is a five-year EU-funded project coordinated by the University of Copenhagen, which aims to strengthen the One Health model by developing innovative diagnostic and epidemiological modeling tools. The National Veterinary Research Institute (NVRI) is among the project partners.

The project involves 20 partners from 7 different countries. The aim of PAIR is to enhance response capacity in European countries to future pandemics by integrating advanced POC diagnostic systems and RISK epidemiological and forecasting models based on artificial intelligence and machine learning.

The role of NVRI in the project is to test the developed diagnostic tool for detecting influenza viruses and beta-coronaviruses in animal samples.

The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic demonstrated the dramatic impact of pandemics on public health. It also highlighted the need for transparent, rapid, and informed decision-making to adequately respond to public health threat situations. Having reliable diagnostic and forecasting tools that rapidly provide essential information is crucial for improving the decision-making process and strengthening public trust.

PAIR addresses this challenge by launching two innovative, interacting tools:

PANPOC, development of a POC device for rapid detection of respiratory RNA viruses with pandemic potential in human, animal, and environmental samples;

PANRISK, an epidemiological model based on processing data from diagnostic surveillance and genetic research using artificial intelligence and machine learning. The model will process both data from publicly available online resources and results of analyses conducted by project partners. Based on these data, the spatial (geographic mapping) and temporal presence and evolution of target viruses, PANRISK will enable pandemic risk assessment.

The PANPOC and PANRISK tools will be validated through their direct use by veterinarians and clinical-diagnostic laboratories in Denmark, France, Latvia, Spain, Italy, and Poland. In this context, the Department of Virology and Viral Animal Diseases of NVRI will collaborate on validating the PANPOC device in the veterinary field as a target field tool for detecting zoonotic influenza viruses and beta-coronavirus in samples from livestock and wild animal species.

This project has received funding from the European Union under the Horizon Europe Framework Programme for Research and Innovation (2021-2027) No. 101133191.