Escape project
ESCAPE, a research project that will provide a science-based blueprint for faster and better decision-making. This will enhance Europe's preparedness for a pandemic of pathogen X.
Pandemics have the potential to disrupt our daily lives and affect every part of society as was seen in the COVID-19 pandemic. By responding too late, in a fragmented way or without coordination between different countries, this has led to huge human and economic costs. Therefore ESCAPE aims to provide for an evidence-based pandemic preparedness plan so losses can be minimized.
Research objectives
By creating pathogen-tailored tools, we wish to avoid that preparedness plans of governments and public health authorities are not only based on the previous pathogen that affected their population. Policy-makers should be able to implement measures based on model-based recommendations using rapidly available data and the latest analytical tools in order to contain or mitigate disease spread.
We also emphasize that the communication and involvement of the public are essential for any successful pandemic preparedness strategy and are thus a vital part of the project.
ESCAPE's main objective is to improve the efficiency and scalability of early pandemic response plans by providing stakeholders with evidence-based guidelines, standardised research protocols, retroactive insights and digital solutions.
The project will contribute to fostering an 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.
Our research questions are grouped into four intersecting domains:
- data readiness
- analytics and tools
- determinants of success
- Decision aid
Read more about our mission on the escape website