In a statement, the three institutions explain that the objective of the PANDEM-2 project, which starts this month, is "to develop information systems and processes to improve the European Union (EU) preparedness and response to future pandemics". The National Institute of Health Doutor Ricardo Jorge (INSA) and the Directorate-General for Health (DGS) will deal, above all, with the areas of surveillance systems, design of the pandemic response and training and dissemination of the solutions developed. The National Institute of Medical Emergency (INEM) will participate in the planning, implementation, simulation and training of some of the tools.

According to the institutions, the processes and information systems developed will make it possible to simulate different scenarios and the respective possible responses, in order to improve, for example, the management of essential resources such as hospital beds, personal protective equipment and vaccines. The solutions that result from the initiative, the statement continues, “will allow a coherent and effective response to an upcoming pandemic”, through better analysis of data in real time, sharing of information between countries and adoption of common policies, compared to what has been the response to the covid-19 pandemic.

Some of the areas in which the project intends to contribute to the sharing of information and the adoption of common policies are, for example, population growth, international travel and environmental factors, which increase the possibility of transmitting diseases from animals to humans. PANDEM-2 is led by the National University of Ireland and brings together European leaders in the fields of health, security, defence, microbiology, communication, information technology and emergency management. The advisory board comprises the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC). In total, the project is financed at 9.75 million euros through the European Union's Horizon 2020 program for research and innovation and will run for two years.