BE READY stands for “Building a European strategic Research and Innovation Area in Direct Synergy with EU and International Initiatives for Pandemic Preparedness” and is a Coordination and Support Action (CSA) funded with 2 million euros by the European Commission. This new European project BE READY aims to build a consolidated European Research and Innovation Area that provides the foundation of the candidate European partnership for pandemic preparedness to improve the EU's preparedness to predict and respond to emerging health threats by better coordinating funding for research and innovation at EU, national (and regional) level towards common objectives and an agreed Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda. BE READY is led by the ANRS | Emerging Infectious Diseases / INSERM (French National Institute of Health and Medical Research) and composed of 25 partners.
One milestone on the way to a future European Partnership for Pandemic Preparedness is the preparation of an innovative and visionary European Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda (SRIA) for pandemic preparedness ensuring a cross-cutting, interdisciplinary Global Health and One Health approach. Further, BE READY establishes a secretariat to coordinate the creation of such Partnership between European Commission and interested partners, with a strong involvement of public authorities (policy makers, research funders).
In order to fully deliver its objectives and achieve its expected outcomes, the project’s work plan is designed into three pillars that comprise seven work packages designed in order to both address objectives of BE READY and the development of the project outputs:
- Pillar 1 - Build the partnership: (WP1: Management and Secretariat, WP2: Development of Partnership Proposal)
- Pillar 2 - SRIA (WP3: Research and Health, WP4: Health & BioTech Research and Innovation)
- Pillar 3 - Synergies and Engagement (WP5: Cooperation with HERA, WP6: Synergies and EU-International alignment, WP7: Dissemination, Exploitation and Communication)