ERINHA2 aims to complete the work carried out during the first preparatory phase (PP1) - ERINHA - in order to reach the financial, administrative and technical maturity necessary to complete the establishment of the Research Infrastructre and ensure that the operation phase can begin in 2018. ERINHA2 will therefore finalise the decision to use the status of an association and prepare the necessary legal document to register the RI depending on the country voted on to host the Central Coordinating Unit. ERINHA2 will prepare all procedures and protocols (human resources, IPR, ethics) needed to effectively operate the RI. The financial and business plans prepared in ERINHA (PP1) will updated and presented to national and international stakeholders to obtain their agreement to fund the infrastructure. An overarching group of activities - WP5, Stakeholders and commitment - will aim to accompany all partner countries in their efforts to obtain agreements and funding. This WP5 will ensure all relevant stakeholders and potential users are informed of the progress, services and benefits of ERINHA. The utlimate outcome of ERINHA2 will be the signtature of the ERINHA statutes among the founding countries to officially establish the RI and enter into the construction phase.

The general objective of PRO-METROFOOD is to bring the emerging METROFOOD-RI ESFRI project to the level of maturity required for entering in the active project list, strengthening the Consortium and planning the future phases. The specific objectives have been set up in close relationship with the “ESFRI SWG & IG Recommendation”. 4 specific objectives have been identified: OBJ1 – design strategies on the medium and long terms; OBJ2 – provide the organizational framework of METROFOOD-RI; OBJ3 – demonstrate the capability of METROFOOD-RI to supply scientific services and prepare the chart of services; OBJ4 – establish plans to coherently integrate METROFOOD-RI into the European landscape, realising coordination with EU and National initiatives and positioning at a global level. The strategic Plan will be tailored to the Pan European Infrastructure current and envisaged capabilities, market opportunities and business needs. It will be developed by involving funding agencies, relevant authorities supporting METROFOOD-RI and other stakeholders. A management conceptual model will be developed and the framework will be designed under operational, strategic and institutional aspects. Management procedures suitable for the different phases will set up, so to cover short and long-term goals. A Quality Documentation System (QDS) will be developed and a data management plan (DMP) will be defined. In order to demonstrate the capability of PRO-METROFOOD to supply services and to test its inter-operability, pilot services will be performed. In strict accordance with the METROFOOD-RI strategies, plans to coherently integrate METROFOOD-RI into the European landscape will be developed. A Communication plan and education and training programmes will be developed for the different phases of METROFOOD-RI realization (earl, preparatory, implementation and operational phases). For each phase the main coordinator, the target group and the main training subject areas will be specified.

The I-MOVE+ Consortium includes European Union (EU) Public Health Institutes, SME and Universities. It aims at measuring and comparing the effectiveness (VE) and impact (VI) of influenza and Pneumococcal vaccines and vaccination strategies a in the elderly population in Europe. The goal is to develop a sustainable platform of primary care practices, hospitals and laboratory networks that share validated methods to evaluate post marketing vaccine performances. The objectives are to identify, pilot test, and disseminate in EU the best study designs to measure, on a real time basis, VE (direct effect) and the VI of vaccination programmes (indirect and overall effect) against laboratory confirmed cases of influenza (types/subtypes) and pneumococcal disease (serotypes), and clinical outcomes. Cost effectiveness analysis will be conducted. Results will allow to understand factors affecting specific VE, the duration of protection of influenza and pneumococcal vaccines, the interaction between vaccines, the role of repeated vaccinations, the occurrence of serotype replacement (pneumococcus); identify vaccine types and brands with low VE; guide the decision of the WHO committees on vaccine strain selection (influenza); provide robust benefit indicators (VE and VI) and cost benefit and effectiveness results; guide vaccination strategies (schedules, doses, boosters). This EU member state collaboration will respond to questions that require studies based on large sample sizes and sharing of expertise that cannot be achieved by one country alone. It will allow the best methods to be used and results to benefit to all EU countries whatever their current public health achievements. Results will be shared with international partners.

During the summer of 2018, the EU experienced the worst outbreak of West Nile Virus (WNV) in history, with more than 1317 infected and 142 deaths reported. WNV can cause a fatal neurological disease in humans, for which there is no known therapy or vaccine. WNV is just one of the many Vector-Borne Diseases transmitted by mosquitoes (Dengue, Zika, Yellow Fever, Malaria, etc.) threatening Europe due to climate change. VECTRACK addresses this major problem through early detection and prevention of disease outbreaks, the key pillars in preventive control strategy. Obtaining high quality field information is notoriously costly and time-consuming. To effectively control these disease-vectors, specialized public and private bodies implement laborious and costly surveillance programs, where manual field trap inspections represent 95% of total costs. These costs can be significantly reduced through combining cost-efficient sampling strategies, remote sensing and spatial modelling techniques resulting in risk maps for targeted surveillance and risk assessments. VECTRACK will provide the first transnational and automated vector surveillance system, a long sought objective of the World Health Organization (WHO), the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC). This will be achieved through the development of an Earth Observation (EO) Satellite Sentinel service, including ground nodes with new optoelectronic sensors allowing fully remote and automated counting and classification of the target mosquitoes (sex, species, age and infection potential). VECTRACK will be commercialized as a service to the market segments already serviced by the industry partners, and new international clients. This will be achieved through the development of an innovative business plan, an extensive market demonstration and the implementation of a knowledge management and protection strategy for the exploitation of the technology in Europe and other international markets.

One of the great challenges of the 21st century is to develop the capacity to prevent and react to outbreaks caused by highly pathogenic human and animal microorganisms, which are generally characterized by a high mortality rate, unavailability of prophylactics or effective therapeutic treatment and high human-to-human transmission. ERINHA AISBL (European Research Infrastructure on Highly Pathogenic Agents), a pan-European Research Infrastructure (RI) dedicated to the study of high-consequence pathogens of Risk Group 4 (RG4), entered into implementation phase in July 2017. It now aims to ensure its long-term sustainability to better answer societal challenges in the field of Science, Health and Security. The overall aim of the ERINHA-Advance project is to implement actions that will contribute to the long-term sustainability of the ERINHA RI, through enlargement of its membership and partnership and strengthening the overall services offer and framework by fostering the innovation potential of the RI. To reach these goals, the RI will focus on the following specific objectives: 1. Enlarge ERINHA’s membership and research capacities (WP2); 2. Improve users services (WP3); 3. Stimulate the innovation potential of ERINHA and identify the co-innovation opportunities with industry (WP4); 4. Strengthen the overall services framework through long-term data-management and data sharing rules, clarification of IPR regimes and definition and implementation of the quality assurance system of the RI and its national nodes (WP5); 5. Reinforce ERINHA’s European and International cooperation with relevant countries, initiatives and networks (WP2 and WP6). By achieving these objectives, ERINHA-Advance will largely contribute to providing access to larger number of high containment facilities to European and international scientists and foster research and innovation in the field of highly infectious diseases.