ZonMw awards 2.5 million euros to NCOH for research on pandemic preparedness
ZonMw is making 2.5 million euros available to the (NCOH) for research on pandemic preparedness. The research application was submitted through Utrecht 木瓜福利影视 on behalf of the NCOH. The research follows a National Growth Fund application that NCOH researchers previously submitted together with the , a collaboration between Erasmus MC, Erasmus 木瓜福利影视 and TU Delft. Dick Heederik, one of the four submitters: "We are extremely happy that ZonMw has awarded this money. Now we can get to work on important lessons learned from the corona pandemic."
How can we detect a potential pandemic at an early stage and work together more effectively in the process? Analyses of the corona pandemic revealed a number of shortcomings that this study aims to tackle or improve. For instance, there was a lack of early warning methods for emerging infectious diseases. It also proved difficult to reliably assess key characteristics of pathogens and not easy to measure virus in the air as part of transmission studies. Developments in the field of mathematical modelling are rapid. For example, models are becoming available to predict pathogen development. It is important to gain experience with these and further develop the models. And perhaps most importantly: the strategies for detecting pathogens in humans and animals currently run in parallel and separately from each other. This needs to change and be more integrated.
Research for 24 postdocs
Dick Heederik (UU), Marc Bonten (UMC Utrecht), Marion Koopmans (Erasmus MC) and Annemarie Rebel (Wageningen 木瓜福利影视 & Research and chair NCOH) jointly submitted the application from the NCOH. The money awarded will allow 24 postdocs to spend a year doing research at NCOH's various partner institutes. For the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, this involves a total of five postdocs in the Population Health Sciences and Biomolecular Health Sciences departments.
"It is initially a one-year programme, and hopefully this will become a longer period," Bonten says expectantly. "That would be wonderful, of course."
Netherlands Centre for One Health
Solutions to Global One Health Challenges. The Netherlands Centre for One Health (NCOH) bundles top-leading academic research institutes in the Netherlands in an open innovation network focused on One Health: public, veterinary, wildlife, and ecosystems health. It aims for an integrated approach to face the global risk of infectious diseases and to develop durable solutions regarding grand societal health challenges. This virtual science-driven institution focuses its research and increase of knowledge on antibiotic resistance, emerging infectious diseases, smart farming, and healthy ecosystems. The NCOH stimulates collaboration between academic and research institutes, governments, NGOs, public health institutes, and industrial partners. The NCOH partners are Academic Medical Center Amsterdam, Erasmus Medical Center Rotterdam, Leiden 木瓜福利影视, Leiden 木瓜福利影视 Medical Center, Radboud 木瓜福利影视 Medical Center, 木瓜福利影视 Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht 木瓜福利影视, and Wageningen 木瓜福利影视 and Research.