Four new thematic collaborative initiatives havereceived SEK 1 million per year for the period 2023-2025 by Lund University. One of the funded initiaives is The Pandemics and Alertness collaborative initiative.
The overarching objective of this initiative is to create the multidisciplinary platform Pandemics and Alertness that aims to facilitate cooperation between important stakeholders with key functions in understanding and combatting large virus outbreaks and pandemics. It will also serve as an outward presentation of Lund University’s engagement in virology towards the general public. The initiative is composed of highly competent and successful partners and will constitute a strong cooperative platform that supports a complete environment of expertise within research, collaboration and education. Moreover, the platform adheres well with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Agenda 2030, such as Good health and well-being; Quality education; Industry, innovation and infrastructure; and Partnerships for the goals. The initiative will demonstrate constant alertness by surveying data related to pandemics, and provide a network of key stakeholders able to quickly assemble in order to meet challenges related to the current and future pandemics.
Figure 1. Organisation of the Pandemics and Alertness cooperation. Pandemics and Alertness is built around six cooperation themes (CTs), and each theme is led by 2-3 CT leaders. A large number of partners and stakeholders will be associated with each CT in the Pandemics and Alertness cooperation.
The Pandemics and Alertness cooperation initiative will be managed from the newly established Lund University Virus Centre (LUVC), and Associate Professor Joakim Esbjörnsson (the current spokesperson of LUVC, Faculty of Medicine, Dept. of Translational Medicine) and Professor Anette Agardh (Social Medicine and Global Health, Faculty of Medicine, Dept. of Clinical Sciences, Malmö) will be jointly responsible for the overall coordination of this project. Other key partners and members of the Pandemics and Alertness core group at Lund University are Professor Marianne Jansson (Faculty of Medicine, Dept. of Laboratory Medicine), Associate Professor Wolfgang Knecht (Faculty of Science, Dept. of Biology & LP3 & PPS), Professor Patrik Medstrand (Faculty of Medicine, Dept. of Translational Medicine), Professor Mats Ohlin (Faculty of Engineering, LTH, Dept. of Immunotechnology), Associate Professor Marjolein Thunnissen (MAX IV Laboratory), Professor Per-Olof Östergren (Faculty of Medicine, Dept. of Clinical Sciences, Malmö), Professor Lennart Olsson (Faculty of Social Sciences, Lund Centre for Sustainability Studies, LUCSUS), Professor Xavier Groussot (Faculty of Law) and Associate Professor Fariba Vaziri-Sani, project manager (Faculty of Medicine, Dept. of Translational Medicine/LU-Collaboration).