The overall objective will be to create and mobilise an International network of high calibre centres around a strong European group of institutes selected for their appropriate expertises, to collect, amplify, characterise, standardise, authenticate, distribute and track, mammalian and other exotic viruses. The network of EVAg laboratories including 25 institutions represents an extensive range of virological disciplines. The architecture of the consortium is based on the association of capacities accessible to the partners but also to any end-users through the EVAg web-based catalogue. This concept has been elaborated and tested for its efficiency during the successful EVA project (FP7). The project will integrate more facilities dedicated to high risk pathogen (HRP) manipulation (1 in EVA, 13 in EVAg) The access to products derived from those HRP will be enhanced and for instance the production of diagnostic reagents will be facilitated. The new project will also provide access to high containment biosafety facilities to carry out in vivo studies of infectious disease using natural or models hosts, to look at prophylactic or therapeutic control measures and to develop materials for the evaluation of diagnostic tests, meaning an extensive capacity to service and to training. EVAg will also link up with other network-based virus-associated programmes that exist globally. However, looking further ahead, EVAg is conceived ultimately to be an open entity aiming at developing synergies and complementarity capabilities in such a way as to offer an improved access to researchers. This project will generate the largest collection of mammalian viruses in the world and move beyond the current state-of-the-art to provide an increasingly valuable resource and service to the world’s scientific community, including government health departments, higher education institutes, industry and, through information systems, the general public.

Emerging infectious diseases (EID) do not respect borders. They rank as global catastrophic risks for humanity, along with climate change and biodiversity loss. The COVID-19 pandemic showed how coordination of global research, through cooperation, and sharing of data and expertise, are crucial for efficient and effective preparedness to EIDs, and vital for a rapid response. Nevertheless, there are still major challenges limiting global cooperation among high containment laboratories (HCLs). HCLs are critical infrastructures for the development of medical countermeasures (e.g., vaccines and therapeutics) against high consequence pathogens. In order to fulfil its role, and given the global threat of EIDs, the European Research Infrastructure on Highly pathogenic Agents (ERINHA), together with its partners, proposes to establish and reinforce interactions with HCL research infrastructures (RI) worldwide, to strengthen pandemic preparedness and response capacities. INTERCEPTOR (INTERnational Cooperation of high containment research infrastructures: from Epidemic Preparedness TO Response), a consortium with key HCLs from Europe and across the world, will focus on access provision to HCLs, enhancement of the human capital of HCL, including in biorisk management, critical resources sharing, harmonisation and interoperability. The proposed actions will help ensure broader access to state-of-the-art HC facilities, while respecting the necessary biosecurity and biosafety constraints, and promote the establishment of a sustainable global network of HC RIs. By expanding access to HC RIs, strengthening the human capital base, promoting sharing of knowledge, skills and experience, and providing opportunities for common training programmes and staff exchanges, INTERCEPTOR will reinforce the next generation of HCL researchers and facility managers, and extend the opportunities for access to HCLs, required to push the boundaries of science and innovation in the field of EIDs.

The current Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) outbreak has caused more than 5000 deaths within a few months in West Africa (Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia being the most severely affected countries), including numerous healthcare workers. It is now is serious public health crisis of international concern . The numbers of cases are still increasing 11 months after the first case was described (December 2013), by mid November 2014 approximately 15000 individuals have been infected and the epidemic is still not under control The direct effects of this outbreak include disruption of standard medical care, insecurity and social disruption in countries that were already struggling to recover from decades of war. One of the most important key actions to limit and stop the spread of this deadly disease is to identify and isolate the EBOV-infected patients. The diagnosis of Ebola Virus infections has in the past, been performed overwhelmingly in specialist reference laboratories with high-performance molecular, serological and culture methods.In recent years many of these functions have been mobilised into rapid response mobile laboratories, indeed several of these units supported by, European, CDC/USA, Canadian, Chinese and African states have been set up to help in the current outbreak by performing laboratory diagnosis, in collaboration with national centres in West Africa. While this type of response has been effective in helping control past EVD outbreaks in rural parts of Africa, it has not been as effective at controlling the current outbreak which is now spreading in densely populated city and slum areas. Unfortunately, the diagnostic procedures currently used in the mobile laboratories are associated with several problems: i) there are a limited number of diagnostic hubs, ii) performing the diagnostic tests correctly requires specialist training, skill and experience, consequently there a limited numbers of trained staff

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.