In the recent years an unprecedented effort has been made to increase the rates of childhood immunization in resource poor countries. This has translated into an increased number of children receiving vaccines and a parallel decrease in the rate of illnesses from vaccine preventable diseases. However, in some regions it has proven difficult to achieve optimal levels of immunization mainly because of issues concerning communication, management and poor utilization of resources. Recent studies have questioned the validity of available vaccine coverage data and the way they are collected. Currently, both the progress of the vaccination programs and indirectly the level of protection in a population are inferred on the basis of administrative records. This largely unverified information is also utilized as performance indicator to allocate funds from government and donor agencies. Such self-certification practice does not incentivize the optimization of resources while it has been increasingly questioned in terms of its validity and integrity. We propose to develop and validate an innovative technical solution based on an assay system that integrates multiplex capability and analytical performance, to simultaneously quantify antibody levels against the major vaccine components, with both automation and wireless connectivity to produce spatial-temporal co-ordinates of individual determinations. The multiplex capability will facilitate the analysis of cross coverage monitoring while generating reactivity profiles against the different vaccine components to discriminate vaccinated versus infected individuals. Spatial temporal co-ordinates of assay results will be used to generate interactive data sets for modeling changes in the age-specific risk of infection and the risk of outbreaks. The proposed system represents a formidable tool of unprecedented power to monitor the progress of different vaccination programs and experimentally validate record-based coverage data. The consortium proposes to develop an additional implementation of the technology, a low-cost portable microarray solution for healthcare point of testing (i.e. private doctors or pediatrician clinics, small district hospitals, rapid control of real vaccination profile in emergency situations) that converts the protein microarray for the determination of antibody protection against vaccines antigens into a lateral flow protein microarray, which can be coupled with software application for Smart phones to read the results.

The ISIDORe consortium, made of the capacities of European ESFRI infrastructures and coordinated networks, proposes to assemble the largest and most diverse research and service providing instrument to study infectious diseases in Europe, from structural biology to clinical trials. Giving scientists access to the whole extent of our state of the art facilities, cutting edge services, advanced equipment and expertise, in an integrated way and with a common goal, will enable or accelerate the generation of new knowledge and intervention tools to ultimately help control SARS CoV 2 in particular, and epidemic prone pathogens in general, while avoiding fragmentation and duplication among European initiatives. Such a global and interdisciplinary approach is meant to allow the implementation of user projects that are larger, more ambitious and more impactful than the EU supported transnational activities that the consortium is used to run. Our proposition is ambitious but achievable in a timely fashion due to the relevance and previous experience of the partners that we have gathered and that have complementary fields of expertise, which addresses the need for an interdisciplinary effort. Leveraging all these existing strengths to develop synergies will create an additional value and enhance Europe capacity for controlling emerging or re emerging and epidemic infectious diseases, starting with the COVID 19 pandemic. Such a global and coordinated approach is consistent with the recommendations of the One Health concept and necessary to make significant contributions to solving complex societal problems like epidemics and pandemics.

Increased crop productivity through genetic improvement of plants has significantly impacted world agriculture and the world’s population. Crop plants have followed the general pattern of introduction, selection, and hybridization. Once introgressed, selection and breeding strategies have led to new cultivars with improved yield and adaptation. Unfortunately, many of these important traits are typically polygenic. The consequence is that only certain unique allele combinations comply to generate elite performing genotypes. The fixation of a given genotype occurs naturally in species that display an asexual type of seed production named apomixis (i.e. clonal seed production). Unfortunately, apomixis does not naturally occur in major crop species with few exceptions (Citrus, mango and mangosteen). In crop species, apomixis would enable the instantaneous fixation of the complete genome of the best plants. When coupled with male-sterility systems, apomictic reproduction (with no need for male contribution) could help in addressing issues related to transgene escape from GM crops to organic or conventional crops, and thereby allow for better coexistence systems. This trait by itself is highly valuable for agriculture, but despite many efforts it has never been possible to introduce it into the domesticated crop species of today. The financial and economic impacts of the development of apomixis technology and its application to major crops are amazing (€1800-2300 million per annum per crop). The overall goal of the proposal is to allow for a synergy of inter-related European and international expertise to better understand the mechanisms of sexual/apomictic plant reproduction and to facilitate the application of this increased knowledge in the development of new approaches for agriculture and food industry to increase productivity.

The overall objective of the Infravec2 project is to integrate key specialized research facilities necessary for European excellence in insect vector biology, to open the infrastructure for European access, and to develop new vector control measures targeting the greatest threats to human health and animal industries. Infravec2 is an Advanced Community, following a four-year Starting Community lifecycle (FP7 Infravec1). Lack of access to key infrastructures limits European vector research and impedes development of vector control measures. Insect vectors transmit parasitic diseases such as malaria and leishmaniasis, and viral infections such as chikungunya, dengue, Zika, Japanese encephalitis and yellow fever. Vector-borne diseases, which have historically been a problem of tropical countries, now represent a threat for temperate regions of the world including much of Europe. The 24 consortium partners, including 4 commercial companies, hold the major European biosecure insectaries for experimental infection and containment of insect vectors under Containment Level 2 and 3 (CL2/CL3) conditions, other key insect vector facilities, and include front-line field sites in Africa, the Pacific, and the Americas. Infravec2 will implement comparable standards across the secure insectary facilities as a world first, improving exploitation of European vector infrastructures for research and public health, and will develop other innovative methodologies and technologies. Networking activities will assure that the project achieves full impact, producing a step change in European vector biology research and the product pipeline, and consolidating European global leadership in insect vectors. The goal of the Infravec2 project is to build a durable European infrastructure to control insect vector-borne disease, including with power to predict and prevent the inevitable next epidemic outbreak in advance.