The new EU-funded five-year project PAIR just kicked off in Copenaghen with the participation of 20 partners from 7 countries. It aims to ensure that Europe has the expertise and capabilities for advanced point-of-care systems and prognostic models based on artificial intelligence and machine learning.
The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic was the biggest global shock in decades, one that claimed millions of lives and devastated the global economy.
This pandemic has shown the dramatic impact of epidemics and pandemics. It has also highlighted the need for transparent, faster, and better-informed decisions in terms of readiness and response. Technology and modeling that can provide rapid, reliable, and cost-effective information are essential for better decision-making and to sustain public trust.
PAIR will address pandemic preparedness by launching two innovative interacting tools: PANPOC and PANRISK.
PANPOC is a POC instrument for the rapid detection of respiratory RNA viruses with pandemic potential in human, animal, and environmental samples.
PANRISK is an AI/ML-based model that processes field data from freely accessible online resources and proprietary partner results.
It can thus assess pandemic risk based on spatial occurrence (geographical mapping), temporal occurrence patterns, and temporal evolution of a virus (genetic surveillance, bioinformatics analysis).
Both tools have been selected to meet the comprehensive requirements for a European One Health genomic-informed surveillance and outbreak response model.
The PAIR tools (PANPOC and PANRISK) will be implemented and validated by veterinary and clinical end-users in Denmark, France, Latvia, Italy, and Spain.
"Covid has made us realize how urgent it is to adopt the One Health approach for global health" states Carsten Thure Kirkeby, PAIR project coordinator. "This approach addresses the needs of the most vulnerable populations in their wider contexts. With PAIR, we aim to move in this direction by enhancing preparedness and responses with better decision-making. With advanced modeling, we will enable greater coordination across regions and countries, and thus address an identified weakness in pandemic response".
"To support the PAIR project in its pioneering endeavors towards more effective pandemic responses, ICONS will ensure the right people learn about and adopt the innovation - whether it be technological or social - in the right way," says Ani Asatryan, project manager officer at ICONS, an Italian agency specializing in science communication and social and business innovation", said Ani Asatryan, Project manager officer at ICONS.
The PAIR project runs from January 2024 to December 2028 under the coordination of Copenaghen University.
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