EVAg

Who

EVORA is the European Viral Outbreak Response Alliance, a three-year project financed by the EU with 4.9 M, bound to start in January 2024. EVORA will bring together the complementarities of EVA, ERINHA and ELIXIR, three reference research infrastructures in viral resource provision, access to high containment services, and management solutions for large-scale life science data, respectively. By establishing synergies between the three RIs, EVORA aims to provide the EU with a comprehensive, operational and coordinated framework for research and pandemic preparedness and response to viral threats.

Why?

A lesson well learned during the Covid-19 crisis is related to the difficulties that research infrastructures (RIs) face under desperate times, independently of their great efforts and expertise. Such difficulties include the need for rapid adaptation of the work rhythm to an unforeseen intensity, managing the time and energy of personnel for responding to end user’s demands, while continuing non pandemic-related research activities.

The 2021 virtual workshop on the mobilisation of RIs in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, organized by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), and Science Europe, as part of the International Conference on Research Infrastructures (ICRI), acknowledged the undeniable need for long‑term support and coordination of RIs for better preparedness to epidemic infectious diseases. Constructing an integrated, ready-to-go action mechanism between EVA, ERINHA and ELIXIR, is now necessary, in anticipation of the next viral outbreak. EVORA aims to create a continuum of services for fundamental and preclinical research, offered to researchers through a comprehensive online catalogue of integrated access to resources,includingembedded data management solutions, as a fluent pipeline for performing research during inter-crisis times or viral outbreak.

What and How

The strategic objectives of EVORA are to strengthen the EU capacity for pandemic preparedness research and response to viral diseases, to unify RI operations for optimal RI responsiveness, sustainability and worldwide competitiveness and, last but not least, to address specific regulatory, ethical, and security challenges raised by EVORA’s service offer. By integrating the proven, complementary and interdisciplinary expertise of EVA, ERINHA and ELIXIR, EVORA will construct synergies, harmonize the operating procedures, access mechanisms and quality standards between the three RIs and finally, address in a uniform manner the regulatory affairs related to the provision of biological resources and services.

Expected results throughout the duration of this three-year project include an operative governance between the three RIs, allowing concerted decision-making according to the arising research needs, an integrated service offer for researchers as well as improved users’ navigation through a complex regulatory environment. In the bigger picture, EVORA will contribute in strengthening the competitiveness of the European Research Area (ERA) by providing operational state-of-the-art facilities, supporting European industry in the field of communicable diseases and in providing recommendations for harmonised policies and regulations .

Ultimately, establishing an operational RI alliance capable of offering the scientific community a spectrum of tailored, integrated resources and preclinical research services for addressing the specific requirements of studying viral pathogens with epidemic or pandemic potential, will be the demonstration of EVORA’s success.