UNAI: Research to Counter Health Threats: Preparing for Future Pandemics
The PANDEM-2 project was recently covered in an article by the United Nations Academic Impact (UNAI) which is “an initiative that aligns institutions of higher education with the United Nations in supporting and contributing to the realization of the UN’s goals and mandates”.
From a UN view, Resolution 76/257 of the United Nations General Assembly, adopted in March 2022, urged Member States to ensure “effective domestic resource mobilization as well as better allocation and use of resources with adequate financing” for issues such as pandemic preparedness “through close collaboration” with stakeholders like academia. Hence, the role of institutions of higher education and their research capabilities is fundamental in this regard.
PANDEM-2 is coordinated by NUI Galway who is UNAI institutional member and aim of the project supports that of Resolution 76/257. The article gives a detailed overview of the project and its identification of research gaps in governance, surveillance, and communications. It also highlights the project’s key output which is to address the challenge of building capacity for pandemic management in a cross-border, multi-sectoral context and our progress thus far through the recent launch of our open-source data surveillance tool Pandem-Source.
