UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) is investing more than £1 million in creating 12 new national and international teams. These teams will bring together researchers from across the spectrum to reduce the chances and impact of another COVID-19, foot and mouth or Dutch elm disease.
The teams will be able to apply for further funding to develop their ideas.
Research projects
Untapped potential of earthen bricks
Experts in architecture, bioscience, engineering and urban planning, with local masons, builders and residents, will harness the untapped potential of earthen bricks.
This will protect people against mosquito-borne diseases like malaria, zika and dengue, through locally-driven and climate-adapted sustainable innovations in building construction and design.
New building design and ventilation guidelines
A team with diverse skills will create new building design and ventilation guidelines that protect against different diseases and levels of vulnerability for both new and existing buildings.
They were inspired by the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on indoor spaces, and the increasing outbreaks of airborne diseases like measles, tuberculosis or the flu.
Bringing together experts and policymakers
A new team in Scotland aims to bring together existing experts and policymakers who have worked, separately, on flu, COVID-19, monkey pox, foot and mouth and other diseases that affect humans and animals.
This will help us learn from past epidemics and plan for the future while reducing inequalities from the outset.
Livestock, bird flu and mosquitos
Keep humans safe and minimise the effects on animals
Another new team will give policymakers better information about the impact of different courses of action during livestock epidemics, to keep humans safe while minimising the effects on animals and farmers.
These epidemics:
- disrupt food and supply chains
- create financial hardship for farmers
- lead to widespread animal suffering
- cause mental health challenges for the humans involved
Help tackle animal-to-human disease spread
Bird flu threatens people now in many parts of the world and it could be the next pandemic. Like COVID-19, it is a disease that emerged from animals.
A new partnership will tackle our limited understanding of the factors that drive such diseases from animals by looking at bird flu in the UK, Bangladesh and Vietnam, to help tackle animal-to-human disease spread globally.
Balance the needs of mitigating climate change and preventing disease
Another team will look at the impact from mosquito and water-borne diseases, including some types of fungus, which like a warmer, wetter environment.
Unfortunately, some of the ways we’re dealing with the impacts of climate change are helping these diseases to thrive.
By bringing together policymakers with social, economic and experimental data, researchers will be better able to balance the needs of mitigating climate change and preventing disease.
How we interact, data and waste water
Responsive and effective interventions
A team will look more closely at how humans interact and spread disease to ensure we can focus on better targeted, responsive and effective interventions to suppress transmission, rather than blanket bans.
This will transform our response to future epidemics and pandemics, helping to reduce their societal, economic and health impacts.
Monitoring viral diseases
Another team will take a data-driven approach to monitor viral diseases across humans, animals and plants.
By combining computational models, including artificial intelligence, with pathogen data, it aims to detect and respond to emerging infectious threats, strengthening preparedness and public health responses to protect the long-term wellbeing of the UK population.
A better way of analysing waste water
A team will look at a better way of analysing waste water so that diseases can be identified more quickly and accurately across the whole population.
Compared to conventional clinical testing, it is highly cost effective and relatively unbiased. It is simultaneously capturing all sectors of society irrespective of factors, such as demographics and economic status and whether people are showing symptoms or not.
Disease in the Caribbean, food security and helping the economy
Impact of population growth and urban expansion
The project aims to reduce the prevalence of mosquito-borne diseases in the Caribbean, particularly the small islands where many British people have family or take holidays.
The project will analyse the impact of population growth, urban expansion, and climate change and suggest ways of tackling the growing threat.
Balance the impacts of disease
A new team will create tools to help balance the economic and social impacts of disease and our response to them.
The health of the country and its economy are intimately linked, but separate analyses and the need to make rapid decisions can lead to potentially false trade-offs. So, we need to have tools available to policymakers that allow them to combine economic and epidemiological analyses.
Prepare for vector-borne viral and bacterial epidemics
Helping to ensure plant health and food security, a team will help prepare agriculture for vector-borne viral and bacterial epidemics.
Along with industry partners, this team will examine potential and emerging threats and tools to detect diseases earlier. It will also work with farmers on new ways to reduce subsequent spread and provide more information to help policymakers prepare for change.
Tackling infections
Tackling infections is one of UKRI’s five strategic themes and these teams are just 12 of a number of investments to investigate and better manage future infectious disease threats.
We aim to bolster our national and international defence and response capabilities by tackling infectious diseases that pose threats to people, livestock, crops and natural resources in more integrated and innovative ways.
Our aim is to build knowledge and capability to better detect and disrupt the emergence and spread of infectious diseases, accelerating the development of new vaccines and therapeutics.
At the heart of this vision is our commitment to supporting world class discovery science and further understanding of disease.
Further information
Transforming the humble brick
The project is being led by Professor Ann Kelly at the University of Oxford, in collaboration with:
- Tanzania’s Ifakara Health Institute
- University of Dar es Salaam
- Department of Architecture at the University of North Carolina
- Department of Anthropology at Cornell
- Institute for Science, Innovation and Society (InSIS) at the University of Oxford
Read about the project’s history.
For more information, email: emma.stell@socsci.ox.ac.uk
BuildAir
Bruño Fraga at the University of Birmingham will lead BuildAir, which will incorporate an infection risk component in building codes and design guidelines.
For more information, email: b.fraga@bham.ac.uk
Mobilising Scotland’s assets in equitable ways for epidemic control
The project is co-led by Professor Paul Flowers and Dr Ruaridh Clark at University of Strathclyde in collaboration with:
- Glasgow School of Art
- Scotland’s Rural College
- University of Edinburgh
- University of Glasgow
- Poverty Alliance
- the Scottish Government
For more information, email: lynn.mcpherson100@strath.ac.uk
One health computational network
The project is being led by the MRC-University of Glasgow Centre for Virus Research in collaboration with:
- London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
- Pirbright Institute
- UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology
- University of Birmingham
- University of Cambridge
- University of Edinburgh
For more information, email: lois.mason@glasgow.ac.uk
PrepSense
The project is being led by Steven White at UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology and Stephen Parnell at University of Warwick in collaboration with:
- Imperial College London
- University of Glasgow
- The Pirbright Institute
For more information, email: cehpress@ceh.ac.uk
ELUCIDATE
The ELUCIDATE project stands for understanding model use at the science-policy interface to improve preparedness for animal disease outbreaks.
The project is led by Dr Orla Shortall and Dr Giles Innocent at the James Hutton Institute.
For more information, email: orla.shortall@hutton.ac.uk
Zoonotic influenza preparedness: a transdisciplinary one health approach
The project is led by Dr Syed Abbas and Dr Ayako Ebata of the UK Institute of Development Studies, in collaboration with:
- Chattogram Veterinary and Animal Sciences University
- International Livestock Research Institute
- University of Cambridge
- University of Surrey
- University of Sussex
- Vietnam National University of Agriculture
For more information, email: n.marks@ids.ac.uk
Seeking better understanding of human interactions
The project is being led by Dr Jonathan Read at Lancaster University and Professor Kavita Vedhara at Cardiff University.
They will bring together epidemiologists, behavioural and computer scientists, philosophers and other academics from UK universities and government agency stakeholders.
For more information, email: pressoffice@lancaster.ac.uk
Wastewater
The project will be led by Professor Davey Jones at Bangor University.
For more information, email: d.jones@bangor.ac.uk
Tackling vector borne diseases in the Caribbean
Jonathan Lines at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine will lead the project tackling vector borne diseases in the Caribbean.
For more information, email: jo.lines@lshtm.ac.uk
Balancing the health, economic and social impacts of disease and our response to them
John Edmunds at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine will lead the team that aims to balance the health, economic and social impacts of disease, and our response to them.
For more information, email: john.edmunds@lshtm.ac.uk
Preparing agriculture for vector-borne viral and bacterial epidemics
James Bell at the Keele University is leading the team focusing on plant health and food security, preparing agriculture for vector-borne viral and bacterial epidemics.
For more information, email: j.r.bell@keele.ac.uk
Top image: Credit: Naomi Marks