European Viral Outbreak Response Alliance

COVID-19 has highlighted the need for EU preparedness towards the growing number of virus outbreaks. Research infrastructures are strategic tools for providing resources and access to technologies for research, promoting innovation and supporting public health actions, but their impact is limited when they operate individually. The European Viral Outbreak Research Alliance (EVORA) project brings together three RIs (EVA, ERINHA-ESFRI and ELIXIR-ESFRI) with unique and complementary expertise in bio-banking, high containment facilities and data management solutions, respectively, under a single concerted interoperable framework with a common and long-term perspective. EVORA aims to strengthen EU capacity for concerted preparedness and response to viral diseases, unify RI operations to achieve optimal RI responsiveness, sustainability and worldwide competitiveness and address specific regulatory, ethical, and security challenges related to emerging pathogens. EVORA will create synergies between the RIs through common governance and concerted decision-making mechanisms. The interoperability of EVORA services will be integrated, through unified operational procedures and quality standards, in order to support user needs and EU Health-Tech in either “inter-crisis” or “viral emergence response” conditions. Finally, the project will address the complex regulatory aspects of preclinical research involving high-risk pathogens, to ensure the operability of the structure. By paving the way for a sustainable alliance of state-of-the-art RIs for preparedness and response to viral emergence, EVORA will strengthen the cohesiveness of the RI landscape in the field, contribute to the competitiveness of the European Research Area (ERA), and ultimately improve the EU's resilience to emerging communicable diseases.