EU Commission launches BE READY: €120 million to strengthen pandemic response

Brussels – Strengthening the European Union’s capacity to anticipate, prevent and respond rapidly to epidemics and pandemics through more collaboration and partnerships within the Union. This is the objective with which today (17 February) the European Commission launched BE READY, the new European partnership to enhance the continent’s response to any new health emergencies. 

The structure of the project—made possible by €120 million in EU funding from the Horizon Europe budget—entails organising annual transnational calls for proposals to promote research into emerging health threats, in a scheme that integrates and advances overall knowledge and preparedness. Demonstrating that intra-European collaboration is the hallmark of the partnership, the Commission has announced that BE READY brings together 81 organisations from all 27 EU countries. The project will be coordinated by the French agency ANRS-MIE (Emerging Infectious Diseases). The first transnational call for proposals will be launched by 21 funding organisations and will focus on research to address the pandemic potential of emerging and re-emerging pathogens and on the development of medical countermeasures. 

BE READY is the result of many years of European investment in research on pandemic preparedness and response through Horizon Europe, the European framework programme for research and innovation, which has dedicated over €1.8 billion to this cause since 2020. The Berlaymont Building has specified that the work of this partnership is based on three pillars: “aligning national research priorities among participating countries and improving coordination in pandemic preparedness research through an agreed strategic and innovation research agenda,” “supporting multinational research through joint transnational calls for proposals, enabling coordinated funding between national and European funders to advance research on emerging and re-emerging pathogens and accelerate innovation in diagnostics, treatments and vaccine development,” and “integrate all key components of the research ecosystem, so that they are operational both between epidemics and during crises.” 

At the launch of the partnership, European Commissioner for Startups, Research and Innovation Ekaterina Zaharieva emphasised that the EU’s ability to deal with new health emergencies must be “based on science”. Through BE READY, “we are putting the health of European citizens first and, at the same time, strengthening European leadership in the field of innovation,” she commented. Her colleague Hadja Lahbib, Commissioner for Equality, Preparedness and Crisis Management, echoed this sentiment, saying that “BE READY puts research at the heart of operational readiness, so that people can have access to medicines, vaccines, and vital devices more quickly when a crisis strikes.”