MRC Centre for Global Infectious Disease Analysis (MRC GIDA)

The COVID-19 pandemic has clearly illustrated the potential impact that emerging infectious diseases can have on health and on society. Being better prepared for future threats is therefore a key priority for public health agencies and governments globally. At the same time, it is important that efforts continue to decrease the burden of illness and death from infectious diseases that continue to plague many countries - particularly those with lower income and resources.

Scientists have a key role to play in supporting these wider initiatives. As well as developing new drugs or vaccines for specific diseases, science can also help to understand how these new tools should best be deployed, where they will have maximum benefit and what is needed to achieve broader goals of elimination.

Our Centre for Global Infectious Disease Analysis undertakes epidemiological research across a range of infectious diseases, with a focus on applying these to help inform public health control. A key feature of the Centre is our translational work; we collaborate closely with public health agencies in the UK (such as the UK Health Security Agency) and internationally (including as a Collaborating Centre with the World Health Organisation) to help address questions that they have identified and to provide information that helps them to provide advice to governments and local agencies.

Our work supporting the COVID-19 pandemic response was clearly visible globally through the reports that we contributed and the information that we generated to support decision-making. However, alongside this we also continue to work on key global diseases - such as HIV, tuberculosis and malaria - helping to understand how limited resources can be used to greatest effect to reduce cases and deaths.

The aim of the Centre will be to continue to support the broader activities that bring together the underpinning science undertaken by Centre scientists in order to ensure that our outputs can be translated to support public health decisions. To do this we will bring together our research under four thematic areas - i) preparedness and response to emerging threats; ii) global health; iii) vaccines and therapeutics (drugs or new monoclonal antibody treatments) and iv) the intersection between genomic and epidemiological data.

By doing so, we will bring together groups working on different diseases to consider a combined approach to tackling these global issues. We will also collaborate extensively with other scientists and the wider academic community to factor in broader issues affecting societies to evaluate their impact on infectious diseases - including changes in climate and the environment, behavioural responses in light of the pandemic, and economics.

We will additionally work in three areas to enable the translation and communication of our science:

1. By supporting a team of software engineers who will help to build sustainable, open-source computer code as well as user-friendly interfaces to our models, supporting their wider uptake within the scientific community and more broadly.

2. By creating a "Translational Modelling Hub" focused on generating outputs for public health partners, and also supporting the wider communication of activities across society.

3. Supporting training including postgraduate education, short-courses aimed at public health professionals (in the UK and abroad) and capacity-strengthening in epidemiology through our global network of academic and public health partners.