NGS analysis pipelines are rapidly becoming part of the routine repertoire of research, clinical and public health laboratories in the public sector and private industry. Middle East Respiratory Syndrome-coronavirus (MERS-CoV) is only one example of the many recent virus discoveries made through analysis of next-generation sequencing (NGS) data. Yet, only a small part of the several millions of short-length sequence fragments generated by NGS machineries, many of which are expected to be of viral origin, can be analysed with current methods in bioinformatics. Even for well-known (pathogenic) viruses, proper epidemiological analyses are becoming more and more difficult due to the lack of bioinformatics tools that can handle the large and growing size of datasets. The VIROGENESIS consortium will overcome the most pressing bioinformatics obstacles to making full use of NGS by developing a software platform for end-users with tools underpinned by novel algorithms, models and bioinformatics methods. The speed and flexibility of the tools will make it possible to run analyses on a daily basis for a variety of subjects, including diagnostics, phylogeography, phylodynamics and transmission of drug resistance. The tools will be piloted and incorporated in the many available bioinformatics pipelines and software programmes used in the field. We will make our tools available in a modular, free and open source software platform that offers opportunities to SME’s to further exploit this market. The VIROGENESIS consortium brings together leading European academic and private small and medium enterprises (SME) bioinformatics developers and virology end-users who initiated this project in response to a clear interest from EMBL, NCBI and the Global Microbial Identifier (GMI) platform.

ZIKAction proposes to set up a multidisciplinary research network across Latin America with a focus on maternal and child health to coordinate and implement urgent research against the current ZIKV outbreak and lay the foundation for a preparedness research network against future emerging severe infectious threats in these vulnerable populations. Our Consortium brings together Latin American and European leaders in paediatric infectious disease research, including virologists, epidemiologists, immunologists and obstetric, neonatal and paediatric practitioners, all with a wealth of experience in vertical transmission (VT) studies, a group uniquely placed to evaluate the potentially causative relationship between ZIKV and severe reported complications. ZIKAction will collect data from prospective cohorts of pregnant women and infants to assess ZIKV complications with the necessary level of evidence which is currently lacking. Complementary work in virology will take advantage of repeated biological samples from these cohorts, while pathogenesis studies on animal models will elucidate risk factors and mechanisms of VT. Partners’ experience in conducting trials among pregnant women and children and close contact with other relevant researchers will allow rapid launch of additional interventional studies, including the addition of sites and partners, to address remaining research gaps against ZIKV. Recognizing the breadth and complexity of the research questions presented by the current ZIKV epidemic and the potential for future severe emerging infectious threats, ZIKAction will actively seek out collaborations with relevant initiatives already existing or under development to maximize synergy and avoid duplication of efforts. Our focus on vertical transmission and maternal and child health would nicely complement a range of other activities including clinical and laboratory studies in the general population, surveillance, and work in public health and prevention.

EVA-GLOBAL gathers 38 academic institutions at the forefront of human, animal and plant research in Virology, associated with key Non-Governmental Organisations including the World Health Organisation, OIE, FAO and related international organizations such as the CGIAR. This new project is built on the strong foundations constituted two previous EVA (2009-2014), FP7 and EVAg (2014-2019), H2020 projects. It includes high calibre institutes with the appropriate expertise to collect, characterise, standardise, authenticate and distribute human, animal and plant viruses. EVA-GLOBAL is conceived to be an open access entity aiming at developing synergies and complementary capabilities in such a way to offer an improved access to the researchers. A single-entry point, the web-based catalogue, gives a facilitate access to the end-user, to the collections including viruses, derived materials and engineered cells. This project will integrate 13 facilities dedicated to the high-risk pathogens manipulations (BSL4), which constitutes the largest BSL4 network worldwide. EVA-GLOBAL will also link up with other network-based virus associated programmes that exist globally. This unique advanced community aims at becoming the most responsive network to improve the control of emerging or re-emerging virus outbreaks at the global level. During the past EVAg project, this infrastructure has already been able to play a key role for the control of emerging virus diseases by the supply of unique reagents for the detection of viruses under the WHO umbrella. Through this new ambitious four-year project and the new institutes joining the consortium, EVA-GLOBAL will become the largest virtual virus collection for human, animal and plant viruses will move beyond the current state-of-the-art to provide an increasingly valuable resource and service to the scientific community, including government health departments, higher education institutes, industry and to the general public as well.