NSF Center for Pandemic Insights
About
Insights into the pre-emergence phase of pandemics holds the greatest promise for informing mitigation of zoonotic disease outbreaks and preventing pandemics at their source. Innovative scientific and technological advances are urgently needed to enable an understanding of the relationship between ecosystem change, disease dynamics, and the risk of spillover into communities.
As part of the NSF Predictive Intelligence for Pandemic Prevention (PIPP) program, the NSF Center for Pandemic Insights (NSF CPI) is facilitating a new paradigm for surveillance of pandemic threats, enabling characterization of key ecological, behavioral, and biological events that precede pandemics.
To achieve this vision, we are advancing transdisciplinary research and innovative technology needed to 1) inform evolutionary models of virus emergence, characterize community composition and host ecology at high-risk animal-human interfaces, and develop mechanistic models of spillover in complex environments to characterize tipping points in the pre-emergence phase of pandemics, 2) develop multimodal sensor networks for detection of pathogens, disease outbreaks, and key events, that will be deployed alongside community-based research to identify social and practical barriers to large-scale use, and 3) forecast pandemic risk using a suite of machine learning algorithms developed to accommodate rare events and incorporate model-based inferences with real-time data processing for prediction. Cross-cutting strategies include involving communities in participatory research, broadening diversity and inclusivity in science, and engaging the public in One Health solutions to benefit society. This Center brings together institutions and partners with the expertise needed to achieve and sustain this bold vision.
This work is funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) award number 2412522.