Research line

ERRAZE@WUR: being prepared for new pandemics

In the ERRAZE@WUR research and investment framework, researchers from various disciplines work together to help build the scientific foundation needed to prevent future pandemics and to limit their impact.

COVID-19 has hit the world hard. The crisis that virologists, epidemiologists and health authorities such as the WHO have been warning about for decades is now upon us: the disruption of society and the economy by 'Disease X', a new infectious disease that causes a global pandemic. What can we learn from COVID-19? How can we prevent outbreaks of new zoonoses and counteract the emergence of new pandemics? How can we prevent future pandemics from having consequences as dramatic as COVID-19?

ERRAZE@WUR is an ambitious WUR-wide research and investment framework, set up to help lay a solid scientific foundation for answering these questions. With ERRAZE@WUR (Early Recognition and Rapid Action in Zoonotic Emergencies), WUR aims to support policy makers and decision makers and thus society at large in preventing future pandemics and mitigating their impact.

Download the project overview as PDF

Social responsibility

WUR is in a unique position to help build the broad and integrated scientific knowledge base needed to prevent future pandemics from having such devastating effects as the current one. With this initiative, we are fulfilling our social responsibility as a leading organisation in the field of health and sustainable food systems.

Programme manager dr.ir. JJ (Joukje) Siebenga

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WUR wants to help build the knowledge base needed to prevent future pandemics from having such devastating effect

Joukje Siebenga

6.5 million well spent by ERRAZE@WUR

The €6.5 million investment by Wageningen University & Research is being invested in a range of projects and activities.

“Our programme enables everything between equipment investments, and exploratory research. We see that our interdisciplinary approach really forges new insights and approaches, and continue to work with national and international partners in this field", says programme manager Joukje Siebenga.

Four phases of crisis management

WUR brings together the necessary expertise in the areas of human, animal, plant and environmental health, the global agro-food system, economic and social developments, food safety and security, ethics and policy to find answers to the questions raised by new pandemic threats. With ERRAZE@WUR, WUR takes the initiative for an integrated global multi-stakeholder approach to the prevention and management of (potentially) pandemic diseases, in the four phases of crisis management: