Deadline: 23-Nov-21
The European Commission (EC) has announced a call for proposals for Ensured infrastructure resilience in case of Pandemics.
Member States remain the primary actors in preventing and responding to the outbreaks of infectious diseases. Enhanced European coordination into capacity-building, improved prevention, preparedness and coordinated response can support their efforts. In order to improve the EU-wide prevention and response to the specific challenges for the functioning of infrastructure in case of a severe infectious disease crises requires targeted security research which can deliver better knowledge, security risk assessment as well preparedness and response emergency planning tools. Public-private cooperation is absolutely essential in order to respond to a crisis as far reaching as a pandemic. Any comprehensive European approach to infrastructure resilience in case of a disruption caused by it, will need to take due account of this cooperation.
In infrastructure protection research, it is of high importance to understand the impact of the pandemic beyond the directly affected health system. The availability of specialised work force and vulnerability assessment of health capacities constitute the essential elements in this regard, as disruption of infrastructures due to the infection of large parts of a specific work force poses the immediate risk of cascading effects. The same is the case for integrated supply-chains for both critical goods, as well as non-essential ones. As such, understanding interdependencies, reducing vulnerabilities and identifying truly critical activities is key for enhancing overall societal resilience against pandemics.
Funding Information
The check will normally be done for the coordinator if the requested grant amount is equal to or greater than EUR 500 000, except for:
- public bodies (entities established as a public body under national law, including local, regional or national authorities) or international organisations; and
- cases where the individual requested grant amount is not more than EUR 60 000 (lowvalue grant).
Expected Outcomes
Projects are expected to contribute to some or all of the following expected outcomes:
- Strategies for the resilience of infrastructure networks and services, and their interaction and vulnerabilities in a context of rapidly changing volumes and patterns of use
- Understanding of inter-dependencies and strategies to overcome disruptions at local – regional – national and European (cross-border) level
- Better understanding of the cascading effects of pandemics for different infrastructures and the services they provide
- Improved procedures to reduce exposure of workforce to infectious diseases and mitigation strategies in case of the infrastructure disruptions or overload caused by the absence of critical workforce, surge of patients in the healthcare services, or disruptions of critical supplies
Eligibility Criteria
To be eligible for funding, applicants must be established in one of the eligible countries, i.e.:
- the Member States of the European Union, including their outermost regions;
- the Overseas Countries and Territories (OCTs) linked to the Member States;
- eligible non-EU countries:
- countries associated to Horizon Europe;
- low- and middle-income countries.
For more information, visit European Commission.