Mobilising Scotland’s assets in equitable ways for epidemic control

UKRI networking grant to develop interdisciplinary research proposals to tackle epidemic threats.
Phase 1 - part of the UK's flagship investment to better prepare for future epidemics as part of the UKRI Tackling Infections strategic theme.


MOSAEC Aim: To consolidate multidisciplinary and stakeholder expertise to develop a programme of impactful epidemic preparedness research and select priority ideas for Phase 2 applications.
Objectives:
i)To develop a network and establish equitable ways of working that ensure sustainability and consensus building for prioritising Phase 2 research questions
ii)Support the development of Phase 2 grant applications via a series of workshops that establish multidisciplinary teams and operationalise interdisciplinary ideas
iii)Secure pathways to recruitment and access to relevant data for Phase 2

This project brings together a team of different researchers and government officials to look at how well Scotland is currently equipped to deal with disease outbreaks, or epidemics. We will draw on previous examples that have affected either animal health, or human health, where both pose a public health concern.

MOSAEC stands for 'Mobilising Scotland’s Assets in equitable ways for Epidemic Control'. An over-arching aim is to learn from past epidemics to plan for the future in a way that reduces inequalities that have occurred previously. To do this the team need to cover a wide range of disciplines, not just understanding how and why disease epidemics occur, but the impacts of our collective response and management of them.

This is a networking project, focused mainly on bringing the right people together to work out potential routes forward.