EPRF members contribute to Scotland’s Pandemic Preparedness Partnership

The Scottish Pandemic Sciences Partnership (SPSP) is a national partnership bringing together Scotland’s universities, Public Health Scotland (PHS), NHS Scotland and the Scottish Government.

It was set up in response to a recommendation made to the Scottish Government by the Standing Committee on Pandemic Preparedness in their 2024 report.

SPSP is hosted by PHS and co-directed by Professor Emma Thompson from the University of Glasgow and Professor Deborah Williamson from the University of St Andrews.

The overall aims of the SPSP are:

• Leadership: develop its network and encourage collaboration across sectors ahead of the next pandemic
• Governance and structure: establish a governance framework that ensures accountability while enabling autonomy across sectors
• Research and policy integration: align research priorities with public health and policy needs, growing Scotland’s ability to prepare for and respond to pandemics
• Network building: maintain a diverse network of experts who can provide rapid, trusted advice during public health emergencies

The recent event hosted at the Royal Society of Edinburgh brought together partners to help improve pandemic preparedness and responses to future pandemics through research and infrastructure development.

Several members of the Edinburgh Pandemic Research Forum were invited to give talks on the day. 

Professor Linda Bauld (Usher Institute) argued that misinformation, disinformation and malinformation were major public health risks in the Covid-19 pandemic and that Scotland needs a coordinated, evidence-based “information strategy”.

The need for clear and trusted information was addressed by Professor Susan McVie (Edinburgh Law School), who described the challenges faced by the police when enforcing COVID-19 restrictions that were introduced quickly, and with limited guidance, creating questions about legality, communication, and public trust.

Professor Kenny Baillie (The Roslin Institute and the Pandemic Science Hub) described how clinical research platforms like ISARIC4C and GenOMICC are set up to allow researchers rapidly collect patient samples, consent, and data during outbreaks, and are crucial to a timely, and evidence-based clinical interventions

As part of their initial work, the SPSP has awarded a three small project grants.

One of these was awarded to Dr Annemarie Docherty (Usher Institute) who outlined the work that she will undertake with the new funding to help improve harmonisation of  data collection in intensive care units, to support real-time surveillance and research. 

The SPSP event reinforced the need for the Edinburgh Pandemic Research Forum to connect researchers across a transdisciplinary landscape, and to promote the building and sharing of expertise, that will be needed to improve preparedness and response to future pandemics.

The EPRF are thankful for the opportunity to partake in this new initiative and are excited to engage further with the partnership.

Scottish Pandemic Sciences Partnership (SPSP)

Edinburgh Pandemic Research Forum