EpiPose aimed to provide urgently needed answers about the epidemiological characteristics of COVID-19, the social dynamics of the outbreak, and the related public health preparedness and response to the ongoing pandemic, also assessing the economic impact of the pandemic. EpiPose started in 2020 and ended in 2023.

Outcomes

A major aim was to deliver results quickly such that results could be used to inform infection control. As such, the epidemic intelligence provided by EpiPose will help minimise COVID-19’s public health, economic and social impact.

Highlights of the project results:

• EpiPose focused on providing reliable estimates of key variables that characterise the epidemiology of COVID-19. This helped us to understand the dynamics of the virus better and select effective measures to control the spread of  COVID-19. This was made possible by applying state-of-the-art mathematical models and statistical techniques to incoming data. 
• As part of this project, the CoMix survey was carried out. This survey asked people about their awareness, attitudes and behaviours in response to COVID-19 and measured how these change over time.
• The participatory surveillance platform Infectieradar was set up in the Netherlands, Belgium, and Italy. The platform monitors the spread of infectious diseases by collecting health information from participants.

Consortium

The consortium consisted of 6 partners in 5 countries (Belgium, Netherlands, United Kingdom, Switzerland and Italy) who provided complementary expertise in mathematical and statistical modelling of infectious diseases, participatory surveillance systems, living systematic reviews, and health economic analysis and have a strong international public health network.
RIVM colleague involved: Jacco Wallinga. See also Modelling and Forecasting on the EpiPose website for scientific output led by RIVM. 

The EpiPose project is finished. EpiPose partners continue to work on pandemic preparedness in Horizon Europe project ESCAPE. 

Funding

This project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 101003688.