Pandemic PACT: Year One in Review

Since its launch in March 2024, Pandemic PACT has made significant strides in supporting evidence-informed decision making for epidemic and pandemic research coordination through tracking of global funding. Find out more about our key achievements from our first year and upcoming developments.

Key Achievements of the Year:  

• Since the programme’s launch, research funding captured in the funding tracking database has increased by over 200%, incorporating data from 287 additional global funders and accounting for an additional $11 billion in research funding.
• Pandemic PACT has effectively responded to five outbreaks, delivering outbreak-specific visualisations, aligning to outbreak specific research priorities, regularly updating outbreak summary reports, and providing targeted analyses to support initiatives such as the 100 Days Mission and key funding organisations, facilitating evidence-based decision-making.
• Programme outputs have been used in at least three different funding panels and have served as key briefing documents for high-level stakeholders, playing a critical role in informing funding allocations and strategic decisions.  
• Pandemic PACT’s work has been presented at several prominent conferences and high-level meetings, highlighting the programme’s contributions to pandemic research and preparedness. 

Timeline: 

March 2024: Pandemic PACT Launch 

The official launch of the Pandemic PACT programme and web platform took place in March 2024. The launch day was celebrated with a hybrid event at the University of Oxford, which attracted 250 attendees, the Pandemic PACT website going live and the publication of a commentary in the Lancet and the Pandemic PACT funding tracking database living mapping review protocol on Wellcome Open.  

News articles on the launch were published by GloPID-R, UKCDR, Pandemic Sciences Institute, and EDCTP. More information about the launch, and access to the event recording, can be found here. 

At launch, the web platform initially presented data on 6,809 grants from 77 funders, totalling $7 billion in research funding. The platform code is also openly available on GitHub,. 

A face-to-face Pandemic PACT Advisory Group Meeting was also held in March, bringing together experts from diverse stakeholder organisations and regions. This group plays a critical role in guiding the programme and ensuring its alignment with the needs of researchers, funders, policymakers, and other data aggregators. 

April 2024: Advancing Rapid Research Needs Appraisals Methodology 

April marked the publication of the Pandemic PACT Rapid Research Needs Appraisals (RRNAs) methodology protocol on the Open Science Framework (OSF). This protocol provides a structured approach to assessing urgent research needs in the context of emerging infectious diseases.  

The Pandemic PACT RRNAs are a collaborative effort between the Pandemic Sciences Institute at the University of Oxford, Cochrane South Africa, and Cochrane Response.  

June: Outbreaks Pages Launched 

The first Pandemic PACT Outbreak Page was published in response to the mpox outbreak in Africa. Since then, subsequent pages on Marburg disease virus in Rwanda and Tanzania, H5N1 in North America and Ebola virus disease in Uganda have all been published in response to further outbreaks. Each page features data visualisations, updated fortnightly, and an outbreak summary report. These reports have informed funding decisions by organisations such as EDCTP, SA MRC, and CIHR and have been shared global funders and other high-level stakeholders, including the White House Office of Pandemic Preparedness.  

The Pandemic PACT RRNA activities were also presented at the European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ECCMID) Conference in Barcelona, Spain. 

July 2024: Leveraging AI for Research Monitoring 

As part of a collaboration with the Computational Health Informatics (CHI) Lab at the University of Oxford, Pandemic PACT launched the Pandemic PACT Advanced Categorisation Engine (PPACE). PPACE is a generative machine learning model that classifies research publication titles and abstracts according to Pandemic PACT research categories. This tool helps accelerate our monitoring and analysis of research funding trends. PPACE and the manually annotated dataset used for its training are freely accessible here. 

Additionally, in July, Pandemic PACT researchers presented at the International Pandemic Sciences Conference on early outputs from the Pandemic PACT Programme. 

September 2024: Key Analyses & Strengthening Global Engagement 

Pandemic PACT produced detailed landscape analyses for mpox and Marburg including additional clinical trials registration data. A deep-dive analyses in mpox therapeutic trials was also undertaken and showcased in the International Pandemic Preparedness Secretariat (IPPS) 100 Days Mission Mpox Day 45 Update (and subsequent updates).  

Pandemic PACT team members participated in a Cochrane South Africa webinar, presenting on ‘Unlocking the Future: How the Pandemic PACT Programme is Shaping Global Health Coordination’. The session is available to watch online below. 

Pandemic PACT funding tracking and RRNA activities were also presented at the One Health Congress in Cape Town, South Africa. 

December 2024: GloPID-R General Assembly & Web Platform Expansion & Data Enhancements 

Pandemic PACT Director Alice Norton presented at the WHO Hub for Pandemic and Epidemic Intelligence’s meeting on the role of research in epidemic and pandemic intelligence. This presentation and panel discussion showcased the work of Pandemic PACT’s funding tracking and the ongoing collaboration with the WHO Hub to develop research roadmap specific analyses against the research priorities launched at this meeting.  

The GloPID-R General Assembly was held at the WHO and members were provided with a comprehensive update on the Pandemic PACT programme and discussed its linkage with GloPID-R's response to outbreaks. Pandemic PACT was also presented at the adjacent launch of the new WHO Collaborative Open Research Consortia (CORCs) and joint CEPI and GloPID-R Medicines for Medical Countermeasures funders forum. Synergies and opportunities were identified for these new initiatives to engage with the Pandemic PACT programme.  

By the end of 2024, the Pandemic PACT web platform had undergone substantial developments, including: 

• Piloting the inclusion of clinical trial registration data for mpox and Marburg virus disease.
• Expanding funding tracking to cover 20,506 grants from 356 global funders, representing a total of $17 billion in research funding across multiple high-consequence diseases. 

January 2025: Research Priority Visualisations Released 

In January, we developed visualisations which showcase our mapping of disease research funding tracking  data to outbreak-specific research priorities. These include: 

• A Marburg virus disease research roadmap visualisation. This maps research funding to research priorities outlined by the WHO Filoviridae Collaborative Open Research Consortium (CORC) in their paper Filoviridae CORC Marburg Building research readiness for a future filovirus outbreak
• An mpox policy roadmap visualisation. This maps research funding to research priorities as outlined in the WHO’s coordinated research roadmap - Mpox Virus: Immediate Research Next Steps to Contribute to Control the Outbreak 

A similar research priority mapping for H5N1 is currently in development. 

March 2025: Scoping Review Publication 

This month, Pandemic PACT team members published Research prioritisation in preparedness for and response to outbreaks of high-consequence pathogens: a scoping review in BMC Medicine. To stay up to date with ongoing outputs and publications relating to Pandemic PACT, you can visit our page here.  

Looking Forward 

As we enter the second year of the programme, we will continue to enhance Pandemic PACT and its web platform. Input from our key user groups has been essential in driving these improvements. 

Look out for these key updates coming soon: 

• The launch of the RRNA Visualise page.
• The publication of our baseline analysis of the Pandemic PACT funding tracking dataset.
• Expansion of pathogens and pathogen families covered within Pandemic PACT to align with the new  WHO Pathogens Prioritization Framework.
• Additional policy and research roadmap visualisations will be released.
• Research papers on the mpox and H5N1 research landscapes will be published.
• Further expansion of our funding tracking database, with continuous updates. 

We are excited about the next phase of Pandemic PACT and look forward to continuing our work in advancing pandemic research coordination and impact.