Reducing the impact of infectious diseases

Our purpose is to reduce the impact of infectious diseases on individual and population health. The emergence and spread of antimicrobial resistance and the (re)emergence of new pathogens, such as SARS-COV-2 causing the COVID-19 pandemic, has further increased mortality and morbidity. 

  
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First of its kind

Ecraid is the first network of its kind in Europe to offer a single point of access to a pan-European clinical research network for infectious diseases. 

  

The need for research

Long-term, sustained, and coordinated efforts are needed to limit the impact of infectious diseases and conduct clinical research studies that generate evidence to develop and test clinical interventions such as:

  • Diagnostics 
  • Antimicrobials
  • Treatment regimens
  • Vaccines
  

A fragmented research landscape

Currently, the clinical research landscape is fragmented, with almost every new clinical study designed and initiated relatively from scratch, leading to inefficient use of resources and study progress delays. 

Our vision is to build a permanent, not-for-profit, pan-European clinical research network capable of rapidly initiating and completing high-quality clinical studies with greater speed and efficiency. 

  

Coordinated approach

Ecraid's clinical research network will become one of the backbones of Europe's coordinated preparedness and response to infectious disease threats, and attract more industry investments in innovating infectious diseases interventions by accelerating clinical trials and making them more affordable.

COMBACTE & PREPARE 

Ecraid is the envisaged, long-term successor of the European-funded projects COMBACTE and PREPARE. Over the next five years, ECRAID-Base will continue to develop Ecraid into a sustainable not-for-profit clinical research network.

COMBACTE (Combatting Bacterial Resistance in Europe) is part of the IMI-funded programme ND4BB (New Drugs for Bad Bugs) and focuses on improving the clinical development of antibiotics.

PREPARE (the Platform for European Preparedness Against (Re-)emerging Epidemics) is a large scale European network, including 27 beneficiaries and is funded by the EU FP7 Programme. PREPARE started its activities in February 2014.