BE READY NOW: The European Partnership for Pandemic Preparedness
The landscape of European pandemic preparedness has entered a transformative new phase. On 1st January 2026, the European Partnership for Pandemic Preparedness, known as BE READY NOW, was officially launched. Building upon the foundational work of its predecessors - BE READY and BE READY PLUS - this ambitious project represents a significant commitment to ensure the European Union can prevent, detect, and respond to infectious disease threats with unprecedented speed and coordination.
A Unified Vision for Health Security
BE READY NOW brings together 81 organisations from 27 countries, forming a formidable consortium of public funding agencies, health institutes, clinical networks, and ministries. The partnership is aligned around a singular mission: to establish a European Research and Innovation (R&I) ecosystem that is optimally prepared for future health crises.
Central to this mission is the concept of an 'ever-warm' research ecosystem. Unlike traditional research models that often struggle to scale during an emergency, BE READY NOW maintains a state of constant readiness. This allows the network to pivot swiftly from 'peacetime' infrastructure and studies to rapid-response clinical trials the moment a new threat emerges – similar to the outbreak modes that Ecraid and its established ‘warm-base’ network operates under.
Ecraid’s Pivotal Role: Bridging Hospitals and Primary Care
As an experienced partner in this consortium, Ecraid is driving critical efforts to operationalise this vision.
Ecraid CEO, Lennie Derde says:
“Ecraid is a warm-base, data-driven network that aligns perfectly with the goals of BE READY NOW. By maintaining an organised, prepared network in which sites are engaged, resourced, trained, and continuously involved in clinical research, we ensure pandemic research preparedness.”
Drawing on its extensive pan-European experience, Ecraid supports work packages 12 and 17 by strengthening clinical research networks and harmonising data protocols This robust infrastructure is increasingly vital for the rapid deployment of vaccine-related studies and pandemic response.
Building the Ever-Warm Network of Networks (Work Package 12)
Under Pillar 3 Research Ecosystem Readiness, Ecraid is utilising its extensive experience to contribute to the development of the ever-warm EU-wide network of networks. This work package focuses on creating a robust, permanent ecosystem for clinical research sites that can be activated instantly.
- Hospital and primary care integration: Ecraid leads the coordination of both hospital-based and primary care 'ever-warm' base networks. This ensures that clinical research is not confined to tertiary centres but also reaches the community level, where (most) vaccination programmes are coordinated and many outbreaks first appear.
- Expanding the footprint: A key task involves identifying and aligning with clinical sites in EU Member States not yet part of existing networks, alongside fostering synergies with international partners in Low- and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs).
- Operational training: Ecraid is establishing a comprehensive training programme to enhance the response capacity across diverse clinical settings. This ensures staff – from community-based general practitioners to hospital teams – are synchronised in their methodology, ensuring both operational efficiency and readiness for large-scale vaccination research.
- Defining readiness: Ecraid is identifying the practical requirements for clinical sites to maintain a ‘crisis-ready' state within both community and primary care settings. This work also establishes benchmarking criteria to authenticate networks as high-quality, resilient hubs for pandemic response.
Harmonising Data for Rapid Action (Work Package 17)
In any health crisis, data is the most valuable currency. As a key contributor to Pillar 4 Transversal Activities - Ecraid is playing a leadership role in Work Package 17, driving the standardisation and strategic management of pandemic data.
Lauren Maxwell, (Ecraid Foundation Lead for BE READY NOW WP17 Data) says:
“We cannot have pandemic preparedness without data preparedness. That’s why a coordinated (meta)data strategy, one that links geographies, research infrastructures, research networks, and real-world health data, is central to BE READY NOW. “
Within the BE READY NOW data work package. Ecraid is laying the foundations for a FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable) pandemic data ecosystem. Ecraid’s BE READY NOW inputs will enable:
- Earlier, more effective research coordination: Facilitating faster, (meta)data-driven collaborations between BE READY NOW partners and grantees.
- Evidence-based preparedness: Utilising machine actionable data management plans to capture and track FAIR implementation will allow BE READY NOW to make evidence-based investments in building interoperability across data partners.
- Data-driven pandemic policies: Track the implementation and impact of BE READY NOW investments in the OpenAIRE scientific knowledge graphs, facilitating and tracking policy impact and linking policymakers to high-quality evidence for pan-European pandemic policy.
- Linking cohorts, clinical trials, and real world evidence: Foundational investments in data discovery and interoperability will build bridges between pandemic partnerships and facilitate the warm base approach to linking cohorts and trials for streamlined evidence production and building connections between research and real world data, effectively linking pandemic partnerships, including BE READY NOW to EHDS.
Lauren adds:
“Ecraid is committed to facilitating FAIR-by-design principles within the pandemic preparedness space. True coordination requires interoperability to be embedded from the start of the research lifecycle, ensuring we are ready to integrate data from all sources.”
Looking Ahead
Following a virtual kick-off meeting in mid-January, BE READY NOW is preparing for its official launch ceremony in Paris on 17th February 2026. This event will signal to the global community that Europe is no longer merely planning for the next pandemic but is actively building the ecosystem to meet it.
Through BE READY NOW, Ecraid and its established ‘warm-base’ network continues to consolidate its position as a leader in European clinical research, ensuring that when the next infectious disease threat arrives, the medical community is not starting from zero, but is already "warm" and ready to respond.
Find out more about our work within BE READY NOW and how the project is shaping the future of European health security.
