Mission

Infectious diseases (ID) also known as communicable diseases cause tens of thousands of deaths each year in Europe. Despite all the measures taken to address the ID, different factors have contributed to the more recent infectious diseases’ challenges: (i) the threat of emerging ID (16 new and 5 re-emerging infectious diseases were identified in the last 2 decades - NIH), (ii) mass migration, global travelers and growth of congested urban slums, (iii) misuse and overuse of antibiotics (iv) co-infection with at least two pathogens. Hence, continuous global effort and novel avenues of research are required to decipher the role of the new factors in the development of ID.

Through this initiative, Infect-ERA partners aim to understand all basic aspects of complex human infection biology questions such as co-infection that are not limited to specific pathogens, the cross-talk between host and pathogens, as well as the relationship between microbes’ environment and infection. Infect-ERA consortium plans to launch 4 yearly Join Transnational Calls (2013-2016) in order to fund high quality and cutting edge transnational and translational research bringing together basic, applied, technology-driven and clinical research approaches to a broad variety of topics regarding human infectious diseases.

Infect-ERA will also develop a long-term cooperation framework in ID, contribute to the European mobility initiatives, strengthen the European research by expanding support to young scientists as well as enable further knowledge on intellectual property protection among European scientists.