UNITED4Surveillance is an EU4Health project with 40 partners from all across Europe. The Joint Action started in January 2023 and will run until 31 December 2025. The National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) is coordinating this project.

Goals 

The global crisis generated by the COVID-19 outbreak has revealed an urgent need for improvement in public health preparedness and pandemic response at the European level. UNITED4Surveillance will contribute to implementation of the new Health Security framework under the EU regulation on serious cross-border threats to health (2022/2371). This Joint Action will also support implementation of the long-term strategic framework for the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) in 2022–2025. The focus will be on integrating existing and new data sources for more comprehensive EU European Union (European Union)/EEA infectious disease surveillance, prevention and control. In doing so, UNITED4Surveillance will contribute to surveillance capacity-building within Europe and beyond, working to improve global health security.

Our general objective is to promote the integration of surveillance systems at the EU level by supporting improvements in national surveillance systems. This will be achieved by defining guidelines for integrating different sources of electronic health data and digital registers/databases. UNITED4Surveillance will propose a Roadmap to implement integrated surveillance at the European Member State and Union level which will 1) analyse gaps and needs, 2) integrate national and international policies, 3) identify promising approaches and conduct pilots, 4) disseminate best practices and 5) share experiences and knowledge through capacity-building.

This infographic illustrates the three surveillance pillars of UNITED4Surveillance: Outbreak Detection, One Health and Hospital Surveillance

Consortium

Representing 24 countries (and 40 institutes) in Europe, UNITED4Surveillance gathers expertise in public health, (clinical) microbiology, epidemiology and data science. Its efforts extend across the domains of public health, animal health and environmental health, thus creating a strong network of integrated surveillance for infectious disease prevention and control. 

General Assembly meeting 2024

On 11 and 12 March 2024, RIVM hosts the yearly General Assembly Meeting for all partners within UNITED4Surveillance in the Netherlands. More information about the General Assembly Meeting.

Role of RIVM

RIVM’s Centre for Infectious Disease Control is coordinating this Joint Action. We are contributing to multiple work packages as WP leader (WP4 One Health and WP6 Dissemination), task leader (WP2 Outbreak detection) and active participating partner (WP3 Hospital surveillance, WP5 Evaluation and WP7 Sustainability). Project coordination by Dr Eelco Franz and Nika Ritsema.

Funding

United4Surveillance is funded under EU4Health Programme (EU4H), project ID 101102070.