Partner Projects

Coordinator: Synyo GmbH, Austria

Website: https://www.covinform.eu

Cordis: https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101016247

Policymakers and public health experts unanimously recognise the disproportionate impacts of COVID-19 on vulnerable persons: even in countries with well-developed responses, the outbreak and its repercussions imperil the basic well-being of social groups whose livelihoods are already precarious, while the uneven distribution of suffering threatens to aggravate inequality and division. One complicating factor here is the intersectional nature of health and socioeconomic vulnerabilities. Another is the complexity of risk in contemporary socioecological systems. The COVINFORM project will draw upon intersectionality theory and complex systems analysis in an interdisciplinary critique of COVID-19 responses on the levels of government, public health, community, and information and communications. The project will conduct research on three levels: 1) on an EU27 MS plus UK level, quantitative secondary data will be analysed and models will be developed; 2) Within 15 target countries, documentary sources on the national level and in at least one local community per country will be analysed; 3) in 10 target communities, primary empirical research will be conducted, utilising both classical and innovative quantitative and qualitative methods (e.g. visual ethnography, participatory ethnography, and automated analysis of short video testimonials). Promising practices will be evaluated in target communities through case studies spanning diverse disciplines (social epidemiology, the economics of unpaid labour, the sociology of migration, etc.) and vulnerable populations (COVID-19 patients, precarious families, migrating health care workers, etc.). The project will culminate in the development of an online portal and visual toolkit for stakeholders in government, public health, and civil society integrating data streams, indices and indicators, maps, models, primary research and case study findings, empirically grounded policy guidance, and creative assessment tools.

Coordinator: Università di Pavia, Italy

Website: https://periscopeproject.eu

Cordis: https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101016233

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has been deep and wide. In spite of unprecedented efforts to understand the COVID-19 disease and its causative virus SARS-CoV-2, months after the emergence of the first local case in Europe (San Matteo hospital, Pavia, 21st February 2020) significant knowledge gaps persist. While social and natural scientists managed to develop new research and shed light on the dynamics of the outbreak and the most effective possible containment measures, governments have been increasingly faced with the need to adopt urgent decisions.

Against this background, PERISCOPE plans to contribute to a dramatically deeper understanding of the dynamics of the outbreak, by means of an intense multi-disciplinary research, both theoretical and experimental, and the consideration of different viewpoints: clinic and epidemiologic; humanistic and psychologic; socio-economic and political; statistical and technological.
The overarching objectives of PERISCOPE are to map and analyse the unintended impacts of the COVID-19 outbreak; develop solutions and guidance for policymakers and health authorities on how to mitigate the impact of the outbreak; enhance Europe’s preparedness for future similar events; and reflect on the future multi-level governance in the health as well as other domains affected by the outbreak. In pursuing this objective, PERISCOPE sheds new light on the unintended and indirect consequences of the outbreak and the related government responses, with the intention to preserve evidence-based policymaking by collecting an unprecedented amount of data and information on the social, economic and behavioural consequences of the current pandemic. At the same time, PERISCOPE will produce new information on the conditions that led to the impact of the pandemic, the differences in “policy mix” adopted at the national level in EU and associated countries, and the behavioural impacts of both the outbreak and the policies adopted.

Coordinator: Max-Planck-Gesellschaft zur Förderung der Wissenschaften, Germany

Website: https://share-eric.eu/projects-details/share-covid19

Cordis: https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101015924

The non-intended consequences of the epidemic control decisions to contain the COVID-19 pandemic are huge and affect the well-being of European citizens in terms of economics, social relationships and health: Europe is experiencing the largest recession since WWII; social contacts have been interrupted; people avoid seeking medical treatment in fear of infection.
The overarching objective of this project is to understand these non-intended consequences and to devise improved health, economic and social policies. In our policy recommendations, we strive to make healthcare systems and societies in the EU more resilient to pandemics in terms of prevention, protection and treatment of the population 50+, a most vulnerable part of the population.

The project aims to identify healthcare inequalities before, during and after the pandemic; to understand the lockdown effects on health and health behaviours; to analyse labour market implications of the lockdown; to assess the impacts of pandemic and lockdown on income and wealth inequality; to mitigate the effects of epidemic control decisions on social relationships; to optimise future epidemic control measures by taking the geographical patterns of the disease and their relationship with social patterns into account; and to better manage housing and living arrangements choices between independence, co-residence or institutionalisation.
The project pursues a transdisciplinary and internationally comparative approach by exploiting the data sources of the SHARE research infrastructure. It covers all EU MS. The project’s team represents medicine, public health, economics and sociology and has worked together since the creation of SHARE. It is experienced in translating data analysis into concrete policy advice. The project’s policy recommendation are targeted at policy makers in the Commission and in national ministries as well as at national and international NGOs and social organisations.

Coordinator: European Science Foundation, France

Website: https://resistire-project.eu

Cordis: https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101015990

RESISTIRÉ – funded under the EU Horizon 2020 call Advancing knowledge for clinical and public health responses to the 2019-nCoV epidemic – contributes to the reduction of gendered and intersectional inequalities arising from COVID-19 policy responses and creates innovative operational tools to address inequalities. It is designed to achieve its results through multi-disciplinary research insights, cross-sectoral co-creation, solution development and a wide dissemination strategy. The project will provide in-depth knowledge and understanding of existing problems, as well as current and future priorities and solutions.

The aim is (1) to understand the impact of COVID-19 policy responses on behavioural, social and economic inequalities in the EU27, Serbia, Turkey and the UK on the basis of a conceptual gender+ framework, and (2) to design, devise and pilot policy solutions and social innovations to be deployed by policymakers, stakeholders and actors in different policy domains.

RESISTIRE applies a three-cycle approach, combining quantitative and qualitative research with co-creation. The process is repeated every 6 months, each cycle producing operational results and integrating insights from the previous one.

Each cycle involves:

• Extensive mapping of policy and societal responses to COVID-19, secondary survey data, workshops with civil society, interviews with public authorities, and individual narratives collected from precarious and vulnerable groups (n=780), translated into operational insights.
• Development of adequate responses and operational tools from a holistic perspective, with a co-design approach involving multiple stakeholders, with recommendations for actions for policymakers, stakeholders and actors in the field.
• Launch of pilot actions to demonstrate the potential impact of a range of proposed solutions.
• Dissemination of knowledge, development of policy recommendations and empowerment of stakeholders to exploit project results.

RESISTIRE relies on the vast experiences of a strong multi-disciplinary consortium of ten European research, innovation, and design partners, with a well-established network of healthcare stakeholders.

List of Consortium partners:

1. European Science Foundation (ESF)
2. Örebro University (ORU)
3. Yellow Window (YW)
4. Oxford Brooks University (OBU)
5. Knowledge and Innovation (K&I)
6. Technical University Dublin (TUD)
7. Sabanci University (SU)
8. Universidad de Deusto (DEUSTO)
9. Institute of Sociology of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic (ISAS)
10. Sciensano

Coordinator: Svenska Handelshogskolan, Finland

Website: https://www.heros-project.eu

Cordis: https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101003606

HERoS is a Horizon 2020 project whose overall objective is to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the response to the Covid-19 outbreak by generating actionable knowledge four areas: governance, models in epidemics, medical supply chains, online misinformation.

1. Governance. HERoS seeks to understand and model different co-ordination structures and governance arrangements. The goal is to identify bottlenecks; develop procedures for efficient information sharing across countries and hierarchical levels; and to propose policies for improved crisis governance, focusing on responders to public health emergencies.
2. Models in epidemics. HERoS models the impact of local policies and human behaviour on the spread of the disease. The aim is to guide public decision making in conditions of deep uncertainty.
3. Medical supply chains. HERoS evaluates the impact of cascading effects across global supply chains and provides recommendations to improve management of medical supply chains.
4. Online misinformation. HERoS studies the co-spead of online misinformation and fact-checks with the aim of developing a new method to retrieve actionable information from social media in order to detect rumours and misinformation early.