On this page, you'll find updates on our research, initiatives and key findings that impact global health and pandemic science.
We encourage you to visit regularly to stay informed about our work. For real-time updates and more in-depth insights, follow us on our social media channel!
Coming Soon... Working Groups!
December 16, 2024
In January 2025, we will open our first call for seed ideas around which to form new Working Groups!
What to propose: a question about what allows a disease to expand from a few cases into an outbreak and then into a pandemic. The question should need input from multiple disciplines to answer well. The strongest proposals will also have the potential to translate basic research into real-world policy. We’ll give each seed idea a platform and ask for community feedback and volunteers who want to join a group working on this question (we’ll be using our Phase 1 piloted GSOTP protocol). After community input, you’ll have a chance to revise the initial idea and propose the team to our Selection Committee (first round decisions are planned by March 1 st , 2025).
If your proposal is successful: Selected Working Groups will receive funds to meet in person together, support from APPEX trainees (either a postdoc or graduate student) to help advance the group’s efforts, and will have the option of requesting additional resources (such as help from a research programmer, project management, publication costs, etc.). Working Groups will also have support from experts in translational science and policy impact to ensure the work they produce has the best chance of getting into the hands of real-world decision makers who need it. We’re so excited to hear your ideas and help you to build strong proposals for new working groups to pursue them! Start thinking about what you’d want to do and check back in early January for more details. Stay tuned!
White House Roundtable in Washington, D.C.
August 29, 2024
On August 27, 2024, Dr. Nina Fefferman, APPEX and NIMBioS Director and APPEX leadership team members, Dr. Sadie Ryan, Associate Director for Core and Working Group Research Efforts, and Dr. K. Selcuk Candan, Assoc. Director for Technology, Cyberinfrastructure and Tech Transfer, participated in the White House Roundtable on Emerging Technology for Preventing Health Emergencies in Washington, D.C.
We are proud that some of our APPEX team are being asked to influence national policy!
Official Launch of NSF APPEX!
August 22nd, 2024
We are thrilled to announce the launch of the United States National Science Foundation PIPP Phase 2 Center for Analysis and Prediction of Pandemic Expansion (NSF APPEX).
NSF APPEX will advance the ways in which pandemic scientists can understand how, why, and when the presence of an infection in a population will expand into endemic, epidemic, or pandemic disease rather than die out. Our goal is to identify the factors that constitute a “perfect storm” for pandemic expansion and explore ways humans can influence these factors to prevent and/or mitigate these threats. Using this framework, we will provide real-time response capabilities to identify the most sensitive, viable targets for intervention as new threats arise.
Our team leverages the diversity of a committed community of collaborators from all career stages and different types of institutions, including research universities, small liberal arts colleges, minority-serving institutions, and a national research lab. We partner with government agencies, industry, and non-governmental organizations, bringing together experts from a wide range of disciplines such as natural, social, and physical sciences, engineering, mathematics, communications, public policy, and social work. We welcome and encourage active participation from everyone, valuing contributions each individual brings.
We are very grateful to the National Science Foundation (NSF) for their invaluable support. Their generous funding and trust have allowed us to make this exciting vision into a reality.
As we launch NSF APPEX, there will be so many opportunities to join us in working groups, workshops, tutorials, and more.
Please check our website regularly over the coming weeks to see how you might get involved! We are so excited for this new path and cannot wait to see the outcomes of our collaborations.
This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Award No. 2412115. Any opinions, findings and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation
