Joining Forces Against Infectious Threats: Final Report of the ASSET Project

A report that summarises the project objectives and its main achievements, written in a jargon free language and aimed to be readable by a a general audience. ASSET (Action plan in Science in Society in Epidemics and Total pandemics) was an EU funded, 48 month Mobilisation and Mutual Learning Action Plan (MMLAP) project. It worked combining public health, vaccine and epidemiological research, social and political sciences, law and ethics, gender studies, science communication and media, in order to develop an integrated, transdisciplinary, strategy for pandemic and epidemic preparedness at local, regional and national levels, so bringing societal issues into the field of preparedness and response. CE decision 1082/2013/EU on serious cross- border threats to health stresses that “inconsistent or confusing communication with the public and stakeholders such as healthcare professionals can have a negative impact on the effectiveness of the response from a public health perspective as well as on economic operators”. The decision requires every three years all member states to provide the Commission with an update on the latest situation with regard to their preparedness and response planning at national level, in an intersectoral dimension. ASSET project provides research, experiences, proposals and tools that could useful to incorporate Science-in- society issues into these plans.