Imperial College London has announced it will launch a global initiative at its Abdul Latif Jameel Institute for Disease and Emergency Analytics aimed at preparing for future pandemics.

The Jameel Institute-Kenneth C. Griffin Initiative for the Economics of Pandemic Preparedness is co-funded by a £3 million ($3 million) gift from Citadel founder and CEO Kenneth C. Griffin and a separate gift from Community Jameel, the international organization that co-founded the Jameel Institute with Imperial in 2019. Announced at the Philanthropy Asia Summit in Singapore, the initiative will use integrated economic-epidemiological modeling to provide critical data and analysis to inform public health decisions related to pandemic preparedness and disease outbreaks around the world.

Initially working with epidemiologists, economists, and data modelers from across Imperial, researchers from the World Health Organization and Singapore’s Programme For Research In Epidemic Preparedness And Response (PREPARE), the National Centre for Infectious Diseases, and Umeå University in Sweden, the team aims to produce a publicly available digital scenario-based dashboard modeling preparedness levels of more than 150 countries, as well as deep-dive studies on specific preparedness interventions. 

“Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, we saw the vital importance of accurate projections and modeling to prevent deaths. Unfortunately, they had much less reliable evidence on the enormous social and economic impacts of pandemic mitigation,” said Katharina Hauck, deputy director of the Jameel Institute and leader of the new initiative. “Our mission is to establish a robust and trusted methodology to forecast the potential human impact of future pandemics, across health and the economy. We’re excited to be able to play a central role in this hugely important space moving forward and are grateful for the continued support from Community Jameel and Kenneth Griffin.”

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