Overview

About Pandemic PACT

Pandemic PACT tracks and analyses global funding and evidence for research on diseases with pandemic potential and broader research preparedness efforts, ready to pivot in response to outbreaks. We collect, curate, code and analyse data, in alignment with WHO priority diseases and other selected diseases, including pandemic influenza, mpox and plague. Pandemic PACT is embedded within the Global Research Collaboration for Infectious Disease Preparedness (GloPID-R) Research and Policy team in the Policy and Practice Research Group at the University of Oxford Pandemic Sciences Institute. Pandemic PACT will inform policy and decision-making by research funders, policymakers, researchers, the multilateral agencies and other data aggregators or tools.

Our programme is designed to collate and analyse global funding tracking data and evidence across multiple research disciplines on an ongoing basis. Our grant funding tracking database and interactive tool will track research funding against research domains and research agendas. Our living Rapid Research Needs Appraisals (RRNAs) platform will quickly and rigorously appraise existing evidence to identify key knowledge gaps across pre-defined domains health system and public health response domains.

Citation

Pandemic PACT Research Programme, Grant and Evidence Gap Tracker by the Pandemic PACT Team with GloPID-R and UKCDR.

About the Pandemic PACT Grant Tracker

We collect information on research grants, map research funding against research categories and priorities, and track their alignment to major policy frameworks and roadmaps. We publish, visualise and summarise selected data points and information on the dashboard. The global database, which feeds the dashboard, can be fully downloaded from the website and used for analysis by any interested party. The data is also available on Figshare here.

The Pandemic PACT Grant Tracker currently includes grants funded by GloPID-R and UKCDR members with a start date on or after the 1st January 2020, focussing on diseases in the WHO R&D Blueprint priority disease list, as well as pandemic Influenza, Mpox and Plague. A start date of 2020 aligns with the research funding efforts relating to COVID-19, and the start date for the predecessor dataset from COVID CIRCLE. As the programme evolves, we will rapidly include data on research grants beyond the GloPID-R and UKCDR membership.

About the Rapid Research Needs Appraisals (RRNA)

We rapidly and systematically map existing published research against a set of emerging infectious diseases research priority domains to identify gaps in the evidence base. Identifying critical knowledge and evidence gaps helps us to inform research prioritisation and coordination of effective, equitable research responses, to generate data to inform the clinical and public health response to improve epidemic and pandemic outcomes. Through global collaboration, we harness the advantages of global time zones to facilitate robust, rapid, systematic, and effective evidence appraisal, thereby strengthening collaborations and review capacity.

We have brought together experts in systematic reviews and outbreak response and are currently developing a living RRNA platform that will map existing evidence, including peer-reviewed publications and grey literature, for WHO priority diseases and other selected diseases, including pandemic influenza, mpox and plague. This living RRNA platform will support pandemic preparedness as it will inform research response planning; and strengthen capacity for effective, coordinated responses during outbreaks.  

The RRNA methodology is undergoing refinement and is currently being piloted on the priority diseases, Nipah and henipaviral diseases and Nairoviruses. This methodology will be rigorous, transparent and replicable so that it can be used by researchers and clinicians to conduct accelerated evidence reviews at the early stages of an epidemic to identify key knowledge gaps. 

Advisory Group

The Advisory Group contains representatives from the following organisations:

European Commission
European and Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership (EDCTP)
International Development Research Centre (IDRC)
South African Medical Research Council
TDR
UK Department of Health and Social Care
Wellcome Trust
ZonMw
EDCTP
GloPID-R (Observer)
UKCDR (Observer)

Data Governance and Legal Disclaimer

Data protection

For the purposes of the Pandemic PACT programme, we have collected data on researchers and their research outputs using names and Open Researcher and Contributor IDs (ORCIDs) (“personal” data). We (the University of Oxford) are the ‘data controller’ for these data, which means we decide how to use it and are responsible for looking after it in accordance with the UK General Data Protection Regulation and associated data protection legislation.

How we use data

Pandemic PACT will collect data on research funding from funder websites and directly from the funders in some cases. The data includes information on grants including amounts awarded, dates, and information on the awardees including names of investigators, host institutions and locations of research sites.

The data are then processed by the Pandemic PACT programme team and stored in a repository which will be publicly accessible from Figshare and used to inform an online dashboard displaying the data through a range of visualisations on this website.

Who has access to the data?

We share data with anyone who wishes to download and re-use the information under a CC-BY licence.

Retaining data

We will only retain data for as long as we need it to meet our purposes, including any relating to legal, accounting, or reporting requirements.

Security

Data will be held securely in accordance with the University’s policies and procedures. Further information is available on the University of Oxford’s Information Security website.

Your rights

Information on your rights in relation to your personal data are explained here.

Contact

To raise any queries or concerns about our use of data, please contact us at compliance@admin.ox.ac.uk or Compliance Team, Assurance Directorate, University Offices, Wellington Square, Oxford OX1 2JD.