From everyday infections to new health threats, it’s essential to be prepared for what comes next. Pandemic preparedness is central to that effort.
Dr. Renée Delde, newly appointed CEO of the Ecraid Medical Research Network, talks about how stronger European cooperation and support from the EU is creating a more agile and coordinated clinical research response across the continent.
Preparing for emerging infectious diseases is not just about responding to emergencies. It also means having the right research systems in place every day so that new knowledge can be generated quickly and shared across borders when needed.
This is the ambition behind the European Alliance for Clinical Research in Infectious Diseases (Ecraid). Ecraid is a pan-European, non-profit research network whose goal is to improve how Europe studies and responds to infectious diseases, including antimicrobial resistance and other emerging health threats.
Delde, an intensive care physician and infectious disease researcher with first-hand experience in pandemic-scale research, was appointed Eclaid’s new CEO in January 2026. She previously led the European region of the global REMAP-CAP trial, one of the groundbreaking studies that rapidly identified effective treatments for patients infected with COVID-19.
In this interview, Derde explains why ‘everyday preparedness’ is important, how EU investment has made ECLAIDE possible, and why multilateral cooperation is essential in the face of threats that know no borders.
Why does Europe need a permanent clinical research network for infectious diseases?
If the past two decades have taught us anything, it’s that we need to change the way we conduct research during a pandemic. From the 2009 swine flu (H1N1) pandemic to the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19), we have seen firsthand how quickly infectious diseases can spread and how unprepared our research systems are.
Few patients entered clinical trials during the swine flu pandemic, and none of the trials yielded results while the pandemic was still ongoing. In contrast, new trial designs have enabled evidence to be generated more quickly during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, we have found that research can only proceed quickly if a system is already in place.
That is why a permanent clinical research network across Europe is so important. In a pandemic, you can’t start building your network from scratch. We need hospitals that are already engaged, trained, and resourced to begin research immediately. Ecraid has spent years building just such an infrastructure.
We often describe this as a “warm-based” research network. Simply put, this means that research sites can’t wait until a crisis occurs. They are continuously involved in research, data collection, testing, and maintaining expertise so that when an emergency occurs, everything is already up and running.
Ecleid started with antimicrobial resistance and later expanded to pandemic preparedness. How are these challenges connected?
Ecraid is committed to reducing the harm caused by infectious diseases, both for individuals and society as a whole. Two challenges stand out in Europe today: new infectious diseases that can spread rapidly and the growing problem of antimicrobial resistance.
As the climate changes, global travel increases, and humans and animals live closer together than ever before, new diseases, including those that can cause pandemics, are emerging more frequently.
At the same time, many bacteria are becoming resistant to existing antibiotics. This problem is often referred to as a “silent pandemic” because it develops gradually but affects everyone who needs treatment for an infectious disease.
With a pan-European network of researchers, hospitals and partners, Ecraid has the scientific expertise and operational capabilities needed to address these threats in a coordinated manner. Importantly, we do this in close collaboration with our partners in Europe and beyond, as these issues are global in nature.
How did EU funding help turn Ecraid into a pan-European research network?
European funding played a key role in transforming Ecraid from an idea into a functioning research network across Europe. The EU is very positive in this regard.
The idea for Ecraid arose within two earlier EU-funded initiatives: COMBACTE (co-funded by industry), which focused on antimicrobial resistance, and PREPARE, which tackled emerging infectious diseases. Both projects are designed with sustainability in mind, aiming to build something that will last beyond the funding period.
That vision was furthered through the ECRAID-Plan, a Horizon 2020 project that laid the foundation for establishing Ecraid as a permanent organization. Then, in 2021, the EU invested €30 million in ECRAID-Base, which allowed us to build a warmbase network, launch large-scale observational studies, and continue testing the platform.
Thanks to this support, Ecraid has become a self-sustaining nonprofit organization, funded through a combination of public and industry partnerships. Long-term investments of this kind are rare and demonstrate how EU funding can create lasting value for public health.
At Ecraid, we conduct ongoing research alongside extensive adaptive testing. How does this help move research forward faster?
Adaptive platform trials are designed to make clinical research faster and more flexible. Rather than testing only one treatment at a time, multiple possible treatments can be studied in a single trial, allowing each participant to answer multiple research questions.
Importantly, new treatments can be added as trials progress. This is similar to adding a new car to a train that is already running. This means that promising options can be tested immediately, without having to wait months or years for new research to begin.
These trials also use modern statistical approaches that provide greater flexibility in uncertain situations like a pandemic. Together, they can produce much faster and more reliable results than traditional methods.
You led the European arm of the REMAP-CAP trial during COVID-19. What did that experience teach you?
The success of REMAP-CAP showed how powerful international cooperation can be. During the pandemic, researchers around the world shared their data, ideas, and workload, allowing them to produce results much faster than they could have working alone.
This experience highlights why it is so important for Ecraid to maintain close links with research networks and experts across Europe. Infectious diseases and antimicrobial resistance do not stop at national borders, and effective research depends on collaboration across countries.
Working together is the only way to generate strong, reliable evidence that can quickly improve patient care.
What does “daily preparation” actually mean?
Being research ready means combining innovative, cutting-edge science with the practical ability to act quickly. It’s not enough just to have a good idea. We also need a system that handles real patients in real hospitals.
Ecraid’s network is very data-driven. This allows us to understand what each hospital or research facility does best. We track how the disease is affecting people through ongoing prospective observational studies, which we combine with large-scale clinical trials, allowing us to quickly shift focus if new health threats emerge.
We also make it easy to move data between different parts of the healthcare system, from general practices and emergency departments to hospital wards and intensive care units. By designing your research to share and reuse data from the beginning, you can collaborate faster with partners and deliver better patient care faster.
Looking ahead, how do you see Ecraid evolving over the next 10 years?
The world of health research is evolving and is being shaped not only by science but also by broader political and global changes. Ecraid is designed to be flexible and adapt to these changes.
Through its role in major European initiatives such as the European Partnership for Pandemic Preparedness and the BE READY NOW initiative, the organization is helping to build a truly interconnected ‘network of networks’ that keeps research capacity active and ready across Europe.
At the same time, familiar issues have not disappeared. Drug-resistant infections, diseases that spread from animals to humans, and other infectious disease threats continue to impact human health.
Ecraid aims to tackle these ongoing risks by working across borders and disciplines and using innovative research approaches to support better prevention, treatment and future preparedness.
The views of the interviewees do not necessarily reflect the views of the European Commission.
This article was originally published in Horizon, EU Research and Innovation Magazine.
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