The PAN ASEAN Coalition for Epidemic and Outbreak Preparedness (PACE-UP) is a Center for global health and pandemic prevention in Asia led by a multidisciplinary consortium of North-South and South-South collaborations. The consortium leverages on equitable Asia-Europe-Africa partnerships to build and strengthen regional and ASEAN-wide capacity and systems to respond rapidly and effectively to emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases in the region.
The Global Health and Pandemic Prevention Center is located at Vietnamese-German Center for Medical Research (VG-CARE) in Hanoi, Vietnam. The main implementing partner in Germany is the University of Tübingen. A total of 28 partner institutions from 15 countries in Europe, Asia, and Africa work together within the PACE-UP coalition. The well-established North-South and South-South collaborative network brings a comprehensive, multidisciplinary expertise and experience into the project covering public health, capacity development, clinical trials, ethics of research in emergency situations, surveillance of zoonotic infections, molecular biology, epidemiology, rapid diagnostics, rapid whole genome sequencing, phylogenetic analyses and pathogen evolutionary trends, infection control, microbiology, virology, immunology, data analyses, publication and dissemination of data, risk communication, management, operational logistics, patient and community engagement, advocacy, global policy issues, disease modelling, trends and prediction.
Objectives
- Strengthen the academic sector by providing access to higher education study programs (Master’s module and PhD programs) through scholarships for study in Germany and in the regions and by intensifying local scientific expertise through a North-South and South-South partnership.
- Develop and sustain multidisciplinary capacity for preparedness in two situations: a) in an emergency outbreak or epidemic situation and b) in the inter-epidemic period.
- Develop effective communication channels between participating partners to ensure safe and rapid exchange of data between different countries and to network with other regional and global networks on emerging infections and contribute to global preparedness and response efforts.
CAPACITY BUILDING – ACTIVITIES
The overall aim of PACE-UP is to strengthen regional and PAN-ASEAN individual, institutional and infrastructural / organizational capacities and systems for enabling rapid and effective response during an emergency situation / epidemic situation and strengthen the capabilities to identify new capacities during the inter-epidemic period. Moreover, PACE-UP provides high quality mentorship by various educational and training programs. With North-South and South-South partnerships, the academic sector is strenghtened by increasing quality access to higher education through scholarships for study in Germany and in the African regions.
To achieve its goals PACE-UP offers a wide range of activities in the fields of Education and Training as well as Research
Education and Training
Strengthening the academic sector by providing access to higher education through scholarships to study in Germany and in the regions, and by strengthening local scientific expertise through a North-South and South-South partnership.
- Mentorship-Program
- Trans-interdisciplinary Master student scholarships
- PhD-Program
- Expansion of the laboratory capacities
- Internships
- Hands-on Training Workshops
- Expert Seminars
Research
Building and strengthening research capacities (multidisciplinary operational, social science, basic science, translational clinical research, clinical trials, implementation research).
- Epidemiological surveillance
- Whole genome sequencing
- Advanced diagnostics
- Rapid response team
- BSL2/BSC-III mobile lab for Research
- Data share and management
