One of the key lessons learnt from the 2014-15 Ebola outbreak research response effort in West Africa is that it is critical to establish excellent working relations and collaborations in the inter-epidemic pandemic period in order to improve the response to future outbreaks.

To meet this need, ISARIC convened a meeting hosted by the Wellcome Trust in London in early December 2015 to bring together key global stakeholders (including representatives for clinical research networks, clinicians, research funders, public health bodies, industry, and non-governmental organisations). Apart from facilitating a discussion on collaboration, the meeting identified pathways for strengthened capacity building for research preparedness, particularly in low-and-middle-income countries, and discussed setting up a global rapid response task force within the clinical research community. Participants also explored the barriers and bottlenecks to rapid research responses and identified solutions.

Please download the full meeting report to the right (PDF).