Infections which are new or rapidly spreading are known as emerging infections. Many emerging infections are zoonotic, i.e. have spread from animals to humans. COVID-19 was caused by a zoonotic virus that emerged rapidly to cause a pandemic. 

Our VISION is for the UK to be better prepared for emerging and zoonotic infections, especially of pandemic potential. We will achieve this through these OVERARCHING AIMS: 

• Conduct the highest quality research to help the UKHSA protect us from emerging infections. 

• Engage and involve patients and the public, especially marginalised communities, to address health inequalities. 

• Train the next generation of researchers to address emerging infections. 

• Collaborate widely to ensure the maximum value and highest impact of our work, saving lives and livelihoods. 

The University of Liverpool, in partnership with Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (LSTM) and UKHSA has led this Health Protection Research Unit since 2014. In 2020 we were joined by University of Oxford,and are now joined by London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM, and its collaborator University of Glasgow). We will continue to address the major emerging threats; these are transmitted by mosquitoes and ticks (e.g. dengue and Lyme), the respiratory route (e.g. COVID-19 and influenza), or directly through contact (e.g. Lassa fever). 

We will address critical RESEARCH QUESTIONS around these diseases through four vertical themes and one crosscutting themes, to deliver significant OUTCOMES: 

• Theme 1 – Predict and Prevent will look at the risk from mosquito-borne viruses, such as dengue, which is in France and threatens the UK, and tick-borne encephalitis virus and Lyme, which are here already. We will try to predict spread of these diseases, so we can help UKHSA limit their impact. 

• Theme 2 – Clinical Characterisation will study the patients with emerging infections to understand disease patterns, and obtain samples to help us develop diagnostic tests, treatments and vaccines; we will also look at how emerging infections spread among patients in hospital to recommend control measures. 

• Theme 3 – Non-Pharmaceutical Interventions (NPIs) such as face masks, social distancing and lockdowns were introduced in the COVID-19 pandemic, with little research evidence on how well they worked; we will investigate how we can best study these measures during future emerging infections, so that their usage has a better evidence-base. 

• Theme 4 – Medical Countermeasures will include studies of new diagnostic blood tests that show which virus a person has been infected with, even if they are no longer infected; we will also work on drug treatments, and vaccines, especially trying to understand why they are so poorly accessed by some deprived communities. 

• Theme 5 – Data, Modelling and Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a cross-cutting theme supporting other themes; we will use voice recognition and virtual assistants to record data, and make it more accessible so it can be used to impact health services and outcomes, for example by reducing the impacts of emerging winter respiratory infections on hospital beds.

In collaboration with the University of Liverpool, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, University of Oxford, and London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.