Impact
This project will innovate social sciences research in epidemics outbreaks combine methodological and process innovation that connect multi-scale epidemics modelling, policy-making, governance, information sciences and supply chain management. Through integration with the humanitarian planning and decision-making processes, HERoS shall lead to more efficient and effective policies and governance structures. HERoS makes use of collective intelligence approaches to support self-organisation of decision-makers at different levels to improve the epidemics response locally on the ground in real-time while contributing to more efficient information management, netcentric governance and logistics.
Facilitating European Innovation & commercialisation. HERoS will draw-upon state-of-the-art open data sets and develop methods and solutions to combat the current fragmentation that exists in epidemics response, especially concerning the social sciences aspects. HERoS will actively promote and encourage the creation of other compatible (open source) solutions and technologies that can add value to the market.
Societal impacts. HERoS also seeks to indirectly contribute to Horizon 2020’s focus on secure societies. HERoS sits within a wider backdrop where European and citizens across the globe are facing increasingly threatening situations and epidemics. A key characteristic of disaster response – including natural disasters and conflicts – is the uncertainty and dynamics of the situation, and the need for an integrated systems approach. Successful development of HERoS can improve information gathering and -sharing, and equip decision-makers to deal with uncertainties during the response as well as a continuous stream of unreliable information.