Call for Proposals: Mitigating risk in the wake of the Covid-19 Pandemic
The timescale of the current global health crisis linked to the Coronavirus Covid 19 remains uncertain. Its fallout will be dire both socially and economically, with related deaths, job losses and company bankruptcies, broken supply chains, and mental health effects related to lockdown policies amongst others. The disproportionate effects of the crisis on low income populations will deepen both intra- and inter-country social and economic inequalities.
Confinement measures will help slow the outbreak and relieve congestion in hospitals, but with most of the remaining population susceptible to contamination without massive and proven testing, easing precautionary measures will be complicated without a vaccine or treatment. Quality data will be key in determining rates of infections and the effectiveness of lockdown measures, as well as providing the possible options to re-starting the economy while decreasing negative impact on human lives.
The AXA Research Fund has committed support to emergency research initiatives at the beginning of the crisis; however, it is also necessary to inform its aftermath as well as a potential second wave, particularly in lower income countries. It is also a time to start questioning how to better prepare for the next crisis – be it epidemic, climate or ecological – while we learn from the current one. This Research Fund is opening a call for projects in the following areas:
- Protecting vulnerable populations from epidemics and catastrophes, including COVID-19: be it migrants,informal settlements, workers in the informal economy, isolated people, people with disabilities, theelderly
- Improving data collection and quality in health: how can data and technology help us get out of thecrisis, understand it and mitigate it? How can it inform future containment and epidemic control?
- Understanding the effects of confinement and social distancing: what are the effects of confinement andsocial distancing on society and households? What are the mental health consequences? The social anddomestic repercussions?
- Early warning and preparedness: how do we re-enforce our health infrastructure and ecosystem(including medical devices and drug supply) to be better prepared and how do we protect our healthworkers and caregivers?
- Preserving the environment and our health: connections between climate change, biodiversity loss andthe origin of viral disease including socioeconomic dynamics leading to infectious disease outbreaks andsanitary crisis; Learnings from COVID-19 for mitigating future related crises in climate and biodiversity
Preference will be given to projects with a local focus and potential applicability on a global scale.
Bei Interesse wenden Sie sich bitte vorab an den Forschungsreferenten der Rechts- und Wirtschaftswissenschaftlichen Fakultät, Herrn Dr. Dennis Kirchberg (dennis.kirchberg(at)fau.de), da nur eine Bewerberin/ein Bewerber aus dem Bereich akzeptiert wird.
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Bewerbungsfrist: 07.05.2020