Strengthening Environmental Surveillance to Advance Public Health Action (ODIN)

ODIN will develop/strengthen a genomic environmental surveillance system that relies on monitoring waterborne pathogens in wastewaters and other environmental reservoirs. In addition, the project will strengthen the capacity for genomics and bioinformatics database management in sub-Saharan Africa.  

Objectives

The ODIN project aims to:

• Develop a genomic surveillance system based on enviromental monitoring, serving as an early warning system for waterborne pathogens and antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in outbreak situations.
• Strengthen genomics and bioinformatics capacity in sub-Saharan countries.
• Strengthen international multidisciplinary research and cooperation.
• Reduce disease and illness cases caused by contaminated drinking water in sub-Saharan Africa by increasing awareness and providing protocols for efficient water and sanitation interventions (SDG6).    

Implementation

The ODIN project involves seven work packages: 

• Project Management, Coordination, and Leadership (coordinated by Lund University)
• Setting-up environmental surveillance systems for multiple human pathogens (lead by THL)
• Human pathogen surveillance using a mobile and semi-autonomous environmental workflow
• Developing metagenomic and bioinformatic analytical processes with interactive visualisation and sharing endpoints
• Integration of translational pathogen genomics into public health surveillance systems
• Capacity strengthening, knowledge mobilisation and training in genomics and bioinformatics
• Dissemination, Communication and Exploitation of the Results

Partners

• Lund University (LU), Sweden (coordinator)
• National Institute for Medical Research (NIMR), Tanzania
• Centre National de la Recherche Technologique et Scientifique (CNRST/IRSS-DRCO), Burkina Faso
• University of Kinshasa (UNIKIN), the Democratic Republic of Congo
• Flanders Institute for Biotechnology (VIB), Belgium
• Ghent University (UGENT), Belgium
• Norwegian Research Centre (NORCE), Norway
• The Global Health Network (TGHN), University of Oxford, United Kingdom

Funding

The project is supported by the Commission of the European Communities as part of the Horizon Europe – the Framework Programme for Research and Innovation (Grant Agreement n° 101103253) and Global Health EDCTP3.

Contact information

Tarja Pitkänen
Chief Specialist
tel. +358 29 524 6315
email: [email protected]