How can we ensure better decision-making during pandemic outbreaks, in which biomedical, societal and economical perspectives are brought together to provide actionable, evidence-based advice for policymakers?

This is the key question in the UNITY project, recently funded by ZonMw, and has the goal to develop an integrated assessment framework for pandemic preparedness and response. UNITY, short for ‘UNified Integration of Health and Societal Impact Translation of Yield to policy and practice’, is a collaborative project led by Dr. Anja Schreijer and is set to run through to December 2026.

The need for integrated advice

Pandemics affect not only health but also social and psychological well-being and economic livelihoods. Effective crisis management must balance these dimensions to maintain public trust and minimize unintended harms. Dutch advisory structures – historically centered around the biomedical-focused Outbreak Management Team OMT – have lacked systematic inclusion of socio-economic dimensions. Establishment of the Societal Impact Team (MIT) in 2022 is a big step forward, but challenges persist in generation, flow and integration of data and information into advisory mechanisms. Moreover, pandemic response often involves rapid decision-making under uncertainty, highlighting the need for effective, timely, actionable and trustworthy scientific advice and underlying data. The COVID-19 pandemic underlined the lack of an integrated framework capable of synthesizing insights from diverse disciplines – such as epidemiology and socioeconomics – while also addressing uncertainty, values, vulnerabilities, citizen engagement, and the science-policy interface.

Objective & Approach of UNITY

To address these challenges, the UNITY project aims to develop a robust, scientifically grounded, and practically applicable integrated assessment framework for pandemic preparedness and response. The framework brings together biomedical and societal perspectives and will integrate insights from multiple disciplines, including epidemiology and socioeconomics, to provide actionable, evidence-based advice for policymakers. UNITY will make use of a variety of data sources, like epidemiological models, biomedical and socio-economic data, public health records, simulation exercises and stakeholder surveys, interviews & focus groups.

The UNITY project is structured into five work packages, each focusing on different aspects of the framework development. Additionally, three cross cutting themes have been identified with tasks and contributions overarching the work packages.

Work packages:

1. Data, Knowledge & Knowledge Synthesis
2. Integrated Framework
3. Modelling
4. Simulation Exercises & Practical Feasibility
5. Reflection, Interaction and Mutual Learning

Cross-cutting themes:

1. Vulnerability during crises
2. Citizen engagement
3. Managing scientific uncertainties

In order to tackle the complexities of developing an integrated assessment framework, well-coordinated collaboration between the work packages is needed. Work package 1-3 will focus on different types of knowledge synthesis and develop building blocks or elements of the integrated assessment framework. The integration of all elements into the integral assessment framework will be placed within work package 2. Work package 4 will test and validate the output of these three work packages and the framework as a whole. Work package 5 will serve as a vertical work package to reflect on and to ensure the consolidation & knowledge transfer of integrated assessment framework. What makes UNITY distinctive is that each work package is designed to depend on and support the others, creating an interconnection that encourages collaboration and partnerships rather than isolated efforts.

Outlook

National and international evaluations and lessons show that integrated interdisciplinary advice is beneficial and feasible. UNITY builds on these to promote balanced, coordinated, and context-sensitive advisory practices in the Netherlands, enhancing policymakers’ ability to make informed decisions that account for complex interdependencies, leading to enhanced preparedness, improved compliance, and reduced negative societal impacts. By creating an integrated tool for science-policy interaction, the project hopes to improve the advisory and decision-making process during pandemics, particularly by incorporating diverse scientific perspectives and engaging citizens. The results of the UNITY project will help ensure that vulnerable populations and societal impacts are considered in response strategies.

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