CoVICIS
Combating SARS-CoV-2 Pandemic
A global approach coupling powerful state-of-the-art virologic and immunologic platforms with large genomic surveillance studies and diverse cohorts in EU and SSA

about us
EU-Africa Concerted Action
CoVICIS: EU-Africa Concerted Action on SARS-CoV-2 Virus Variant and Immunological Surveillance
CoVICIS is a three year project funded by the EU Horizon Europe program. It is led by Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Vaudois (CHUV) involving 14 partners from 7 countries – Switzerland, Italy, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Ethiopia and South Africa. CoVICIS’ unique strength is its combined expertise with world leading scientists in the fields of epidemiology, genomics, virology, immunology, data science and public health, coupled with state-of-the-art cutting edge technologies in bioscience.
scientific program
Our Objectives
Our five main objectives are:

Identifying emerging new VOCs through genomic surveillance in different cohorts;

Deciphering the risk and protective factors to infection in different risk, gender and age groups;

Evaluating the impact of VOCs on the effectiveness of vaccines induced humoral and cellular responses in different populations and regions in the EU and SSA;

Identifying immune correlates of protection against VOC through the development of algorithms predicting the impact of emerging VOC on the efficacy of vaccines; and

Informing the future vaccination strategy and design of next generation of vaccines.
news
Latest news from CoVICIS
CoVICIS Newsletter September 2023
Launched in early 2022, CoVICIS represents a global approach to combatting the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, coupling powerful state-of-the-art virologic and immunologic platforms with large genomic surveillance studies and diverse cohorts in Europe and sub-Saharan Africa (SSA).
CoVICIS in context: surveillance and Switzerland with Prof. Milo Puhan, MD, Ph.D., University of Zurich
Professor Puhan joins us to discuss the three prospective cohort studies, including children, adolescents, and adults, based at EBPI that are contributing to the CoVICIS project.
Interview with Giuseppe Pantaleo, Horizon Magazine
Professor Giuseppe Pantaleo spoke with Vittoria D’Alessio from Horizon Magazine to discuss the ongoing work of researchers to monitor populations for new variants of concern. The article features a profile of CoVICIS and the EU-funding COVIRNA project which is devising a test to predict who is most likely to develop cardiovascular complications.
CoVICIS is funded by the European Union’s Horizon Europe Research and Innovation Programme under grant nr 101046041