Health, demographic change and wellbeing - PERISCOPE

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Introduction

PERISCOPE (PAN-EUROPEAN RESPONSE TO THE IMPACTS OF COVID-19 AND FUTURE PANDEMICS AND EPIDEMICS) is a large-scale research project that brings together 31 European institutions and is coordinated by the University of Pavia. PERISCOPE is a Horizon 2020 research project that was funded with almost 10 million Euros under the Coronavirus Global Response initiative launched in May 2020 by the European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. PERISCOPE started on 1 November 2020 and will last until 31 October 2023.

Project description

The goal of PERISCOPE is to shed a light on the unintended and indirect consequences of the outbreak and the related government responses, with the intention to enhance evidence- based policymaking by collecting an unprecedented amount of data and information on the social, economic and behavioural consequences of the current pandemic.

At the same time, PERISCOPE will produce new information on conditions that have aggravated or mitigated the impacts of the pandemic, the differences in “policy mix” adopted at the national level in EU and associated countries, and the behavioural impacts of both the outbreak and the policies.

A multidisciplinary consortium will bring together experts in all aspects of the current outbreak: clinic and epidemiologic; socio-economic and political; statistical and technological. The partners of the consortium will carry out theoretical and experimental research to contribute to a deeper understanding of the short- and long-term impacts of the pandemic and the measures adopted to contain it. Such research-intensive activities will allow the consortium to propose measures to prepare Europe for future pandemics and epidemics in a relatively short timeline.

Objectives

These are the objectives of PERISCOPE:

  • to gather data on the broad impacts of COVID-19 in order to develop a comprehensive, user-friendly, openly accessible COVID Atlas, which should become a reference tool for researchers and policymakers, and a dynamic source of information to disseminate to the general public;
  • to perform innovative statistical analysis on the collected data, with the help of various methods including machine learning tools;
  • to identify successful practices and approaches adopted at the local level, which could be scaled up at the pan-European level for a better containment of the pandemic and its related socio-economic impacts; and
  • to develop guidance for policymakers at all levels of government, in order to enhance Europe’s preparedness for future similar events and proposed reforms in the multi-level governance of health.

Role of Ghent University

UGENT will work on developing a coherent framework to understand, assess and draw comparisons on the broad mental health impacts and impacts on health inequalities of COVID-19 and response measures at societal, community and individual level with special emphasis on vulnerable groups (WP2).

UGENT will also work on developing a variety of educational and training initiatives related to the practices outlined in the guidance documents of the other work packages (WP11).

Website

www.periscope-project.com

Contact

Prof. Ilse Derluyn
Department Social work and social pedagogy
Phone number: +32 9 264 64 02
E-mail