The Centre’s contribution to the national Covid-19 response was both swift and comprehensive.

• Four Insight PIs were formally appointed as members of the Irish Epidemiological Modelling Advisory Group (IEMAG) reporting directly to the Irish National Public Health Emergency Team (NPHET). Their ongoing work provides advice to the government feeding directly into national policy decisions relating to COVID-19
• In late 2020, based on a Ministerial request, a new IEMAG Working Group on Data Engineering was established with six Insight researchers to support additional data analytics capabilities in the Health Service Executive (HSE)
• PANDEM-2 is a €9.75m Irish-Led Project Set to Strengthen EU Preparedness and Response to Future Pandemics. Insight FI Professor Máire Connolly will coordinate the PANDEM-2 Project. You can read more about this project here
• During lockdown, the EPE team supported the national broadcaster in producing science segments for RTÉ’s Home School Hub for families that were home-schooling. In conjunction with Tusla, Galway City Partnership and Foróige, the team also led a programme to refurbish laptops for disadvantaged students taking state exams online
• Insight PIs/FIs contributed to the development of the hugely successful national COVID-19 Tracker App
• Insight conducted a rolling series of national surveys on the effects of the crisis on the Irish public. The results, used by national broadcasters in daily news briefings, had a significant impact on informing national policies
• New projects began to understand outbreaks in meat processing plants (see here), analyse breathing into your Phone as a new way to monitor Covid-19 patients at home (see here), and to monitor home air quality in lockdown (see here)

You can read more about the Centre’s contribution to the national COVID-19 response here – https://www.insight-centre.org/news/