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Animation & coordination

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Animation and coordination of research

ANRS | Emerging Infectious Diseases is playing a key role to promote interactions between the main stakeholders involved in the response to the COVID-19 pandemic. One of its main goals is to identify gaps in research and to foster the emergence of innovative and collaborative projects. Thus, ANRS | Emerging Infectious Diseases has initiated several working groups, to animate and coordinate research on identified themes, but also to bring out projects considered to be priorities and accompany them towards an urgent implementation. It has also focused on promoting good practices and standardization of data collection in clinical research, as well as links with industrials to favor potential collaborations with researchers. 

Scientific animation and bibliographical support to the thematic working groups

Therapeutics Working Group:

Hospital

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A multidisciplinary group of clinicians and academic researchers involved in COVID-19 clinical research.
The mission of the group is to help and give guidance to clinical researchers to build and improve their future clinical projects.
The group allows industrial partners to present their innovative projects in order to facilitate networking between academic clinical researchers and the industry from France and around the world.

The missions of the group are:

  • Provide scientific input to new clinical trial proposals from academic investigators.
  • Help clinical researchers to build their projects.
  • Coordinate and facilitate networking between clinical investigators and industrial partners.

The Working Group coordinators are Karine Lacombe (Hôpital Saint Antoine) and Dominique Deplanque (CHU Lille).

Therapeutics Working Group:

Outpatient Clinical Trials in population at risk

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This Working Group was created in August 2020, and its objectives are:

  • To foster an interdisciplinary and interinstitutional dynamic.
  • To benefit from the work already done (clinical trials and platforms).
  • To optimize the number of trials (based on risk groups, inclusion criteria, methodology, etc.) and avoid “duplicates”, and support a national strategy for outpatients clinical trials.
  • To support coordination between the outpatient clinical trials to prevent competition between trial for patients recruitment.
  • To coordinate with other groups (especially the “preclinical” group).

The Working Group coordinators are Xavier Anglaret (Université de Bordeaux-Inserm) and Olivier Saint-Lary (Collège national des généralistes enseignants).

Therapeutics Working Group:

Chemoprophylaxis

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This Working Group was created in August 2020, and its objectives are :

  • To identify suitable candidate therapeutics that could prevent infection by SARS-CoV2.
  • To design pre-exposure or post-exposure prophylaxis platform clinical trials in the most adapted contexts, and to link with regulatory authorities to facilitate implementation of the trials
  • To set-up and supervise platform clinical trials for prophylactic treatment.

The Working Group coordinators are Bruno Hoen (Institut Pasteur) and Elisabeth Bothelo-Nevers (CHU Saint Etienne).

Immunology and inflammation Working Group

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A group of French leading expert immunologists were mobilized in September 2020 with the primary objective of bringing together academic researchers and clinicians focused in immunology and inflammation research in order to facilitate de emergence of new collaborative research projects in response to COVID-19. The field of action ranges from fundamental to applied clinical research.

The missions of this Working Group are to:

  • Coordinate and bring together the immunology and inflammation research community on a national scale.
  • Improve the visibility of current COVID-19 research in the immunology field.
  • Impulse the development of novel collaborations and projects in the field of immunology with potential clinical applications against COVID-19. This includes highlighting currently available tools, facilities and animal models for immunology-based research.

The Working Group coordinator is Evelyne Jouvin Marche (CNRS - Inserm - Université Grenoble Alpes - ITMO I3M).

Long COVID Working Group

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This multi-disciplinary team was created in November 2020, and the objectives of this Working Group are:

  • To assess the medium and long-term clinical and social consequences of moderate and severe forms of SARS-CoV2 infection, for patients receiving hospital or ambulatory care.
  • To look at these consequences through the study of pathology in a translational way, from epidemiology to fundamental, through clinical research and the human and social sciences, while promoting cooperation between researchers, clinicians and patient associations.
  • To promote therapeutic research in terms of care pathways and optimization of overall patient management.
  • To evaluate the social impact of the clinical consequences of the disease and its representation.

The Working Group coordinators are Henri Partouche (Paris Descartes University) and Olivier Robineau (CH Tourcoing).

Task Force "COVID-19 in Low and Middle Income Countries"

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A multi-institutional and multi-disciplinary Task Force (TF), created in June 2020 by IRD-REACTing-ANRS, whose objectives are to :

  • Ensure a good coordination of research projects carried out by or associating French institutions with foreign partner institutions in low and middle-income countries.
  • Enable continuous information sharing between different partners
  • Federating stakeholders
  • Propose a coordinated research strategy that responds to the needs and issues of the evolving SARS COV 2 pandemic.

The group targeted two priority themes:

  • The dynamics of infection
  • The impact of the epidemic and the response

The Task Force is chaired by Nicolas Meda (University of Ouagadougou, Burkina-Faso) and Eric Delaporte (IRD).

Transmission studies Working Group

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This multi-institutional and multi-disciplinary (epidemiologists, methodologists, modelors, clinicians, etc.) Working Group was created in June 2020 and its objectives are to:

  • Ensure good coordination and connection of the French Institutions regarding to the clinical studies related to the transmission of SARS-CoV-2
  • Improve protocols and exploitation of data by expert concertation
  • Develop and/or lead new studies or new collaborations related to the SARS-CoV-2 transmission

The coordinators of the Transmission Studies Working Group are Fabrice Carrat (IPLESP) and Daniel Levy-Bruhl (Santé Publique France).

Saliva Testing Studies Group

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Concertation between existing studies which intend to evaluate the use of saliva swabs as an alternative to the nasopharyngeal swabs in the detection of the SARS-CoV-2.

By fostering clinical and methodological data sharing, the Saliva Testing Studies Group supports the coordination and improvement of these studies.

Human and Social Sciences Working Group on COVID-19

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This multi-institutional and multi-disciplinary Working Group, was created in October 2020 by REACTing and ANRS, and its objectives are to :

  • provide elements for the definition of structural interventions (e.g. tactical urban planning, financial aid, new rights) and information, education and communication strategies based on epidemiological data, social practices, perceptions and attitudes towards COVID-19, taking into account living conditions, social characteristics and the diversity of territories and environments;
  • to contribute to shedding light on the public health strategies defined by the health authorities and to ensure the transparency of scientific information in its field vis-à-vis the actors involved and society in general;
  • to propose SHS research priorities to improve responses to the situation created by COVID-19 in the field of health.
    The will of ANRS | Emerging Infectious Diseases is to rely on social science researchers, their experience and the results of their ongoing research on COVID-19 to inform public health strategies and contribute to public information and debate in a context of uncertainty. This WG brings together researchers, institutional public health actors and associations representing civil society to work collectively on priority issues in the design of prevention, information and communication policies.

This Working Group coordinator is France Lert (Inserm).

Working groups supporting clinical research

Preclinical Studies Working Group

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Treatments Prioritization Working Group

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Monoclonal Antibodies Therapeutics Working Group

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In close collaboration with the International Severe Acute Respiratory & Emerging Infection Consortium (ISARIC), the REACTing-ANRS | EID  Methodology Centre carried out the French translation of the electronic case report form (eCRF), in order to harmonize data collection for an observational study. The recommendations made by REACTing-ANRS | EID on the types of samples to be taken, the frequency of sampling and the temperature at which the specimens should be kept are the sampling strategy used since the end of January in France.

The Health Industry Alliance for Research and Innovation (ARIIS) and REACTing - ANRS | EID have strengthened ties since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. Their primary objective has been to facilitate and stimulate discussions between public, private and governmental sectors in order to favour the development of novel initiatives and potential public-private partnerships (PPP) to accelerate research against COVID-19. Parties involved include clinical research laboratories, patient and population cohorts, pharmaceutical industries, start-ups, and the French Ministries for Health, Research and Innovation.


The main missions of this initiative are to:

  • Promote interactions and coordination between the public and private research sectors.
  • Propose improved standardised operating procedures and prioritisation processes to facilitate access of private institutions to biological clinical samples and national biobanks for use in novel diagnostic, therapeutic or vaccine evaluation or screening tests.
  • Facilitate discussions between private sector institutions and public clinical research institutions for the establishment of potential public-private partnerships (PPP) in close collaboration with Inserm-Transfert.

Our role during the COVID-19 pandemics

Structuring research in times of crisis

Animation and coordination of research

Support for research projects

Production of scientific content and information sharing

Management of a project to strengthen the capacities of hospitals in 5 African countries