DREAM-EP

Data-driven Responsive Epidemic Analysis and Multiscale Modeling for Epidemic Preparedness

Project content and objectives

DREAM-EP investigates the interactions between infection dynamics, human mobility, behavior and societal responses. The project is developing an adaptive model ecosystem that integrates high-resolution data on contact networks, virus evolution, mobility flows and global air traffic.
The aim is to identify critical changes at an early stage, improve prediction accuracy and enable more effective responses to future respiratory pandemics.

Project structure

WP1: Spatial structure and responsiveness (How do spatial mobility networks change as a result of an epidemic response, how do they depend on scale and how do they influence the pandemic?)

WP2: High-resolution data. Social contacts and clinical data (How do microscale contact networks and clinical outcomes jointly influence disease dynamics under different social behaviors and interventions?)

WP3: Causal inference (What causal relationships exist between disease dynamics, information, behavior and containment measures, and how can these be quantified?)

WP4: Systems Modeling (How to design, implement and deploy optimal model architectures for predicting disease dynamics that capture underlying structured, reactive and multi-scale networks).

WP5: Variant dynamics (What general principles define the evolution of viral phenotypes when the virus evolves in multiscale, network-structured host populations, and how does this influence disease dynamics?)

WP6: Predictive multiscale modelling (combination of WP1-5 to develop a rapidly deployable, scalable and reparametrizable framework for modelling severe respiratory diseases in Germany).

Project managers and partners

Dresden University of TechnologyDresdenGermanyProf. Dr. Dirk Brockmann
Alfred Wegener Institute Helmholtz Center for Polar and Marine Research (AWI)BremerhavenGermanyProf. Dr. Thilia Gross
Carl von Ossietzky University of OldenburgOldenburgGermanyProf. Dr. Bernd Blasius
Charité University Medicine Berlin CHABerlinGermanyProf. Dr. Christian Drosten
Free University of BerlinBerlinGermanyProf. Dr. Vitaly Belik
Saarland UniversitySaarbrückenGermanyProf. Dr. Thorsten Lehr