Support for the International Research Consortium on Animal Health (SIRCAH2)

Animal diseases cause serious social, economic and environmental damage, impact on animal welfare and can directly threaten human health. These diseases are transboundary, so an increasing number of the major threats to the livestock industry are global so they need global solutions, which can only be achieved through a coordinated research effort. To address these challenges, an international network of R&D programme owners, managers and international organisations from around 50 countries agreed to share information, improve collaboration on research activities, work towards common research agendas and coordinated research funding on the major animal diseases affecting livestock production and/or human health. This network operates as STAR-IDAZ IRC and has been supported by previous SIRCAH, Secretariat for the International Research Consortium on Animal Health (Horizon 2020, 2016-2022). SIRCAH2 will build on the success of its predecessor, in enabling the coordination of research at an international level, to identify and address critical gaps in knowledge and speed up the development of new or improved disease control strategies. To achieve these goals SIRCAH 2 will provide organisational and communication support to the IRC Committees and members and facilitate the development of research roadmaps for priority diseases/issues. SIRCAH2 will support gap analysis activities to develop these roadmaps, which will highlight research and knowledge gaps. Current and planned research will be mapped to identify which gaps are being address and which are underfunded. This will be the basis of funding recommendations to encourage programme alignment and a focused effort on priority research gaps. This will accelerate research on animal health, reinforce international research cooperation and provide veterinary innovations to support continuous development of fair, healthy and environmentally-friendly food systems from primary production to consumption.