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Science will allow to overcome the pandemic caused by COVID-19. Within a few months, researchers identified the enemy in its smallest details, deciphered its strategy of mass destruction, and developed tools to track it down. Most importantly, weapons to kill the virus and protect us from its resurgence are emerging. Knowledge sharing has never been organized so quickly and so transparently. Essential results are exchanged and made available in real time to the entire scientific community. Barriers between disciplines are blurring to address the multiple threats that we are facing. The remarkable involvement of economists in the search for concrete solutions to this systemic crisis is striking in this respect.

Lockdown exit is needed without undue delay – but only once healthcare capacity offers sufficient assurances against possible future waves – and even so the European Union will soon enter a new uncharted path with extremely challenging social, economic and political consequences. Citizen ownership will be essential to address this unprecedented challenge.

We, European scientists from different disciplines, are committed to mobilize our collective intelligence to elaborate and implement responsible and sustainable lockdown exit strategies. For this purpose, we call on European leaders to massively invest in the fight against COVID-19 through an innovative capacity building initiative that would provide the necessary autonomy to publicly funded and private partners. This initiative should be properly coordinated in the short term by a high-level crisis management task force bringing around the table all key stakeholders, and in the medium term by a proper independent and accountable European agency for infectious diseases.

Philippe Aghion,
Collège de France

Françoise Barré-Sinoussi,
Nobel laureate, Institut Pasteur, France

Mathias Dewatripont,
Université libre de Bruxelles, Belgium

Yvon Englert,
Rector, Université libre de Bruxelles

Alain Fischer,
Collège de France

Jean-Michel Foidart,
Secrétaire perpétuel, Académie royale Belge de Médecine

Michel Goldman,
Université libre de Bruxelles, Belgium

Jules Hoffmann,
Nobel laureate, University of Strasbourg, Institute for Advanced Study, France

Michel Kazatchkine,
Global Health Center, Graduate Institute, Switzerland

Helga Nowotny,
Science and Technology Fund, Austria and Former President of the European Research Council

Philippe Sansonetti,
Collège de France

Ada Yonath,
Nobel laureate, Weizmann Institute, Israel

 

Anette Agardh,
Professor in global health, Social Medicine and Global Health, Lund University, Sweden

Jutta Allmendinger,
WZB Berlin Social Science Center, Germany

Lieven Annemans
Ghent University and Brussels University (VUB), Belgium

Richard Baldwin,
Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Switzerland and Editor-in-Chief, VoxEU

Till Bärnighausen,
Heidelberg Institute of Global Health (HIGH), University of Heidelberg, Germany

Rafael Bengoa,
Former Director Health Systems at WHO, Spain

Jacques Brotchi
Former President of the World Federation of Neurosurgical Societies and former President of the Belgian Senate

Philippe Busquin,
Former EU Commissioner for Research, Belgium

Yves Carlier,
Université libre de Bruxelles, ARMB, Belgium

Nathan Clumeck,
Université libre de Bruxelles, Belgium

Frank Cobelens,
Amsterdam Institute for Global Health, the Netherlands

Pierre Coulie,
de Duve Institute, Université Catholique de Louvain, ARMB, Belgium

Pavel Exner,
Czech Academy of Sciences and Czech Technical University, the Czech Republic

Ulrike Felt,
Department of Science and Technology Studies, University of Vienna, Austria

Georges Fillet,
Université de Liège, ARMB, Belgium

Antoine Flahault,
Director of the Institute of Global Health, University of Geneva, Switzerland

Guenter Froeschl,
Member of the Board Center for International Health, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, Germany

François Fuks,
Université libre de Bruxelles, Belgium

Francesco Giavazzi,
Department of Economics, Università Bocconi, Italy

Herman Goossens,
University of Antwerp, Belgium

Bill Hansson,
Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology, Germany

Anita Hardon,
University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Hermann Hauser,
Founding Partner Amadeus Capital, UK

Stefan Kaufmann,
Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology, Germany

Ilona Kickbusch,
Chair of Global Health Centre, Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Switzerland

Jana Kolar,
Executive Director, CERIC-ERIC, Italy

Flemming Konradsen,
Professor, University of Copenhagen, School of Global Health, Denmark

Norbert Kroo,
Professor Emeritus, Wigner Physics Research Center, Hungary

Saadi Lahlou,
Director, Paris Institute for Advanced Study, France

Antonio Lanzavecchia,
Institute for Research in Biomedicine, Switzerland

Pierre Lekeux,
Université de Liège, ARMB, Belgium

Benoît Lengelé,
Université Catholique de Louvain, ARMB, Belgium

Alberto Mantovani,
Humanitas University in Milan, Italy

Andreu Mas-Colell,
Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Spain and Former Secretary-General of the European Research Council

Françoise Meunier,
ARMB, Federation of European Academies of Medicine, European Cancer Patient Coalition, Belgium

Jürgen Mlynek,
Chairman, Falling Walls Foundation, Germany

Lorenzo Moretta,
IRCCS Bambino Gesù Pediatric Hospital, Italy

Caroline Pauwels,
Rector of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium

Maria Cristina Pedicchio,
Former President National Institute of Oceanography and Experimental Geophisics, University of Trieste, Italy

Yves Pirson,
UCLouvain, ARMB, Belgium

Anton Pozniak,
President, European Aids and Infectious Disease Trial Network, UK

Barbara Prainsack,
University of Vienna, Department of Global Health & Social Medicine at King’s College London, UK

Mario Raviglione,
Università di Milano, Milan, Italy

Eva Rehfuess,
Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, Germany

Petra Reinke,
Charité, Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Germany

Peter Reiss,
Stichting HIV Monitoring & Amsterdam University Medical Centers, the Netherlands

Ernst Rietschel,
Founding Director of the Berlin Institute of Health, Germany

Carlo Rizzuto,
Chair of the General Assembly, CERIC-ERIC, Italy

Jürgen Rockstroh,
President of the European AIDS clinical Society, Germany

Federica Sallusto,
Institute for Research in Biomedicine, Switzerland

Ferran Sanz,
Pompeu Fabra University, Spain

Guido Tabellini,
Former Rector, Università Bocconi, Italy

Janet Thornton,
EMBL Senior Scientist, UK

Giuseppe Valditara,
University of Torino, Former Head of Department of the Ministry of Education, University and Research, Italy

Brigitte Velkeniers,
Universitair Ziekenhuis Brussel, Belgium

Stefano Vella,
Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, Italy

Hans-Dieter Volk,
Charité, Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Germany

Beatrice Weder di Mauro,
Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Switzerland and President at Centre for Economic Policy Research