Governance and coordination
The governance of the consortium will provide both leadership and a coordinated operational structure, with operational groups that collect, develop and communicate evidence and scientific insights to advance GLOWACON’s objectives. Key to the success is a commitment to ensure representation from a diversity of perspectives, geographies and income levels. Administrative support is needed to make the consortium operational.
Strategy setting
The consortium will develop a global, multi-year strategy to inform strategic activities to build a globally integrated WES network, including key transport hubs and community-based WES. The strategy will be implemented through annual roadmaps that will include specific deliverables agreed by the consortium.
Communications, policy, and advocacy
The consortium aims to engage a broad range of stakeholders through regular, structured multilateral initiatives to ensure open and constructive communication between the relevant sectors. Dedicated channels and tools will be established to facilitate internal communication as well as to raise awareness on WES and its value amongst policymakers and public health professionals, but also the general public.
Funding, fundraising, and sustainability
No fee will be required to participate in the global consortium for wastewater and environmental surveillance, and activities should be to a maximum self-funded. GLOWACON does not provide budget to finance projects, but serves as a tool to identify funding gaps and opportunities and consequently, informs funders to facilitate targeted investments towards impactful initiatives globally, avoiding duplication and maximising synergies among existing and planned WES activities.
Consolidated technical guidance
The consortium shall agree on priority health threats of emerging concern likely to be sources of future epidemics, and as supported by scientific evidence and practices. It will also support the development of protocols and best practices in sampling strategies, sampling methods, storage, transportation and detection/quantification for different use cases, as well as the development and validation of adaptable and cost-effective innovations. GLOWACON will also address guidance for basic laboratory infrastructure and quality systems needed.
Particular attention will be paid to effective governance approaches for WES that ensure suitable use cases, ethical data sharing, interpretation and harmonisation. In addition, the combination of targeted (e.g., quantitative PCR, amplicon sequencing, GC-MS, LC-MS), semi-targeted and untargeted approaches (e.g., metagenomic sequencing or non-target screening) will be supported and further developed.
Data analytics, modelling, sharing and interoperability
The consortium members will build robust analytics as well as harmonised approaches for data collection, integration, and analysis and interpretation. GLOWACON will also facilitate sharing of best-in-class methodologies for data modelling and interpretation as well as build agreement on data quality standards.
GLOWACON will facilitate data sharing, possibly by establishing a repository of data or a network of existing dashboards, respecting data confidentiality and personal data protection, especially for information from metagenomic sequencing. Best practices should also be developed for the integration of clinical data (and other forms of surveillance data) with WES data to strengthen assessment and public health decision-making.
Training and capacity building
The consortium shall build on its members’ capacities and organise specialised training activities for the exchange of best practices among researchers, implementers and policymakers with the aim to support public health impact assessment and decision-making. GLOWACON will advocate for global activities, such as academic master's programmes, doctoral programmes, train the trainee approach, integration and collaboration with existing training programmes.
Research and innovation
The consortium will identify gaps and priorities for research and development (R&D) across all aspects of WES and will develop and continuously update an innovation roadmap. The consortium will build connections with research organisations, innovators, industry and implementers to develop, validate and implement new tools and methods for WES. The consortium will gather information on existing funding instruments as well as map the ongoing research and innovation projects.