Preparing for the Next Crisis: Science, Decision-Making, Health Practice and Civil Society Come Together in Barcelona

Six years after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Research and Translation Platform for Prevention, Preparedness, Response, Recovery and Resilience of Health Systems to Global Health Emergencies (P3R3), led by the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal) and supported by the "la Caixa" Foundation, held its second annual meeting under the title "Preparing Together for Tomorrow's Crises". The event brought together public health experts, policymakers, researchers, health professionals and civil society representatives to reflect on how to better anticipate future emergencies by working together.

Gathered at the auditorium of the Barcelona Biomedical Research Park (PRBB), Pedro Gullón Tosio, Director General for Public Health and Health Equity of the Spanish Ministry of Health, set the tone from the outset: "we are not just talking about participation, we are talking about democracy". Rafael Vilasanjuan, Director of Translation and Societal Impact at ISGlobal, reminded attendees that preparedness does not begin when the crisis hits, but when it still seems far away. Esteve Fernández, Secretary of Public Health of the Generalitat de Catalunya, highlighted the importance of implementation science in turning evidence into real decisions.

From COVID-19 Lessons to Institutional Action

The first session reviewed the platform's progress one year after its launch. Denise Naniche, former Scientific Director and Research Professor at ISGlobal, recalled the words of WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus: "having an advanced medical system is not the same as having a strong public health system". Elizabeth Diago Navarro, coordinator of ISGlobal's Preparedness and Response Hub, reviewed the participatory process that has led to the identification of two strategic priorities: community preparedness and the translation of scientific evidence into public policy.

Josep Lobera, Director of the National Scientific Advisory Office (ONAC), underscored the need for neutral intermediaries to filter information during times of crisis: "you receive a thousand pieces of information and it is like receiving none; you need a scientific translator". Josep Maria Jansà, former Director of Public Health Surveillance and Promotion in Barcelona, added that "trust in institutions must be earned in times of non-crisis". The open debate with the audience addressed how to rebuild public trust in a more polarised context than in 2020, and the need to bring the media into the preparedness equation.

The Role of Intersectoral Platforms

The second session brought together national and international experiences on intersectoral collaboration. Carthage Smith, from the OECD Global Science Forum, captured the general consensus: "we need to be honest about what we know, what we don't know, and what we are doing about what we don't know". Tamara Giles-Vernick, coordinator of the Sonar-Cities project at the Institut Pasteur, stressed the importance of integrating community participation into existing structures, rather than creating new isolated platforms. 

From the national perspective, Berta Suárez, Head of the Division of Coordination of Health Alerts and Emergencies at the Spanish Ministry of Health, highlighted the need to move towards more coordinated multilevel governance. Quentin Gaday, Scientific Project Manager at ANRS and BE READY partnership coordinating team member, presented the partnership as a model of European transnational coordination, with a clear message: "betting on solidarity is not a cost, but an investment to avoid the high price of inaction". Speakers agreed that preparedness depends not only on new formal structures, but on institutional culture, clear risk communication and pre-existing trust between actors.

Building a Culture of Preparedness

The afternoon workshops deepened work on P3R3's two strategic priorities: community preparedness and evidence translation. Both converged on the same conclusion: trust channels with citizens and scientific advisory mechanisms must be built before the crisis arrives, not during it.

At the closing of the event, Gonzalo Fanjul, Director of Policy and Development at ISGlobal, highlighted that the value of the P3R3 platform lies in bringing together actors who do not normally engage with one another to build joint responses in a context of "polycrisis", stressing that preparedness requires cross-sectoral collaboration and social trust in the face of disinformation. Antoni Plasència Taradach, Director General for Health Research and Innovation at the Generalitat de Catalunya, reaffirmed the institutional commitment to the P3R3 platform and underlined that bringing knowledge closer to public decision-making is, at its core, a way of countering polarisation.