EU-funded project will help countries build early-warning systems to spot infectious disease threats before clinical cases surge

SINGAPORE, June 9, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Duke-NUS Medical School has secured a €2 million EU grant to help countries across Asia strengthen their ability to detect infectious disease threats early, using wastewater and environmental surveillance as a population-level early warning system.

The three-year project, ADWANCE-Asia or Advancing Wastewater & Environmental Surveillance for Public Health Impact in Asia, will be led by the Duke-NUS Centre for Outbreak Preparedness and will support countries in the region, particularly low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), in building sustainable wastewater and environmental surveillance (WES) systems that can pick up emerging threats before they are seen through conventional clinical reporting.

The project received funding under the European Union's EU4Health programme call 'Asia Pathogen Genomics Initiative (Asia PGI) to support wastewater surveillance for health threats' early detection, managed by the European Health and Digital Executive Agency (HaDEA) on behalf of Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Authority (DG HERA).

Turning wastewater into an early warning system for outbreaks

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, wastewater surveillance has emerged as a promising and cost-effective approach to monitoring disease at the community level. Combined with advances in multi-pathogen genomic sequencing, including targeted next-generation sequencing (tNGS), WES can provide a timely snapshot of infectious threats circulating in a population. This is particularly valuable in resource-constrained settings, where clinical surveillance may be limited by under-testing, access gaps, or delayed reporting.

By strengthening wastewater surveillance as a regional early warning system, ADWANCE-Asia will enable public health authorities across the continent to detect emerging threats sooner and respond faster, therefore improving global pandemic preparedness.

The kickoff meeting of the project officially took place on 8-9 June 2026 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, bringing together the European Commission, HADEA, the coordinators and regional partners to align on implementation priorities and plan the rollout of the project.

The ADWANCE-Asia project will focus on four areas:

Network collaboration: Strengthening the Asia Pathogen Genomics Initiative (Asia PGI) WES network to support regional coordination and cross-border information sharing.

Capacity building: Working through the Asia PGI Academy and with regional and global partners, the project will deliver structured training in standardised laboratory, genomics and bioinformatics workflows, while keeping partners abreast of the latest scientific advances in wastewater and environmental surveillance.

Capability development: Supporting LMICs to pilot and scale genomics-based surveillance across multiple infectious diseases within their national WES programmes, starting with vaccine-preventable diseases.

Strategic evidence and integration: Generating evidence and practical tools frameworks for national WES integration, including strategic planning frameworks, legal and ethical guidance, and mapping and integration of existing WES dashboards across Asia to strengthen evidence-driven public health decision-making.

Duke-NUS Centre for Outbreak Preparedness Assistant Professor Vincent Pang Junxiong, project lead for ADWANCE-Asia, said:

"This is about helping countries get ahead of outbreaks before they reach vulnerable populations. By detecting multiple pathogens from a single wastewater sample, this approach can give public health an earlier signal of what may be circulating in the community, potentially even before a surge in cases is reported, so that they can act faster and more effectively."

Opening the kick-off meeting, Laurent Muschel, Deputy Head of DG HERA, said:

"Strengthening early-warning systems through innovative approaches like wastewater surveillance is essential to improving preparedness across regions and response. Initiatives such as ADWANCE-Asia demonstrate the value of cross-border collaboration and scientific innovation in protecting public health and enhancing pandemic readiness. DG HERA has invested significantly to advance wastewater-based epidemiological surveillance (WES) on every continent. Through GLOWACON, we have helped build trust in this innovative approach and laid the foundations for its use as a truly global early-warning tool."

EU acknowledgement

Co-funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or European Health and Digital Executive Agency (HaDEA). Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.

Learn more about ADWANCE-Asia at Advancing Wastewater & Environmental Surveillance for Public Health Impact in Asia (ADWANCE-Asia)

About Duke-NUS Medical School 

Duke-NUS is Singapore's flagship graduate entry medical school, established in 2005 with a strategic, government-led partnership between two world-class institutions: Duke University and the National University of Singapore (NUS). Through an innovative curriculum, students at Duke-NUS are nurtured to become multi-faceted 'Clinicians Plus' poised to steer the healthcare and biomedical ecosystem in Singapore and beyond. A leader in ground-breaking research and translational innovation, Duke-NUS has gained international renown through its five Signature Research Programmes and ten Centres. The enduring impact of its discoveries is amplified by its successful Academic Medicine partnership with Singapore Health Services (SingHealth), Singapore's largest healthcare group. This strategic alliance has led to the creation of 15 Academic Clinical Programmes, which harness multi-disciplinary research and education to transform medicine and improve lives. 

For more information, please visit www.duke-nus.edu.sg 

About Duke-NUS Centre for Outbreak Preparedness

The Duke-NUS Centre for Outbreak Preparedness (COP) is dedicated to strengthening health systems and scientific capacities to prevent, detect, and respond to infectious disease outbreaks in Asia and globally.

For more information, please visit www.duke-nus.edu.sg/cop

About the Asia Pathogen Genomics Initiative (Asia PGI)

The Asia Pathogen Genomics Initiative is an initiative of the Duke-NUS Centre for Outbreak Preparedness, dedicated to strengthening genomic surveillance and outbreak preparedness capacity across Asia. Asia PGI works with a network of regional partners to build the scientific, technical, and institutional capabilities needed to detect and respond to infectious disease threats.

The project brings together a broad network of regional and international partners spanning academia, public health agencies, and international organisations. Singapore-based partners currently include the Bioinformatics Institute at A*STAR, the Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health at the National University of Singapore, the Singapore Programme for Research in Epidemic Preparedness and Response (PREPARE), and the National Environment Agency (NEA).

Regional partners currently include institutions from Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Pakistan, Japan, Hong Kong SAR China, and Australia, alongside the World Health Organization, EU-WISH, GLOWACON, and the Wastewater Surveillance for Pandemic Prevention (WaSPP) Network led by Imperial College London.