SCIENSANO

Their core work

Sciensano is Belgium's national public health institute, combining human health, animal health, and food safety research under a single "One Health" mandate. They develop and validate vaccines, diagnostic tools (including next-generation sequencing for oncology), and certified reference materials for biological toxin detection. They operate as a key node in European health data infrastructures, coordinating population health information systems and contributing metrology expertise in food and nutrition. Their work bridges laboratory science with public health policy — from human biomonitoring of chemical exposures to cervical cancer screening models.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

In the early period (2015–2018), Sciensano focused on classical public health laboratory work: vaccine quality control (VAC2VAC), human biomonitoring of chemical exposures (HBM4EU), biological toxin standardisation (EuroBioTox), and One Health zoonoses. From 2020 onward, their portfolio shifted sharply toward health data infrastructures and genomics-driven diagnostics — coordinating PHIRI for population health data during COVID-19, launching oncNGS as their flagship in NGS-based cancer diagnostics, and joining digital health initiatives like HealthyCloud. The evolution shows a clear move from wet-lab reference work toward data-intensive, digitally-enabled public health research.

Sciensano is increasingly positioning itself as a health data infrastructure hub with growing capacity in genomics and digital diagnostics, making them a strong partner for future projects combining clinical data with molecular analysis.

How they like to work

Sciensano operates predominantly as an active partner (20 of 25 projects), contributing specialist expertise to large European consortia rather than leading them. When they do coordinate, they take on infrastructure-scale projects — oncNGS (EUR 8.4M) and PHIRI (EUR 1.3M) are both platform-building efforts. With 596 unique partners across 53 countries, they are a well-connected network hub, comfortable working in large multi-country consortia typical of European Joint Programmes and research infrastructure projects.

Sciensano has collaborated with 596 unique partners across 53 countries, making them one of the most broadly connected health research institutions in H2020. Their network spans all of Europe with significant global reach through pandemic-response and One Health programmes.

What sets them apart

Sciensano's distinctive strength is their integration of regulatory-grade laboratory work (certified reference materials, vaccine quality testing, diagnostic validation) with large-scale health data infrastructure coordination. Few organizations in Europe combine wet-lab metrology expertise with the ability to build and run population-level data platforms. For consortium builders, they offer a rare package: a national public health institute that can both generate validated laboratory data and connect it to European health information networks.

Highlights from their portfolio

• oncNGS
  Their largest project (EUR 8.4M) and a coordination role — building European-wide NGS diagnostics standards for oncology, signalling a major strategic commitment to genomic medicine.
• PHIRI
  Coordinated the EU's population health information infrastructure during COVID-19, establishing Sciensano as a go-to partner for cross-border health data harmonization.
• One Health EJP
  EUR 1.85M contribution to the flagship European Joint Programme bridging human health, animal health, and food safety — embodying Sciensano's core One Health mission.