As the final weeks of the PREPARED project are fast approaching, we are sharing with you a glimpse of the most important moments of the final PREPARED Conference ‘Promoting Equitable Science During Crisis’, which took place on 3 June 2025, at the UNESCO Headquarters in Paris. This was the second time the PREPARED Consortium was hosted by our UNESCO partners, following the 2nd PREPARED Conference two years earlier.
In the words of the moderator of the event, science writer and journalist Vivienne Parry OBE, the event was “a celebration” of the consortium’s achievements over the last three years, and “a handover” of the project’s highly anticipated deliverables to the global research community and the general public. The event was also an opportunity for all partners to gather in-person one last time and discuss any outstanding matters ahead of the completion of the project at the end of August 2025.
The promotion of equitable science has been a long-term objective of many members of the PREPARED project team. It was, therefore, not surprising that this objective lay at the heart of the project and dominated all aspects of the project’s final public event.
First, the Freedom from Harassment for Scientists Report was launched by Prof. Peter Singer, who himself shared with the audience his own negative experience of harassment as a globally renowned academic. This was followed by the launch of the project’s flagship deliverable, the PREPARED Global Code of Conduct for Research During Pandemics (available in 13 languages!), and the accompanying book on Research Ethics and Integrity During Pandemics: Developing the PREPARED Code (K. Chatfield and M. Singh (eds), Springer 2025).
The event also launched the second PREPARED Ethics Policy Brief on ‘Achieving Equitable Research Partnerships by Facilitating Visas for Short-Term Researcher Mobility’, and a public consultation on the upcoming TRUST Code Supplement – A Global Code of Conduct for Research in Fragile Settings. A keynote speech on the promotion of equitable science during crisis was delivered by PREPARED Advisor Dr Michael Makanga, Executive Director of the Global Health EDCTP3 Joint Undertaking, who synthesised and presented the perspectives of funders, industry and practitioners on impacting global health research.
Instead of a conventional narrative report of the event, we have captured all of the above in a selection of short quotes by all speakers, accompanied by a selection of photographs. The publication is available here.
For direct access to all of the project’s resources, including reports, academic publications and deliverables from 2022 to 2025, visit the project website at: https://prepared-project.eu
Written by: Nadia Kornioti UCLan Cyprus