Pandemic Virus Trace Application for the Effective Knowledge Transfer Between Science and Society Inside the Quadruple Helix Collaboration

Project Information

PandeVITA

Grant agreement ID: 101006316

DOI

10.3030/101006316

Project closed

EC signature date 1 December 2020

Start date 1 January 2021

End date 31 August 2023

Funded under

• SCIENCE WITH AND FOR SOCIETY

Total cost

€ 1 098 720,00

EU contribution

€ 1 098 720,00

Coordinated by

BILKENT UNIVERSITESI VAKIF
Türkiye

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - PandeVITA (Pandemic Virus Trace Application for the Effective Knowledge Transfer Between Science and Society Inside the Quadruple Helix Collaboration)

Reporting period: 2022-04-01 to 2023-08-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

When the PandeVITA proposal was submitted in April 2020, the pandemic started just less than two months ago, where the World Health Organisation (WHO) officially changed its classification of the coronavirus disease COVID-19 from a public health emergency of international concern to a pandemic. At that time, among other measures nearly in all countries of Europe including Turkey, public life was almost shut down. The COVID-19 crisis was of course not the first pandemic crisis that the world faced. The last influenza pandemic, H1N1/09 Flu Pandemic (so-called “Swine Flu”), happened in 2009/2010. Social media already started dominating media-based communication, but at that time the penetration of society with smartphones was just the beginning. According to zenithmedia.com , 66% of the people in 52 key countries owned a smartphone in 2018. It means that online communication went increasingly mobile and consequently, the information needs of society increased accordingly. This causes pressure on all systems of the quadruple helix (science, economy, politics and media and culture-based public). Because of the political and social pressure to get fast information, as well as under the pressure of competition among scientific journals, scientists publish very fast, sometimes too fast without accurate and high-quality peer review processes . In other words, the COVID-19 crisis is the first pandemic where the smartphone plays a central role in the communication processes of society. Accordingly, we are confronted with an immense amount of data and information every day and one of the main challenges is to filter out the junk and fake news and focus on relevant information.

According to the identified research gaps, PandeVITA aimed
++ to enable citizens to gather data for scientific experts needed for accurate and efficient research to combat pandemics,
++ to supply citizens with specific, accurate and effective recommendations and advice,
++ to generate social awareness and responsible behaviour among citizens in the context of user-generated content production,
++ to enable knowledge transfer inside of the quadruple helix on the European level,
++ to enable a traceback of pandemic relevant information about mobility impact and communication patterns for present and future measures and sustainable developments,
++ to guarantee responsible usage and handling of personal data according to European ethical standards.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

WP1: During the reporting period, the coordinator verified the completeness and correctness of deliverables before passing them on to the Commission. He also submitted the deliverables and reports to the Commission on the SYGMA platform, checked the quality of the documents, especially according to Financial Statements (verifying consistency with the action tasks, verifying their completeness and correctness) and launched amendments to the grant agreements

WP2: 4 different tasks – and accordingly 4 diverse deliverables – are foreseen in the scope of this work package Task 2.1 (Case studies about public health systems in Germany, Turkey, Spain and Finland) and Task 2.2. (Comparative study about legal and ethical frameworks in different countries) has already been completed while the tasks 2.3 and 2.4 has been proceeding.

WP3. Task 3-1 During the first wave of the COVID-19 crisis a plenty of smartphone applications and platforms were developed with different designs, information requests and recommendation strategies. The objective of Task 3-2 was to analyze (at least) three case studies of co-operation between science and society in health sector in order to investigate the efficiency of collaboration and detect the limitations and hindrances that occurred. The objective of Task 3-4 was to examine the macroeconomic factors that are important in the process of analyzing the impact of sanction on financial and economic processes during the COVID-19 pandemic crisis. The main purpose here was to determine the most accurate analysis and evaluation process regarding the financial and economic effects of COVID-19.

WP4: In Task 4-1 the platform definition and the extraction of the technical requirements of the PandeVITA application and dashboard were proceeded. Regarding the PandeVITA application and dashboard, a development plan was established following the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) methodology. Within task 4-2 the mock-up design, services integration and PandeVITA app development were proceeded. Task 4-3 in M3 and will last until the end of the project. For the execution of this task, the task leader has scheduled on demand internal UPM meetings and monthly meetings with WP2, WP3 and WP4 partners which allow to monitor the progress in the development of the PandeVITA platform and PandeVITA dashboard.

WP5. Task 5-1 specified all data to be collected throughout the project regards privacy, trust, improvements, storage and other areas relevant for the Data Management Plan and for our communication, dissemination and exploitation. We aimed to establish a tentative list of all the questions on exploitation relevant for WP6. Task 5-2 comprised all the preparatory activities required to conduct piloting in each pilot site (Spain, Netherlands, Germany, Turkey and Finland). This comprises the development of a protocol for the implementation of the platform in each pilot site.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

During the state-of-the-art analysis in task 2-1 and task 3-1, it could be understood that all kinds of platforms and contact tracing applications do not consider user needs in a sufficient way. With help of the Mobile Application Rating Scale (MARS) approach for assessment, COVID-19 tracking apps (CTAs) of different countries were analysed with the help of a qualitative content analysis according to their reward mechanisms. The analysis included correlation of different rewards to voluntary participation. The MARS approach consists of engagement, functionality aesthetics and information quality. The protection of voluntariness is understood as the fundamental need for the ethical use of CTAs. Accordingly, patterns of voluntariness are examined in the context of legal, ethical privacy and security policies of selected CTAs. It could be understood that one common lack of CTAs and platforms are motivational strategies in terms of gamification and tools for individual knowledge exchange. The innovative approach of our project is that PandeVITA started the platform and app development which is problem-oriented design-thinking in all systems of the quadruple helix. Every case study like the comparative study about legal and ethical frameworks in different countries (T2-2), studies of co-operations between science and society in health sector (T3-2) as well as additionally executed discrete choice and traditional experiments (WP5) resulted in different user stories from all stakeholders of the quadruple helix which are considered in the platform and app design. It is expected that the consideration of individual user needs in the platform and app design will increase voluntary collaboration processes and knowledge exchange and will promote sustainable innovation processes to combat pandemic crises. This will be evaluated with help of focus group events in the second half of the project within WP3 and WP5.

Work of WP4 proceeded in the first reporting period

Work of WP3 proceeded in the first reporting period

Work of WP1 proceeded in the first reporting period

Work of WP6 proceeded in the first reporting period

Work of WP5 proceeded in the first reporting period

Work of WP2 proceeded in the first reporting period