How do we find tomorrow’s outbreaks in today’s noise?
Early signals of epidemic risk are often present long before disease becomes visible, but they are fragmented, ambiguous, and easy to overlook.
Led by Dr Charlotte Hammer, ihe IDEA Lab investigates how epidemic and pandemic threats emerge and can be anticipated in complex and changing systems. We focus on identifying and interpreting early signals of risk across human, animal, and environmental domains, with the aim of recognising and acting on emerging threats before they escalate into large‑scale outbreaks.
Our work examines how these signals arise and interact in socio‑ecological systems shaped by climate change, biodiversity loss, political instability, and other converging stressors. We combine applied infectious disease epidemiology with systems thinking and interdisciplinary approaches to strengthen preparedness and response, particularly in fragile and resource‑limited settings.
We also develop new methodological approaches at the intersection of Complex Systems Epidemiology and futures‑oriented thinking, integrating diverse data and participatory methods to better understand risk, causality, and uncertainty in complex systems.