The House of Innovation at the Stockholm School of Economics will join 32 European partners in the EU Horizon 2020 funded project PERISCOPE. Our role will be to design and lead large-scale activities bringing together actors from across sectors to find innovative solutions to the challenges posed by pandemics and disease outbreaks. 

PERISCOPE (Pan-European Response to the Impacts of COVID-19 and Future Pandemics and Epidemics) is a consortium of partners from academia, experts and professionals from a broad range of disciplines, who will work together to strengthen Europe’s preparedness, map the impact of the current pandemic, develop solutions and guidance for policy makers and health authorities on how to mitigate it, and reflect on the future of multi-level governance in health and other domains that have been affected.

“We are extremely proud of being part of PERISCOPE and are certain that our contribution will help finding solutions to the common challenges posed by current and future pandemics. We hope to have a positive impact and to create a significant societal value”, says Lars Strannegård, President of the Stockholm School of Economics.

From the total amount of funds awarded, House of Innovation will manage SEK 1.5 million to design, lead and facilitate large-scale activities to generate and develop solutions to specific pandemic challenges. This will be done within the cluster Governance, Innovation and Guidance, focusing on innovative policies for resilience and sustainability.

“This is a great opportunity for SSE to help build Europe’s preparedness to face disease outbreaks and pandemics. We are looking forward to producing new knowledge about the conditions that led us to where we are today and creating innovative solutions that will be meaningful now and in the future”, says Roberto Verganti, Professor of Leadership and Innovation at the Stockholm School of Economics.

At House of Innovation, the project will be coordinated by professors Roberto Verganti and Mattia Bianchi, as well as Dr Jelena Angelis. It will be supported by other faculty, communication managers and PhD students.

About the project PERISCOPE

The project runs from November 1, 2020, until October 31, 2023. It brings together economists, engineers, journalists, communication experts, lawyers, political scientists, experts in regulatory governance, mathematicians, policymakers, health authorities, physicians, social psychologists, sociologists, statisticians, experts in ethics and new technologies and representatives of patients’ organizations. The 32 European partners come from Italy, Belgium, Austria, Czechia, France, Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the UK.

About Horizon 2020

Horizon 2020 is the EU’s main research and innovation program, which has nearly EUR 80 billion of funding for the period 2014–2020. It ensures that research and innovation policies in a wide range of areas are implemented, securing Europe’s global competitiveness. It has an emphasis on science, industrial leadership and initiatives that tackle societal challenges.  

Read more on the EU Horizon 2020’s website.