MATRIX

MATRIX aims to advance the implementation of One Health Surveillance (OHS) in practice, by building on existing resources, adding value to them and creating synergies among the sectors. In particular, identifying and describing existing cross-sectorial OHS programmes or potential programmes, extending the efforts of existing integrative OHEJP projects which focus on separate or only two sectors.

The previous integrative projects were funded to strengthen collaboration and communication at the end of the surveillance continuum in each sector. MATRIX takes advantage of this linkage by strengthening the practice of surveillance along the whole process of surveillance, from implementation to output, reviewing existing structures, and proposing guidelines for either adaptation of new or improvement of already existing OHS collaborations.

The plan is based on two fundamental premises: 1) the need for a problem-based approach using real-life cases; and 2) the understanding that different countries have different realities, and proposed solutions must therefore consider how implementation can be addressed under different resource settings.

The project will collate and review all available descriptions of national and multi-national frameworks which already function or can function in a One Health approach. This will provide a foundation for the development of best-practice OHS guidelines. Where possible, surveillance on output-based measures will be recommended to strengthen the general guidelines. To make MATRIX context- aware, we will take explicit account of a country’s resources and capacity to carry out surveillance and provide an assessment tool for surveillance capacity. Once strengths and weaknesses are identified, a country can situate themselves in the roadmap for OHS development. A key aim is to share surveillance inputs and outputs across sectors, providing digital integration centres for decision making.

The problem-oriented vision of the project is reflected in the creation of hazard-specific tracks that will apply and evaluate methods with particular reference to the identified hazards, in order for the methods to be useful for as many zoonotic hazards as possible.