PHA4GE & IPSN Unite for 2025 Global Forum Impact

More than 270 scientists, policy-makers, funders and public health experts from around the world attended the third International Pathogen Surveillance Network (IPSN) Global Partners Forum in Cape Town, South Africa from 27 to 29 October 2025. The forum was held jointly with the second Public Health Alliance for Genomic Epidemiology (PHA4GE) biennial conference and was co-hosted by the WHO Hub for Pandemic and Epidemic Intelligence and WHO's Regional Office for Africa.

Under the theme "Data for Action: Overcoming Challenges and Seizing Opportunities in Public Health Genomics", attendees discussed how to operationalize genomics within surveillance systems, strengthen digital infrastructure, and shape a global data architecture rooted in collaborative surveillance and equity. The gathering underscored how pathogen genomic surveillance can strengthen global health preparedness and make the world safer for all.

Global Genomic Surveillance Strategy

The forum was also a key moment to advance WHO's Global Genomic Surveillance Strategy for Pathogens with Pandemic and Epidemic Potential (2022–2032), a ten-year strategy to enhance genomic surveillance capacities globally. Participants reviewed the proposed three-year roadmap, developed during a hybrid workshop in June 2025 at the WHO Hub for Pandemic and Epidemic Intelligence, which brought together 14 organizations from 11 countries.

During the forum, partners agreed on the roadmap and ensured alignment with global priorities and regional capacities. They underscored three pillars for collective action: institutionalization of genomic surveillance through tools, policies, networks and frameworks, investment alignment and evidence-based advocacy and the need for coordinated data ecosystems aligned with national and regional priorities.

IPSN Catalytic Grant Fund

The IPSN Catalytic Grant Fund, administered by the United Nations Foundation, was launched in 2024 to support IPSN members in low- and middle-income settings, with the support of the Rockefeller Foundation, the Gates Foundation, Wellcome Trust, and the Institute of Philanthropy.

The fund supports IPSN members to pilot innovative ideas and create an evidence base for the rapid scale-up of pathogen genomic surveillance. A new round of funding is planned for early 2026 .

Three projects from the first round were showcased during the event:

• Lao PDR: Environmental genomic surveillance of avian influenza in live-bird markets;
• Brazil: RT-MetA, an offline-capable, open-source framework for decentralized, real-time, untargeted pathogen genomic surveillance; and
• Democratic Republic of the Congo: Genomic surveillance of drug-resistant pathogens by extending the Mini-Lab with a Nanopore MinION sequencer.

With strong low- and middle-income country (LMIC) representation, the event emphasized inclusive approaches and cross-sector collaboration to build resilient, data-driven public health systems. Outcomes from the forum will shape future strategies to turn genomic data into actionable insights for global health impact.

PHA4GE sub-grants (2021-2025)

The Public Health Alliance for Genomic Epidemiology (PHA4GE) is a global consortium established in 2019, to ensure a rapid global genomic-driven public health response to disease outbreaks. During the event, Consortium members presented their sub-grants, which are funded by the Gates Foundation to promote sustainable development and support public health in:

• bioinformatics;
• ethics and data sharing; and
• wastewater environmental surveillance.

Since 2019, PHA4GE has built several genomic surveillance standards for anti-microbial resistance (AMR), SARS-CoV-2 and wastewater. Usability testing, interoperability and completeness of these standards for local and global public health applicability was necessitated through issuance of 29 sub-grants to public health labs and researchers. Eight sub-grants were also awarded to promote ethical data sharing of genomic data. Collectively, 24 LMICs were represented by the sub-grants.

PHA4GE continues to support training, standards' development, and promoting best practices for genomic epidemiology.