Smart Holistic Integrated Early-warning Laboratory and Digital system for arbovirus surveillance.
Emerging mosquito-borne arboviruses such as West Nile, Usutu, Dengue, Chikungunya and Zika are increasingly threatening Europe’s public and animal health. Current surveillance remains fragmented and reactive, relying on slow, centralised diagnostics and disconnected data streams.
SHIELD addresses this gap by developing a dual-use, modular platform combining field-deployable molecular diagnostics and digital surveillance powered by Artificial Intelligence. The project will deliver a validated, interoperable system integrating:
1. a multiplex RT-RAA assay for rapid molecular detection of five arboviruses (M1);
2. a lab-on-chip (LoC) cartridge enabling automated, portable diagnostics under field conditions (M2);
3. an AI-driven entomological workflow for mosquito species recognition and infection screening (M3);
4. a data and AI surveillance module providing real-time risk prediction and interoperability with ECDC and HERA systems (M4).
Validated across five Member States under a One Health framework, SHIELD will raise diagnostic TRL from 4 to 7 within 36 months, cut detection time below 45 minutes, and enable early warning through seamless data integration.
By linking laboratory innovation and digital intelligence, SHIELD transforms fragmented monitoring into a proactive, interoperable European preparedness infrastructure. SHIELD introduces a flexible, modular and interoperable dual-use platform combining molecular diagnostics and digital surveillance for mosquito-borne arboviruses. Two automated workflows — one for human/animal samples and one for entomological surveillance — will feed real-time diagnostic and ecological data into an AI-driven Decision Support System.
The system is designed for adaptability: each module (diagnostics, device, vector workflow, data intelligence) delivers stand-alone value and can operate independently to ensure robustness against technological or logistic risks.