Mission and strategy
ANRS (MIE) Emerging infectious diseases operates at the heart of research and public health to prevent, understand, and treat infectious diseases, and to respond to epidemic threats.
Last updated on 30 September 2025
Main points
ANRS (MIE) Emerging infectious diseases operates at the heart of research and public health to prevent, understand, and treat infectious diseases, and to respond to epidemic threats. Its action is structured around:
- An ambitious scientific strategy,
- A rapid mobilisation in response to epidemic crises,
- A close international cooperation to strengthen global health.
Supporting research to prevent, understand and treat infectious diseases
The mission of ANRS MIE is to promote, coordinate, and fund a comprehensive research agenda aimed at the elimination of HIV/AIDS, sexually transmitted infections, viral hepatitis, and tuberculosis, as well as at the prevention, detection, and control of emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases.
The agency’s scope of action covers the entire research continuum: basic and translational research, clinical research, public health, and social and human sciences.
> Scientific research priorities
In line with the French strategy for global health 2023–2027, ANRS MIE has defined its research priorities to guide all its activities in coordination, funding, and structuring of research.
HIV/AIDS, STIs, hepatitis, and tuberculosis
The agency focuses its efforts on prevention, patient care, and the development of new therapeutic strategies. Priorities include: preventing mother-to-child transmission of HIV, viral hepatitis, tuberculosis, and STIs; screening and prevention—both biomedical and non-biomedical—of HIV and STIs; research on curative strategies for HIV, HBV, and HCV infections; development of new therapeutic approaches for tuberculosis, including in chemistry and immunotherapy; and implementation and scaling-up of interventions.
Emerging infectious diseases
ANRS MIE supports research on emerging infectious diseases, with a focus on priority pathogens likely to trigger health crises: respiratory viruses, arboviruses, and haemorrhagic fevers.
The agency has defined three strategic intervention axes for emerging infectious diseases:
- Accelerate the acquisition of fundamental knowledge on emerging infectious diseases;
- Develop and organise research and development, including diagnostics, vaccines, and treatments;
- Prepare authorities and the public to respond effectively to epidemic crises.
First-line engagement in crisis preparedness and response
ANRS MIE’s research support covers: long-term preparedness for future epidemics and pandemics, both nationally and internationally, and the rapid implementation of research programmes in the event of a crisis.
> Epidemic crisis preparedness
This preparedness involves acquiring fundamental knowledge on emerging infectious diseases, promoting innovation in diagnostics, vaccines, and treatments for these diseases, and better preparing public policies and society to face epidemic crises.
The agency is notably involved in two strategic programmes for pandemic preparedness:
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In France, it participates in the National Strategy for Accelerating Emerging Infectious Diseases and CBRN Threats, supported by France 2030, through the operational management of the PEPR Emerging Infectious Diseases (PEPR MIE);
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At the European level, it coordinates the European partnership BE READY (CSA-BE READY), which aims to bring together more than 20 European partners to develop a research agenda for preparedness against emerging crises.
Emerging Infectious Diseases PEPR
A €70 million program funded by France 2030 and led by ANRS MIE for the prevention and control of emerging infectious diseases.
>Response to epidemic crisis
While ANRS Emerging infectious diseases plays a central support role in preparing responses to future infectious threats, it also makes a decisive contribution to responding to epidemic crises.
ANRS MIE holds a particularly important position in the French and international scientific landscape in epidemic response: acting as a scientific reference, inter-institutional coordinator, and research accelerator. The agency has established a coordination and monitoring procedure to respond rapidly to health crises through its “Emergence programme”. This multimodal system comprises three progressive levels of response, adapted according to the severity of epidemic outbreaks.
Since its creation, this programme has been activated on several occasions:
- COVID-19 pandemic (SARS-CoV-2);
- Mpox outbreaks (2022, 2024);
- Marburg haemorrhagic fevers (Equatorial Guinea, 2023; Tanzania, 2024);
- West Nile and Usutu viruses (2023, as part of surveillance in Nouvelle-Aquitaine);
- Ebola Sudan haemorrhagic fever (2025);
- Chikungunya (2025).
The One Health approach
The agency is committed to developing a national and international research programme on the prevention, early detection, treatment, and monitoring of emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases, in line with the One Health approach. In doing so, it strengthens France’s ability to respond in times of crisis.
Action at the international level in support of global health
Because infectious diseases know no borders, ANRS MIE has been part of the national effort to combat epidemics in the service of global health since its inception. Major global health challenges require concerted responses from all national and international stakeholders. Since its creation, ANRS MIE has built strong partnerships with a wide range of French and international stakeholders involved in infectious disease research, working together to define and implement coherent strategies for prevention, diagnosis, care, preparedness, and response to health challenges.
> A resolutely European strategy
Europe is essential to the structuring of robust, coordinated and responsive research in the face of health crises. ANRS MIE actively contributes to this by coordinating several measures and participating in major projects at the European level: PROACT EU-Response [FR], BE Ready, the GloPID-R Network, the Global Health EDCTP3.
GloPID-R Network
ANRS Emerging Infectious Diseases is a member of the Global Research Collaboration for Infectious Disease Preparedness (GloPID-R), a network of European and international funders of research in infectious diseases.
Global Health EDCTP3
This clinical trial partnership is a public-public initiative bringing together European and sub-Saharan African countries.
> Collaboration of ANRS MIE with Major Global Health Actors
ANRS MIE is strengthening its collaborations with strategic international organizations, alliances, and networks to align its actions and priorities with key stakeholders in global health. In this context, the agency works closely with WHO, UNITAID, EDCTP, GloPID-R, and Africa CDC.
It collaborates directly with the World Health Organization (WHO) on numerous projects, which led in 2025 to ANRS MIE being designated as a WHO Collaborating Centre for Emerging Infectious Diseases.
ANRS MIE also leads the Collaborative Open Research Consortium (CORC) of WHO on filoviruses (Ebola, Marburg). This cooperation notably enabled the publication, in January 2025, of international recommendations for the management of Marburg virus, developed jointly by ANRS MIE and WHO. This partnership is anchored in the long term through a formal agreement covering collaboration on all major shared scientific priorities.
Collaborative Open Research Consortium (CORC) of WHO on filoviruse> A continuously expanding international network
Since 1988, ANRS, and then ANRS MIE, has built a global network of scientific cooperation based on reciprocity, co-construction and local engagement.
Research partnerships have been established by ANRS in Africa (Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Egypt, Senegal, South Africa), Asia (Cambodia, Vietnam) and Latin America (Brazil).
Since the creation of ANRS MIE in 2021, new partnerships have been formalised: in Guinea (2022), the Democratic Republic of the Congo (2023) and soon in Togo (2025), with the deployment of international research platforms in global health (“PRISME”). The “PRISME” model is an innovative model of scientific collaboration, as close as possible to needs in emerging situations.
ANRS MIE’s international activities are carried out in close collaboration with the Directorate General for Globalisation of the Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs (“MEAE”).
Discover the ANRS MIE international network