Subjects

• Epidemiology
• Research data
• Virology

On behalf of the Scientific Advisory Council of the influenza data-sharing initiative GISAID (www.gisaid.org), I suggest that the principles of this long-standing and successful programme could be extended to help speed on-the-ground responses to other emergent viral threats.

GISAID operates under a unique Database Access Agreement that governs sharing of data in its EpiFlu database without infringing intellectual-property rights (see S. Elbe and G. Buckland-MerrettGlobal Challenges1, 33–46; 2017). This enforceable agreement and the code of conduct between providers and users of data are trusted by the community, in the spirit of the World Health Organization's (WHO's) long-established Global Influenza Surveillance and Response System and its Pandemic Influenza Preparedness Framework, which was adopted in 2011.

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