Funding
The project Pathogens, Pandemics and the Development of Nordic Societies (NORDEMICS) has been granted 11 mio. DKK from Nordforsk.
Research Project Pathogens, Pandemics and the Development of Nordic Societies
Project Duration: 05/01/2021 - 09/30/2025
While infectious diseases have faded from the Nordic region today, they have not gone away. That threat materialized in December 2019, as the world encountered the SARS-CoV-2 virus. To cope with these emerging threats, a clear understanding of forces that drive the dissemination, impact and control of infectious pandemics is essential.
This project aimes to create NORDEMICS, a Nordic interdisciplinary consortium dedicated to understanding how factors such as urbanization, increased trade and travel, large-scale migration, vaccines and other public health interventions, climate change and ecological degradation influence the dynamics of epidemic and pandemic infections in human populations. The consortium will systematically study historical health data to understand the patterns of spread and health impact of such diseases in the Nordic countries over the last 300 years.
We will take full advantage of the Nordic countries’ unique and zealous tradition of record-keeping, which has produced troves of quantitative health and mortality data stretching far into the past, but which have yet to be comprehensively analyzed. We will apply cutting-edge mathematical modeling techniques to these data, while thoroughly integrating the analytical methods and insights of historians, demographers and economists in a truly interdisciplinary environment.
Combined with insights into the social, environmental, economic and demographic context, our effort will yield a deep quantitative understanding of past pandemics that will allow us to draw a detailed picture of pandemic and epidemic diseases in the pre-modern era. In short, the proposed Consortium will reveal important insights into the major diseases that shaped human society, and broaden the knowledge base that helps us prepare for future pandemics.
This project aimes to create NORDEMICS, a Nordic interdisciplinary consortium dedicated to understanding how factors such as urbanization, increased trade and travel, large-scale migration, vaccines and other public health interventions, climate change and ecological degradation influence the dynamics of epidemic and pandemic infections in human populations. The consortium will systematically study historical health data to understand the patterns of spread and health impact of such diseases in the Nordic countries over the last 300 years.
We will take full advantage of the Nordic countries’ unique and zealous tradition of record-keeping, which has produced troves of quantitative health and mortality data stretching far into the past, but which have yet to be comprehensively analyzed. We will apply cutting-edge mathematical modeling techniques to these data, while thoroughly integrating the analytical methods and insights of historians, demographers and economists in a truly interdisciplinary environment.
Combined with insights into the social, environmental, economic and demographic context, our effort will yield a deep quantitative understanding of past pandemics that will allow us to draw a detailed picture of pandemic and epidemic diseases in the pre-modern era. In short, the proposed Consortium will reveal important insights into the major diseases that shaped human society, and broaden the knowledge base that helps us prepare for future pandemics.
Partners in the Nordic countries
Publications
The 1919–21 influenza pandemic in Greenland
Ingholt, M. M., Simonsen, L., Mamelund, S.-E., Noahsen, P. & van Wijhe, M., 6 Mar 2024, In: International Journal of Circumpolar Health. 83, 1, 12 p., 2325711.Research output: Contribution to journal › Journal article › Research › peer-review
An ordinary malaria? Intermittent fever in Denmark, 1826-1886
Ingholt, M. M., 2023, In: Medical History. 67, 1, p. 57-73 17 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Journal article › Research › peer-review
Een historisch perspectief op vaccinatieprogramma’s. Hoeveel gezondheidswinst hebben we behaald?
van Wijhe, M., 2 Nov 2023.Research output: Contribution to conference › Conference abstract for conference › Communication
Activities
Historisk Epidemiologi: Tværfaglige undersøgelser af fortidens sygdomme. – En samtale om kildebrug i digitale analyser?
Simonsen, L. (Speaker)
1 Feb 2024Activity: Talk or presentation › Lecture and oral contribution
5th Conference of the European Society of Historical Demography
Wijhe, M. V. (Participant)
30 Aug 2023 → 2 Sept 2023Activity: Participating in or organising an event › Organisation and participation in conference
Insights
Meet the NORDEMICS consortium
The NORDEMICS consortium consists of members and partners from Denmark, Norway, Finland, and Sweden.
Finland's first vaccine mandate
A preprint from NORDEMICS researchers shows that Finland’s first vaccine mandate helped to raise vaccination rates, and has implications for COVID-19 vaccine policy.
Signatures of pandemics in transition
Data from previous pandemics was used to integrate demography, social mixing, and immunity into a mathematical model to establish a plausible range for future COVID-19 incidence and mortality.
Base at Roskilde University
The research center is based at Department of Science and Environment
Participating research units: PandemiX Center, Mathematics and Physics (IMFUFA), Molecular and Medical Biology
PhD Programme: Doctoral School of Science and Environment
Relevant degree programmes: Matematical Bioscience // Molecular Health Science // International Bachelor in Natural Sciences
Research at Roskilde University
More Information
Find additional information about Nordemics: Pathogens, Pandemics and the Development of Nordic Societies
The research project at the Roskilde University Research Potal
Contact
Lone Simonsen
Director, head of project, professor
Prone +45 2342 9503
lonesimo@ruc.dk
Johanne Greibe Andersen
Project coordinator
Phone +45 4674 3980
johannea@ruc.dk