NIH: UWARN Closure Slows Pandemic Preparedness Research

When NIH terminated the Centers for Research in Emerging Infectious Diseases (CREID) network in June 2025, it ended support for the United World Antiviral Research Network (UWARN), led by the University of Washington, halting a multinational effort to advance countermeasures against emerging viral threats. UWARN connected key collaborating laboratories across Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and South America to advance studies to better understand how-high burden viral pathogens interact with the human immune system and how disease progresses, with the goal of advancing improve diagnostics and informing therapeutic development. The network focused on emerging and re-emerging viruses such as Rift Valley fever, Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever, Zika, dengue, chikungunya, and Ooropouche. The loss of funding ended a program designed to generate knowledge and support development of countermeasures against viruses with high pandemic potential.

The CREID network was established by NIH in 2020 to build outbreak-ready surveillance and research capacity in regions where emerging epidemics are most likely to occur. Through nine research centers, a coordinating center, and more than 100 sites worldwide, CREID linked multidisciplinary teams to study disease transmission dynamics, strengthen local preparedness, and develop improved tools and early warning systems. Its capabilities supported responses to COVID-19 and to outbreaks of Lassa fever, mpox, and other high-consequence pathogens. By operating as a coordinated network, CREID enabled faster sharing of data, specimens, methods, and technical expertise—capabilities that individual projects often cannot sustain. When the centers were terminated in June 2025, the loss was not just individual centers, but a coordinated early-warning and response architecture that supported partners abroad and US preparedness at home.

UWARN was led by the University of Washington (Seattle, WA), with US partners including the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center (Seattle, WA), Rockefeller University (New York, NY), the University of Minnesota (Minneapolis, MN), and Washington State Department of Health (Seattle, WA), and collaborators in Pakistan, Taiwan, Brazil, Switzerland, South Africa, and Senegal.