Start of the Pandemic Preparedness Program through Ventilation - Knowledge Gaps and application of the results

Ventilation and air cleaning of interior spaces are promising methods for the reduction of airborne pathogen spread and may reduce the number of (airborne) infections. With this in mind, and in response to the 2020-2022 COVID-19 pandemic, the Dutch Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport (VWS), in collaboration with TNO have initiated this research program focusing on ventilation (P3VENTI) as part of the larger Pandemic Preparedness Program of VWS (300 million Euros, annually). In the P3VENTI program the importance of aerogenic transmission in total viral transmissibility will be researched, and how ventilation and air cleaning can mitigate this airborne transmission in the long-term healthcare sector and the social sector more broadly. In support of this, research on dose-response relationships, indoor environmental conditions and the cost/benefits across a variety of use cases in these sectors will be performed across 6 program lines. The results will inform ventilation strategies to better combat the spread of SARS-CoV-2; they will also be extrapolated to apply to possible future pandemics. Finally, a 7th program line will collect these results into a knowledge base and network, where information, knowledge and ideas can be generated, collected exchanged, and disseminated, both nationally and internationally.