July 2025
The GABRIEL network’s areas of expertise published in BMJ Global Health
BMJ Global Health has published an article highlighting the skills and structure of the GABRIEL international scientific network. A mapping of its expertise has helped to identify new synergies between network members, highlighting the advantages of the model.
This mapping is the result of a study carried out by the Mérieux Foundation between May 2022 and January 2023 involving the 21 laboratory units in the GABRIEL network, spread across 16 countries. The survey, consisting of 90 questions, investigated the main activities, interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary approaches, research themes, collaborations, and positioning and roles at national and international level of each organization surveyed.
A “clustering” method was applied to the data collected to establish groupings of expertise and activities shared by several laboratories. All these results were summarized in the form of a clear visual map, for easy reading and analysis. Five groups or “clusters” were thus identified on the basis of the network’s main activities, and four more based on the infectious diseases studied.
This work highlights new synergies that could be established between network members. It paves the way for new collaborative research projects in the service of global health, transcending geographical boundaries.
This methodology could be applied to other expert networks, or to the interface between multiple networks, to develop more integrated and effective global research or monitoring programs.