摘要:Multidisciplinary and targeted research is essentialto support knowledge and practice before, duringand after infectious disease outbreaks and pandemics.Countries such as the United Kingdom, theUnited States of America and Canada have researchstructures that support emergency responses toinfectious disease outbreaks. Australia’s researchresponse to past outbreaks has been limited, inpart due to delays inherent in grant funding callsmade in reaction to such events. At the same time,it has been recognised that research co-ordinationand translation must be improved in order toaddress the most important policy and practicalneeds associated with a rapidly evolving outbreak.