The “Bern, get ready” (BEready) project was born out of a simple but urgent question raised by COVID-19: how can we be better prepared next time? BEready is building a longitudinal pandemic-preparedness cohort in the Canton of Bern that can be activated at short notice when a new infectious threat appears. By following households over time, including adults, children and even pets, the project captures how people interact, how infections spread, and how risks emerge across everyday life. Collecting this information before a crisis strikes means public-health authorities won’t have to start from scratch when fast decisions matter most.
To test whether this vision could work in practice, the team launched a pilot study in 2023. Households across the canton were invited to take part using mostly digital tools, with participants completing online questionnaires and providing biological samples through low-threshold, partly self-collection methods. More than 100 households joined, and participation remained high over a full year of follow-up. These results show that people are willing to stay engaged over time, and that modern, remote study methods can deliver reliable data even under conditions similar to those expected during a pandemic.
The pilot study described in this paper confirms that BEready is both practical and forward-looking, while also revealing where improvements are needed for the main cohort study. Recruitment remains challenging, and some groups are harder to reach than others, providing important lessons for scaling up the cohort. By addressing these gaps now, BEready is laying the groundwork for a faster, smarter response to future outbreaks. When the next epidemic or pandemic emerges, Bern won’t just react, it will be ready.
