CA25124 - Multidisciplinary Adaptations of Gamlss NETwork (MAGNET)

Epidemiological and statistical models shape action in Public and One Health across humans, animals and environments. MAGNET targets three synergistic domains, Public & One Health (POH), Infectious Disease Modelling (IDM), and Predictive Risk Modelling (PRM), and aligns with EU One Health and health-security priorities. The Action maps EU and international efforts to ensure complementarity rather than duplication.

Generalized Additive Models for Location, Scale and Shape (GAMLSS) move beyond commonly-used mean-only models by estimating the full distribution (not just the mean) and handling heterogeneity, skewness, kurtosis, non-linearity and variance-mean relationships. GAMLSS already underpins modern centile and growth monitoring, yet uptake stalls when methods feel like a black box.

As a COST Action, MAGNET builds a practical European network of methodologists, clinicians, agencies and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Using COST instruments, workshops, training schools and short exchanges, the Action will run monthly cross-group sessions that deliver open releases, guides and pilots, including a no-code path (designed for time-to-first-result ≤15 minutes).

The impact pathway is concrete, from pilots to agency-agreed thresholds and then tested workflows in host contexts, aligned with EU surveillance and One Health agendas. Adoption and policy-citation metrics will be published on the project hub. By Month 24 at least four reusable workflows will be released and by Month 48 at least two partners will run a workflow in routine practice. All assets, code, benchmarks, applications and curricula, remain open and supported through Society stewardship and open infrastructure beyond the Action for at least three years, securing continuity and broad uptake.