September 28, 2026

By Megan Fleming

EPIC has secured renewed five-year funding and with it, a new name, a broadened mandate, and an even closer working relationship with the Institute of Health Emergencies and Pandemics (IHEP).

Launched in January 2022, EPIC was born out of a desire to better integrate research and expertise across the University of Toronto and the city’s major hospital research institutes, allowing a more quick and effective response to infectious disease threats.

The COVID-19 pandemic proved what interdisciplinary teams could achieve when working toward a common goal, and over the past four years, EPIC has built on that momentum, growing a stronger, more dynamic ecosystem of collaboration across our partner institutions.

With this new stage of funding, EPIC’s ecosystem is ready for its next chapter. EPIC is becoming the Emerging Pathogens and Infectious Diseases Consortium, a name that reflects how far our community’s focus has grown, from responding to a single pandemic threat to tackling the full landscape of infection-related challenges affecting people today. Further, we are joining forces with IHEP to strengthen the cross-collaborative relationships, emphasizing an interdisciplinary approach.

Our community has identified seven priority challenges where focused, transdisciplinary work can make the greatest difference:

Each of these areas will now anchor a dedicated research cluster, bringing together clinicians, scientists, engineers, public health experts and trainees to empower a collaborative effort that will achieve transformative outcomes in each area.

With this new phase also comes a change in leadership. After five years at the helm, Scott Gray-Owen is stepping back as academic director, with Rupert Kaul stepping into the role.

“Leading EPIC for the past five years has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my career,” says Gray-Owen, outgoing Academic Director. “Watching this community come together, across disciplines, across institutions, to tackle infectious disease head-on has been extraordinary. I am grateful to have had this opportunity and am proud to be able to hand the reins to Rupert, who I know will be exceptional in leading EPIC in its next chapter.”

Kaul is a professor in the department of immunology at the Temerty Faculty of Medicine and an infectious disease physician at U of T and University Health Network. A clinician-scientist, his research focuses on the mucosal immunology of HIV transmission and susceptibility, with clinical cohorts spanning Canada, Kenya, and Uganda. He is a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada.

“It’s a privilege to step into this role at such a pivotal moment for EPIC,” says Kaul, incoming Academic Director. “Scott has built something remarkable, and I’m looking forward to working with our community to broaden our focus, deepen our partnerships, and meet the infectious disease challenges ahead together.”

Kaul will be joined by co-directors Nelson Lee, professor at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health and director of IHEP, and Nicole Weckman, assistant professor and Paul Cadario Chair in the Centre for Global Engineering at the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering.

As EPIC’s mandate grows, so does our community. EPIC has been proud to bring together the Temerty Faculty of Medicine, the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering, and the Faculty of Arts & Science, and we’re pleased to now welcome three new divisional partners: the Dalla Lana School of Public Health, the Rotman School of Management and the Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy. Their expertise spans public health, management, strategy, policy and pharmaceutical sciences, and strengthens our ability to respond to infectious disease challenges from every angle.

Over the past four years, EPIC and IHEP have built highly engaged, interconnected communities across U of T’s divisions and hospital partners. With renewed funding from U of T’s Institutional Strategic Initiatives, we’re taking that collaboration further as EPIC and IHEP work together to advance a single strategic initiative. In addition to being a key collaborator in EPIC, IHEP will continue to exist as an independent unit within the Dalla Lana School of Public Health, led by Lee.

Since our founding, EPIC’s work has been made possible by the strength of our partnership with Toronto’s hospital research institutes: the Hospital for Sick Children, the Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute at Sinai Health, the Sunnybrook Research Institute, the University Health Network, and Unity Health Toronto. Their expertise, infrastructure, and willingness to collaborate across institutional lines gave our researchers the foundation they needed to respond quickly during COVID-19 and allowed EPIC to be ready as new threats emerged, from mpox to avian H5N1 influenza. This foundation provides a unique opportunity to empower innovation by closely coupling front-line care with academic researchers and engineers.

Central to that founding partnership has been the Toronto High Containment Facility (THCF) – the only academic Containment Level 3 lab in the Greater Toronto Area and the largest in the province. The THCF has enabled some of EPIC’s most critical work: isolating SARS-CoV-2 in the earliest days of the pandemic, housing the biobank behind EPIC’s mpox research response, and facilitating a rapid research response to highly pathogenic avian influenza. An ongoing modernization will soon launch a new facility, giving our community enhanced capacity to study high-impact pathogens safely and securely in a new, state-of-the-art facility.

From a pandemic-era partnership to a consortium spanning seven priority challenges, EPIC’s story has always been about what’s possible when a diverse community comes together to tackle the most pressing challenges. With our renewed support, EPIC aims to help define the opportunities where our community can have the greatest impact and to engage those who will support our efforts to overcome them. We’re proud of what our community has built together, and even more excited for what comes next.