About
Founded in 2020 under the leadership of Dalla Lana School of Public Health Dean Adalsteinn Brown, the Institute of Health Emergencies and Pandemics (IHEP) was established in direct response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Originally launched as the Institute for Pandemics, IHEP was created to address the complex, multidimensional challenges posed by public health emergencies.
Building on its pandemic-era foundations, IHEP has evolved into a first-of-its-kind interdisciplinary research and training hub at the University of Toronto. Our mission is to transform how we prepare for, respond to, and recover from public health emergencies (PHE). IHEP recognizes that these crises demand coordinated action across disciplines, sectors, and governments.
Our Institute forms a unique, highly interdisciplinary, “emergency-ready” health research ecosystem committed to advancing science on PHE, including but not limited to:
- pandemics, large-scale epidemics,
- accidental or deliberate biological, chemical and nuclear threats,
- natural disasters and mass casualties
We are guided by three core pillars: knowledge generation, knowledge mobilization, and training and capacity building. Our research drives innovation and deepens understanding of health emergencies. We enable cross-disciplinary training to equip future health leaders with broad-based knowledge to address complex challenges, using a holistic approach. Our work mobilizes evidence to raise awareness, strengthen resilience, and inform timely policy decisions.
In a rapidly changing world, health emergencies with severe social and economic impacts are emerging faster than ever. Effective preparedness requires coordinated action across disciplines, sectors, and governments. IHEP brings together over 200 faculty from 12 academic divisions, spanning public health, epidemiology, modeling, health systems, medicine, social sciences, engineering, information sciences, and more, to tackle the complex challenges of pandemics and public health crises.
Find out more about our vision.