German Research Centre Shares COVID-19 Data Globally
As a response to the worldwide pandemic, Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research in Germany required a fast and secure way for researchers to share COVID-19 data.
The result was Serohub, a platform to accelerate research about the seroprevalence of SARS-CoV-2. We delivered a platform to enable researchers, government, and industry partners to contribute knowledge and tools and ultimately improve evidence-based decision-making on COVID-19.
Approach
The overall approach was to support the increased use of data-driven approaches for infection research and drive greater collaboration. The project had four primary aims:
- be a community space for researchers
- allow for critical appraisal of diagnostic trials
- host study-related documents
- be a cloud-based, meta-analysis platform
Objectives
- Build a centralised platform where researchers can share studies, publications, and data easily
- Incorporate four key platform elements: community, trial summary, document, and meta-analysis
- Train and support staff in adopting and maintaining the platform to ensure long-term sustainability
Achievements
- Align with research, management, and technical teams on data infrastructure and content
- Built a sharing facility using the Netlify CMS to allow easy study management
- Used GitHub to enable greater levels of collaboration in a cost-effective way
- Delivered a general public website and a service environment for researchers
- Trained and onboarded staff to use and maintain the platform effectively ensuring scalability
Key results
- Serohub platform launched
- 105 Publications uploaded
- 6 major research studies shared
- Collaborations across 3 continents
FAQs
What is the challenge of data sharing in crisis science?
When COVID-19 emerged as a global pandemic in early 2020, one of the most critical bottlenecks to effective public health response was data. Seroprevalence studies — research measuring the proportion of a population that has antibodies to SARS-CoV-2, indicating prior infection — were being conducted by research institutions around the world. But the results were scattered across institutions, published at different times, using different methodologies, and often inaccessible to researchers and policymakers who needed them most.
The Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research’s vision for Serohub addressed this directly: a centralised, open platform where seroprevalence studies, publications, and data could be shared, reviewed, and built upon. The challenge was building this platform quickly enough to be useful during the pandemic, with a technology architecture that would be sustainable and maintainable by the research institution’s own team long after the initial build.
Why open infrastructure mattered?
The decision to use Netlify CMS for study management and GitHub for collaboration was not just a technical choice — it was a commitment to transparency and accessibility. These tools are open, widely understood, and do not create dependency on commercial platforms that could become expensive or unavailable. For a research institution sharing data that needs to be accessible to researchers globally, on an ongoing basis, this kind of infrastructure choice matters.
The result — 105 publications uploaded, six major research studies shared, and collaborations across three continents — demonstrates what is possible when the right infrastructure is in place and the right team builds it quickly. Nightingale HQ’s ability to understand both the technical requirements and the research mission was key to delivering a platform that worked for its intended users.
How did the pandemic response evolve into long-term capability?
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