CSIC launches Epidemiradar: a citizen tool to monitor flu and COVID-19 in Spain
Nov. 3, 2025
- The project, funded by the European Union, seeks to expand its network of volunteers to improve the monitoring of respiratory diseases.
- Anyone residing in Spain can join the study, regardless of age or health status.
Every year, thousands of people experience flu or flu-like symptoms without visiting a doctor. These mild, frequent cases are not always officially recorded, making it difficult to know the true spread of respiratory viruses in Spain. To address this gap, Epidemiradar was created, an online platform launched by the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) within the framework of the European data science project EOSC-SIESTA, the Influenzanet European network, and the CSIC Interdisciplinary Platform on Global Health.
A collaborative health map of Spain
Epidemiradar invites anyone living in Spain to participate voluntarily. It’s simple: just register on epidemiradar.es and complete an initial questionnaire. From then on, participants receive a weekly email to report their health status. If they have no symptoms, the process takes less than 30 seconds; if they do, the form takes only a few minutes to complete.
Responses are anonymized and aggregated by region and province on a weekly basis, creating maps that visualize the presence and evolution of flu-like symptoms across the country. These data allow the scientific community to detect patterns and anticipate outbreaks, improving our understanding of how infectious diseases spread. “Every person counts. The more volunteers participate, the more accurate the snapshot of the health situation will be, and the better we can anticipate future epidemics”, says José J. Ramasco, CSIC researcher at the Institute for Cross-Disciplinary Physics and Complex Systems (IFISC-CSIC-UIB) and project coordinator. “The system has potential beyond respiratory infectious diseases, Epidemiradar is a first step toward a collaborative system for detecting illnesses in the population”, he adds.
A joint European effort
Epidemiradar is the Spanish node of the European Influenzanet network, a public health initiative active in over ten countries. Its goal is to harness citizen collaboration to complement traditional surveillance of flu and other respiratory viruses.
The initiative is also part of EOSC-SIESTA, a European project coordinated by CSIC to improve data accessibility across various research domains. Specifically, Epidemiradar will provide incidence data essential for defining public health policies and for analysis and modeling in computational epidemiology. The ideas and applications of EOSC-SIESTA in epidemiology emerge from the work of the CSIC Global Health Thematic Interdisciplinary Platform.
Anyone residing in Spain can join the study, regardless of age or health status. Parents may also complete the questionnaires on behalf of their children. “Participation is quick, free, and directly contributes to advancing knowledge about the spread of respiratory diseases among the population”, notes Ramasco.
More information and registration at https://epidemiradar.es
