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1. The Centre shall provide science-based recommendations and scientific and technical expertise to the Member States and the Commission, in collaboration with relevant Union bodies and agencies, international organisations and, where relevant, representatives of civil society, such as representatives of patient organisations and public health organisations, in accordance with appropriate working arrangements established with the Commission in the field of prevention, preparedness and response planning.

2. The Centre shall, in close collaboration with the Member States and the Commission:

(a) without prejudice to Member States’ competences in the area of prevention, preparedness and response planning, contribute to the development, regular review and updating of frameworks for national preparedness plans and of threat-specific preparedness plans for adoption by the HSC, and to the development, regular review and updating of the Union prevention, preparedness and response plan in accordance with Article 5 of Regulation (EU) 2022/2371;

(b) develop preparedness, monitoring and evaluation frameworks, and develop indicators for preparedness based on the IHR, in cooperation with the WHO, which frameworks and indicators are to be discussed within the HSC;

(c) facilitate self-assessments by Member States of their prevention, preparedness and response planning and external evaluation of such planning, when accepted by the Member State concerned and in a manner that is complementary to the IHR, and contribute to the activities referred to in Articles 7 and 8 of Regulation (EU) 2022/2371;

(d) ensure assessment of preparedness gaps and the provision of targeted support to Member States and, at their request and in cooperation with the WHO, to third countries that conclude agreements with the Union in accordance with Article 30;

(e) develop exercises, stress tests, in-action and after-action reviews, and support and complement Member States in those activities, and organise additional actions to address gaps identified in preparedness capacity and capability;

(f) develop and support specific preparedness activities addressing, amongst other things, vaccine preventable diseases, antimicrobial resistance, laboratory capacity and biosecurity, based on identified gaps or at the request of the Member States or the Commission;

(g) support the integration of research preparedness in the prevention, preparedness and response plans;

(h) support and complement additional targeted activities addressing at-risk groups and community preparedness;

(i) based on indicators referred to in Article 3(2), point (b), and in point (b) of this subparagraph, and in close cooperation with the Member States, monitor the capacity of Member States’ health systems to detect, prevent, respond to and recover from outbreaks of communicable diseases, identify gaps and provide science-based recommendations for the strengthening of health systems, to be implemented with Union support, as appropriate;

(j) bolster the modelling, anticipation and forecasting capacity of the Centre; and (k) maintain regular secondment mechanisms between the Centre, the Commission, Member States’ experts and international organisations, including a EU Health Task Force, which support the activities referred to in points (d), (f), (h) and (i) of this subparagraph and Article 5a(1). The secondment mechanisms referred to in the first subparagraph, point (k), shall contribute to the strengthening of the operational interface between the Centre and Member States.