The Erasmus University Medical Centre in Rotterdam, Netherlands, has started the new EU-backed project "Versatile Emerging infectious disease Observatory". The project seeks to develop techniques to spot and track new infectious diseases. Currently, the team is translating the coronavirus’ genetic data to understand its spread and the implications for testing. Generally, this forecasting and tracking system should serve as an interactive observatory for the generation and distribution of high quality actionable information for evidence-based early warning, risk assessment and monitoring. It will be built by an iterative process between data science and technology experts, disease experts from public health and academia, social scientists, and citizen scientists.