Defend 2020 – Research Website for The Pirbright Institute

“The website is already working brilliantly as a portal for sharing vital information in the fight to control African swine fever and lumpy skin disease epidemics in Europe and neighbouring countries. Having Preface Studios close to us in Surrey was a bonus. We found the web design team great to work with; overcoming any challenges creatively and creating a long-term solution for the organisation.”
Defend 2020 Marketing Manager

Overview of the project

We were commissioned by The Pirbright Institute in Surrey, which is dedicated to the prevention and control of viral diseases. This globally recognised organisation was given a grant to find a cure for African swine fever and lumpy skin disease in European livestock. DEFEND is a Horizon 2020 project and an international partnership of academic, industrial and governmental organisations. This is vital work: if a cure is not discovered, it will begin to affect the food chain in Europe.

Working to a tight deadline, Preface Studios was tasked with creating a brand and WordPress website, incorporating our layout builder, which would enable The Pirbright Institute to quickly deploy website pages for similar types of partnership projects.

We began by creating the branding and logo, which shows the cell shapes of the two viruses. Then we designed and built the website to bring together research experts, share knowledge and raise awareness. The Defend2020 website is built as a multi-site set-up, so the look of the website can be duplicated at the click of a button and content for other initiatives created quickly.

This website means that regular news can be shared. There is also a Partner Platform section that enables consortium members to access vital documents on SharePoint and a Work Packages section, linking to different focus areas.

We helped the client add all the content and trained their marketing department so that they can easily update the website. We are now working with The Pirbright Institute to raise the SEO profile of the Defend 2020 project.