Rodents continue to live in close association with humans, and their numbers are on the increase in many areas of Europe, possibly because of milder winters in recent years. Forest rodent dynamics vary spatially across Europe, dependent upon forest structure, predator associations, snow conditions and periodic heavy cropping of forest trees ('masting'). Rodents carry a range of bunya- and arena viruses that are far more widespread than was thought even a few years ago. These viruses are excellent examples of zoonoses that periodically spill over into human populations, with devastating effects.

The objectives of EDEN-ROBO are to determine how landscape structure affects the regional distribution and dynamics of hanta- and other roboviruses and to produce pan-European time-space models of major eco-climatic trends of phenomena such as masting forest resources / fragmentation patterns and snow cover trends having an impact on rodent population dynamics and relate observed/predicted abundance patterns with occurrence of human cases.