## 1 Introduction  
Epidemics are unpredictable and often deadly [1]. Despite worldwide improvements in public health over the past few decades, the emergence of new pathogenic agents with pandemic potential is expected to increase, favoured by factors such as global warming, increasing economic activity, global movement of people and goods, and high-density urban living. In addition, deforestation brings humans into contact with animals that act as new pathogenic vectors while armed conflicts cause the displacement of civilian populations, both of which create local health problems with a subsequent increase in the frequency and spread of infectious diseases [2, 3]. National healthcare workers, including laboratory workers, need to be properly trained to deliver an effective response to emerging outbreaks; hence their early exposure makes them the first victims in the context of inadequate healthcare and laboratory infrastructure, including lack of training, information, and protective equipment [4, 5]. In almost all past outbreaks of Ebola virus disease (EVD), the fatality rate among healthcare workers with documented infections was higher than that among non-healthcare workers [6]. Moreover, sudden-onset outbreaks undoubtedly increase the burden on countries already lacking diagnostic capacity [7]. Accordingly, \"just-in-time training\" (JiTT) is increasingly proposed as an efficient method to provide specific information, instructions, and guidelines where they are urgently needed, but often cannot be completed in due time. JiTT appears to be a non-expensive, efficient solution to rapidly provide healthcare and laboratory workers with new knowledge and skills during deadly outbreaks, as recently demonstrated by the response to the COVID-19 pandemic [8, 9]  
Pathogen identification is the fundamental component of a successful response to an epidemic, making diagnostic testing a national capacity building issue that urgently needs to be addressed. To this end, training in the use of new diagnostic tests is part of global JiTT for a timely emergency response. Providing diagnostic support and rapid training of biologists to correctly and safely perform these analyses is invaluable for moderately low- and middle-income countries [10]. Automated diagnostic assay platforms are commonly used for point-of-care (POC) or near-POC testing. Their on-site use and rapid turnaround times are considered a game-changer when an outbreak overcomes weakened or disrupted health services, and/or when demand for critical molecular diagnostics exceeds the existing national capacity [11, 12, 13, 14]. The BioFire FilmArray(r) BioThreat-E (BFA) test is one of several automated multiplex polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assays that have been proposed for syndrome-based, disease-specific diagnosis, and was proposed for EVD diagnostic testing during the 2014-2015 Ebola outbreak in West Africa [15, 16, 17]. However, at the time, BFA was novel, as yet non-validated, and its application in a laboratory tent was unprecedented. The B-LiFE is a box-based modular laboratory tent that is rapidly deployable under field conditions in case of emergencies, such as an uncontrolled disease outbreak [18, 19, 20]. The use of B-LiFE can be activated through a bilateral agreement with a host nation, the European Civil Protection Mechanism (EUCPM), or the Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network--World Health Organisation (WHO-GOARN). The deployable laboratory has the capacity to provide molecular diagnostic services [21, 22], mass screening [23], satellite communication, a local internet connection, as well as integrate data management and transfer through its laboratory information management system (LIMS) [24]. B-LiFE capabilities result from continuous development by the Centre for Applied Molecular Technologies of the Universite catholique de Louvain.