European Commission mobilises additional funds for COVID-19 research and innovation projects

Submitted by Audry Maulana on 19 May 2020

The European Commission has mobilised additional €122 million from its research and innovation programme, Horizon 2020, for urgently needed research dedicated to the Coronavirus

The new call is the latest addition to a range of EU-funded research and innovation actions to fight COVID-19. It complements earlier actions to develop diagnostics, treatments and vaccines by strengthening capacity to manufacture and deploying readily available solutions in order to rapidly address the pressing needs. It will also improve understanding of the behavioural and socio-economic impacts of the pandemic.

The new call will cover five areas with the following indicative budgets:

  •     Repurposing of manufacturing for vital medical supplies and equipment (€23 million)
  •     Medical technologies, Digital tools and Artificial Intelligence analytics to improve surveillance and care at high Technology Readiness Levels (€56 million)
  •     Behavioural, social and economic impacts of the outbreak responses (€20 million)
  •     Pan-European COVID-19 cohorts (€20 million)
  •     Collaboration of existing EU and international cohorts of relevance to COVID-19 (€3 million)

The projects funded under this call should repurpose manufacturing for rapid production of vital medical supplies and equipment needed for testing, treatment and prevention, as well as develop medical technologies and digital tools to improve detection, surveillance and patients care

The deadline for submission is 11 June 2020, while the call will focus on delivering results quickly. Europe, and the world at large, urgently need innovative solutions to contain and mitigate the outbreak, and to better care for patients, survivors, vulnerable groups, frontline health care staff and their communities. 

The new solutions need to be available and affordable for all, in line with the principles of the Coronavirus Global Response. For this purpose, the Commission will include rapid data-sharing clauses in grant agreements, resulting from this new call, to ensure that findings and outcomes can be put to use immediately.

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