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The Irish Health Research Board has launched a rapid response mechanism to fund research that will provide evidence to inform national and global efforts to deal with the virus outbreak. The scope of the funding call covers medical countermeasures, health service readiness, and social and policy countermeasures against COVID-19. The Health Research Board in partnership with the Irish Research Council will allocate up to €200,000 funding for up to two years. Application deadline: April 6.
The US National Science Foundation is offering up to €200,000 for proposals to conduct “non-medical, non-clinical-care research” that can be used immediately to better understand how to model and understand the spread of COVID-19; to inform and educate about the science of virus transmission and prevention; and to encourage the development of processes and actions to address this global challenge. There is no deadline. For any questions about submissions, email: [email protected].
The French National Agency for Research announced a flash COVID-19 call with an accelerated evaluation and selection process for institutes, organisations and companies to apply for grants to carry out work focussed on the four priorities areas of COVID-19 research set out by the World Health Organisation.
Meanwhile, in light of the COVID-19 crisis, ANR said the deadlines for a number of calls for proposals related to other research have been postponed to give scientists more time to submit their proposals.
The government announces A$13 million (€7 million) for research into coronavirus treatments. There will be an award of A$8 million for the development of antiviral therapies and A$5 million for better treatment and management of patients.
The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) has kicked-started its eighth COVID-19 project in an agreement with a consortium led by the Institut Pasteur. Other partners include the University of Pittsburgh and the Austrian biotech Themis, with which the Institut Pasteur has collaborated on developing other vaccines, including against MERS and Lassa fever.
The consortium will receive an initial $4.9 million from CEPI, to support preclinical testing and initial manufacture, to lay the ground for phase I studies in human volunteers. The project will use an inactivated measles virus to deliver COVID-19 antigens directly to the compartment of the immune system capable of inducing a protective response.
Since putting out its first call for proposals in February, CEPI has invested $29.2 million in COVID-19 vaccine R&D, with partners including Curevac, Moderna and Oxford University.
The UK government announced awards, worth £10.5 million, for six rapid response projects to address the COVID-19 emergency. Among the six projects, two will focus on pre-clinical and clinical vaccine trials, including vaccine manufacturing at a million-dose scale.
Other projects aim to repurpose existing drugs to treat coronavirus patients, develop antibodies that target the virus and identify people with high risk infection. These awards are the first to be announced from a £20 million funded dedicated to R&D related to the coronavirus.
Novartis is to provide $20 million (€18 million) to communities feeling the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Grants will be awarded to strengthen healthcare infrastructure, launching of digital platforms and support community health programmes.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention launched a call for proposals to study transmission dynamics, host infection dynamics and diagnostic testing capabilities of COVID-19. Eligible candidates are educational institutions, nonprofit organisations, not for profit organisations, state and local government, and private industry for research and development. Non-US citizens may participate, pending the CDC Foreign Disclosure Officer permission. Applications deadline: 25 March
A University College London (UCL) study estimated the current strategy to slow the spread of coronavirus could lead to at least 35,000-70,000 excess deaths over one year. Findings of the study shows stronger suppression measures are needed and more efforts should be made to identify high-risk groups. Lead author of the paper, Amitava Banerjee, urges the government to be transparent about how extremely vulnerable groups are identified.
According to Banerjee, current models to predict deaths from COVID-19 did not take into account of all people with underlying health conditions. The UK government identified up to 1.5 million people, or 2.7% of the UK population, as being at higher risk of severe illness if they contract coronavirus, who should stay at home to protect themselves. However, the UCL team observed that at least 20 per cent of the UK population has one of the underlying conditions that put them at risk for severe COVID-19 infection.
Denmark’s Novo Nordisk Foundation said it has budgeted DKK50 million [€6.6 million] to fund research and mitigation strategies on COVID-19. It said the money can be used, in grants of up to DKK 5 million [€660,000] each, for scientific research on “new treatments, techniques / technologies or preventative measures”; initiatives to inform the general public; or measures to help socially vulnerable groups. Application deadline: 18 June.
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