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The European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) has launched a fast track call for projects that use its resources and open and trusted environment for data sharing, to respond to the COVID-19 emergency. This will include projects that open up scientific data on the virus; share live on-the-ground data on the spread of the virus; work on the development of software, standards and processes for monitoring COVID-19 treatments; and access and combine data to help control COVID-19 and learn how to deal with similar viruses and future outbreaks. EOSC says it will evaluate applications weekly, promising a swift response.
Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan are donating $25 Million to the $125 million COVID-19 Therapeutics Accelerator fund set up earlier in March by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the UK Medical research charity Wellcome Trust and credit card company Mastercard. The fund aims to accelerate development of drugs to treat COVID-19 by speeding up evaluation of new and repurposed drugs and biologics to treat the coronavirus.
The global tech community is calling for people to join an online hackathon to share and rapidly develop ideas for dealing with the socio-economic crisis caused by COVID-19 and increase resilience in its aftermath. From an initial event in Estonia, the ‘Hack the Crisis’ hackathon has rapidly grown into a worldwide movement that will culminate in the ‘Global Hack’. Countries including Turkey, France, Poland, India, Brazil and Australia, have organised ‘Hack the Crisis’ events.
The Research Council of Norway launched a call to scientists in the country for research proposals to improve patient management and the national and international public health preparedness and response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Applicants are encouraged to work in cooperation with public and/or private sectors. The Research Council will provide between €85,000 - €420,000 per project, with total funding of €2.5 million. Application deadline: 31 March.
Emerald Publishing has set up a £20,000 fund to cover publication fees for social sciences research relating to COVID-19 published on its open access platform. The UK company is interested in submissions focused on prevention and management, and on the impact of the coronavirus in healthcare systems.
The Novo Nordisk Foundation is calling for submissions for interdisciplinary research to strengthen the response and preparedness of Denmark to new epidemic viral infections by improving surveillance and early detection, epidemiology research, and national preparedness. There are no restrictions on the locations of research groups, but the lead applicant must be located in Denmark. A total of DKK20 million (€2.6 million) is available for two grants of up to DKK10 million. Application deadline: 4 June.
Japan’s Agency for Medical Research and Development wants to look outside traditional fields to find new approaches to dealing with COVID-19 and other emerging infectious diseases. The agency is looking for proposals that involve technology transfer from outside the biomedical field and which foster multidisciplinary research. The call is divided between two research areas. In the first, the agency aims to develop platform technologies for mounting an emergency R&D response to any emerging infectious disease. The second area of research is dedicated to the discovery and development of diagnostics and therapeutics. Application deadline: 13 April.
Japan’s Agency for Medical Research and Development wants to look outside traditional fields to find new approaches to dealing with COVID-19 and other emerging infectious diseases. The agency is looking for proposals that involve technology transfer from outside the biomedical field and which foster multidisciplinary research. The call is divided between two research areas. In the first, the agency aims to develop platform technologies for mounting an emergency R&D response to any emerging infectious disease. The second area of research is dedicated to the discovery and development of diagnostics and therapeutics. Application deadline: 13 April.
Portugal’s Foundation for Science & Technology has set up a dedicated fund ‘Research 4 COVID-19’ to back the rapid implementation of R&D projects to tackle the virus. The purpose is mainly to support ongoing initiatives that are relevant to controlling COVID-19 infections and retargeting R&D projects to respond to the needs of the National Health Service. At the same time, the foundation said it will mobilise scientists in the country to take part in open data projects to address the COVID-19 crisis. The maximum funding for each project is of €30,000, with a total budget for the fund of €1.5 million. Application deadline: 5 April.
The EU-backed Partnership for Advanced Computing in Europe (PRACE) has launched a fast track call for proposals from academic and industry researchers needing access to high performance computing resources to model COVID-19 and its impact. The scope includes mapping the spread of the coronavirus, tracking mutations and the evolution of the virus, developing therapeutics and vaccines, studying infection mechanisms and analysing the impact of the pandemic. Computing resources are available in France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Switzerland. PRACE says there will be a fast track review process with applications reviewed in one week, to provide swift feedback to applicants.
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