LIVE BLOG: R&D response to COVID-19 pandemic (Archived)

The Vienna Science and Technology Fund (WWTF) announced 24 COVID-19 research projects selected for funding under a fast track call for projects to address the coronavirus crisis. WWTF is putting in up to €50,000 per project, and is inviting the general public to add their support and give money on its donation page. Contributions are tax deductible, and the city of Vienna will put in matching funding.

Amazon customers that use its cloud computing resources for research can apply for extra support and technical assistance as part of the company’s diagnostic development initiative. The programme is open to accredited research institutions, research consortia, and private entities that are using Amazon services to manage research-oriented workloads for the development of point-of-care diagnostic and other diagnostic techniques. Application deadline: 30 June.

The European Space Agency (ESA) is looking for ideas that involve use of either space technology or space data to help address the coronavirus crisis. It suggests possible topics could include use of its satellites and networks to provide connectivity where terrestrial communications are insufficient, for online learning for school children being schooled at home and to enable video consultations for patients.  In research, ESA’s earth monitoring data could provide background context for mapping the epidemiology of the coronavirus. The agency will cover up to 50 per cent of costs of each project, with a budget of up to €1 million per project. Application deadline: 20 April.

The US National Human Genome Research Institute is calling on existing grant holders to apply genomic tools to identify signatures of COVID-19 infection, monitor the virus and infected individuals, and create models of host-pathogen interactions. Grants of $250,000 per year will be awarded. Application deadline: 16 May.

The Fonds de la Recherche Scientifique (FNRS) launched a call for fast track funding of research that contributes to the COVID-19 R&D Blueprint put together by the World Health Organization. The Blueprint specifies research that is needed to fill gaps in understanding and treating COVID-19, including epidemiology and translational studies, therapeutics, prevention and control of infection in clinical and community settings. The main applicant for each project has to be working at FNRS, or in one of the six universities in the Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles. Each project can receive up to €60,000. Application deadline: 1 May.

UK Research and Innovation is inviting proposals for short-term projects addressing and mitigating the health, social, economic, cultural and environmental impacts of the COVID-19 outbreak. Proposals from academics and companies, should have a clear impact pathway that has the potential within the period of the grant to make a significant contribution to the understanding of, and response to, the COVID-19 pandemic and its impacts; which supports the manufacture and/or wide scale adoption of an intervention with significant potential; or

gathers critical data and resources for future research use. Holders of existing grants are also invited to suggest how their work could be refocused to be relevant to the pandemic. There is no closing date and applications will be assessed on a rolling basis.

The networking organisation Connect Bogotá Región is working with Colombian universities, entrepreneurs and companies to coordinate the response to the coronavirus in Colombia. With government backing, it has launched two platforms, 100 Open Startup and BogoTech Abierta, appealing for help with particular projects. Two particular challenges are finding ways to assist elderly people who cannot leave their homes and optimising medical services. Connect Bogotá Región is also collaborating with Bogotá Chamber of Commerce, the National associations of entrepreneurs and the Secretariat of Health and Economic Development of Bogotá, to support researchers in building prototypes and scaling processes for the manufacture of ventilators and other medical equipment.

The European Commission’s science service has developed a new control material to help laboratories avoid false negative results in COVID-19 tests.

The Joint Research Centre (JRC) is ready to dispatch 3,000 vials of the control to testing labs across the EU. One vial is enough to check up to 20,000 tests.

The control material, a synthetic version of a part of the virus that does not mutate and change as it passes from person to person, allows companies manufacturing coronavirus tests and diagnostic laboratories analysing samples to check each test: if a test does not detect the control material, it will not detect the real virus either.

According to a new survey, the lack of positive control materials is one of the top three problems faced by labs testing for the novel coronavirus. In particular, that means there is a risk that people carrying the virus will get a negative test result, despite being infected and potentially able to transmit the virus to other people.

IBM is making its “Watson Assistant for Citizens” available for free for 90 days, to help government agencies, healthcare organisations and academic institutions respond to the torrent of questions from citizens about COVID-19 symptoms, testing, procedures and treatment. The system draws on guidance from the US Centers for Disease Control & Prevention and local information, and is available online or by phone. The IBM assistant is currently being used in the US, Czech Republic, Finland, Greece, Italy, Poland, Spain and the UK.

The São Paulo State Research Foundation (FAPESP: Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo) and the Brazilian Innovation Agency are calling for SMEs to apply for support for the development of products, services and processes that can help in the COVID-19 crisis. The call is part of the third phase of FAPESP’s programme, Innovative Research for Small Companies. Application deadline: 6 April.