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

The German government announced today it will put €1.5 million in to fund 34 projects from the COVID-19 hackathon held on 20-22 March. Amongst the winners is Print4Life, which uses 3D printers to make medical equipment, and the Explain_Corona4Kids project, providing facts and prevention information for children.

Irish diagnostics company HiberGene has received European CE marking for its portable point of care COVID-19 test, which it has fast tracked through development after receiving a €930,000 grant from the Horizon 2020 special call in March. The test, which can detect the virus at the early and highly infectious stage of infection, takes 30 minutes to deliver a result.

The Eureka international R&D network launched a second COVID-19 call, in which it is looking to the future, inviting research projects lasting up to three months to improve preparedness for the next serious infectious disease pandemic. The call is open the researchers in member countries until 15 July.

The EU has chosen six scientists to help identify future members of the European Research Council's governing body, the 22-member ERC Scientific Council. They are Carl-Henrik Heldin, chair of the board of the Nobel Foundation, Sweden; Barbara Flueckiger, Zürich University; Kirsten Gram-Hansen, Aalborg University; Michal Karonski, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poland; Carlos Martinez Alonso, Spanish National Research Council; and Mira Mezini, Technical University of Darmstadt. In a statement announcing the team, the European Commission said it wants to see the “continuation and renewal of the ERC Scientific Council” for the start of Horizon Europe, the next big EU research and innovation programme, starting next year.

Three Horizon 2020-funded projects are offering the technology testing services they have developed free of charge to SMEs, start-ups and research institutions developing products to control the spread of COVID-19. The first, Tbmed, provides expert advice on setting up clinical trials, while the Medical device obligations taskforce can help companies developing inhalation technologies and environmental sensors to navigate the regulatory requirements. The third, Safe-n-Medtech offers product characterisation, preclinical validation, access to biobanks and patient samples, scale up and regulatory support for nano-enabled medical technologies. Applicants have until 15 September 2020 to request access to the services.

The UK launched a funding call on applied health research to understand and mitigate the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic in low- and middle-income countries. The call, funded through the UK’s overseas aid budget, will focus on priority research areas highlighted by the World Health Organisation in epidemiology, clinical management, infection prevention and control, and health system responses. Projects investigating indirect consequences of the pandemic, such as mental health, domestic violence, and maternal and neonatal health, are also eligible. Awards of up to £1 million are available for projects lasting up to 18 months, led by UK researchers or researchers in the country where the project takes place. Application deadline: 22 June 2020

The public funding agency UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) is expediting the construction of a vaccines manufacturing and innovation centre in Oxfordshire and says it will put in £131 million over the next year to bring the facility online 12 months early, in the middle of 2021. In the meantime, UKRI is supporting a ‘virtual’ centre of temporary manufacturing facilities in other premises. The total UKRI funding for the project, which began in 2018, is £196 million.

The Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) selected 36 projects for funding under its first coronavirus research call and said it is doubling the budget from CHF5 to CHF10 million (€9.4 million). From 284 applicants, 22 biomedicine, 10 social science and humanities, and 4 technology projects were awarded funding and will commence by 1 June. Information about the projects and their progress can be found on SNSF’s new COVID-19 research database that lists all national and Horizon 2020 projects featuring Swiss participants. SNSF’s second call for coronavirus research, mainly focused on social sciences and humanities, launched on 30 April and is open until 25 May.

Robin Shattock, leader of one of the two UK COVID-19 vaccines projects, has intervened to warn that manufacturing a vaccine does not mean it will be available for use. Having supplies, “is very different to having the necessary data” to show any vaccine is safe and effective, Shattock said, after the UK government said “up to 30 million doses” of a vaccine being developed at Oxford University could be available by September. Shattock made the comment after the project he is leading at Imperial College London was awarded £18.5 million in further government funding to speed up clinical development. “This funding will greatly accelerate our efforts to demonstrate the effectiveness of our vaccine and make it available to at risk populations as rapidly as possible,” Shattock said in response to the announcement. The Imperial College vaccine is due to enter clinical trials in June. Meanwhile, Moderna, the US company leading the vaccine race, announced initial data from its clinical trial. This showed that two weeks following the second dose, levels of binding antibodies in trial volunteers were at the same levels as seen in blood samples from people who have recovered from COVID-19.

The Australian government said it will match up to A$1 million in funding for COVID-19 research projects as part of the newest round of the country’s $22.3 million biomedical research programme. SMEs, medical research institutes, and universities developing medical devices, diagnostics, and prophylactic or therapeutic approaches to treating COVID-19 can apply for grants until 1 June 2020. This is the third round of the four-year programme, Biomedical Translation Bridge.