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Over 18,000 have signed up for the ‘EU vs virus’ weekend hackathon, which went live Friday evening on Facebook.
The EU scrambled the hackathon together to search for immediate responses to the COVID-19 crisis and ideas for how Europe could eventually come out of the pandemic stronger.
Curiously, there is no concrete funding promises attached to the winning ideas. EU research commissioner Mariya Gabriel said the best proposals would progress to a “special e-pitching session”, which indicates there should be funding awards down the line.
“Big companies and foundations are keen; their business is at risk, they want solutions, we are funnelling for them,” said Isidro Ballestero, deputy head of unit of the European Innovation Council. The hackathon will have been worth doing, “even if it saves one life”, said Ballestero.
And in a moment that will make some think fondly of Eurovision, hackathon presenter Matt Smith, brandishing a small Norwegian flag, asked those watching to “tag their country flags” in the comments section.
ETH President Joël Mesot has set out a plan for a gradual re-opening of the university from Monday, April 27, with an initial focus on getting labs back working.
“Since laboratory research has been so badly hit during emergency mode, it has now become our first priority in the master plan for the return to normal operations. We are keen to get the laboratories up and running as quickly as possible, but we need to proceed with extreme caution,” Mesot told the university website.
Another milestone is August, when the university plans to hold student exams in ETH buildings.
The president said Switzerland was “gradually seeing more light at the end of the tunnel, but we need to be aware that we will still be spending a lot of time in this tunnel”.
Across the world, robots and drones are being repurposed and deployed as part of the COVID-19 response. There are robots disinfecting hospitals; automated systems supporting the testing of millions of people; robots undertaking infection control; and robotic platforms delivering medical supplies and food to the most vulnerable. The UK Robotics and Autonomous Systems Network is looking for ideas for the use of medical robot technologies in areas such as disease prevention, diagnostics, screening, patient care and disease management. Applicants have to send a 2-minute video demonstration to enter. Prizes of up to £15,000 are on offer. Application deadline: 30 September.
The researchers behind a €2.4 million European Research Council project Conscious Distributed Adaptive Control are looking for funding to adapt the system they developed for rehabilitating stroke patients, for use in COVID-19 patients who suffer cognitive impairment following intensive care. With as many as 80 per cent of mechanically ventilated patients subsequently suffering cognitive impairment, it can be expected a number of COVID-19 patients who need to be put on a ventilator will have neurological deficits. The Rehabilitation Gaming System developed as a result of the ERC funding provides home exercises on a computer, coupled with sensors for doctors to monitor progress. Paul Verschure, coordinator of the ERC project wants funding to adapt the system to treat COVID-19 patients.
Danish regions have come together to create a national biobank to support development of new treatments and improve understanding of how to treat coronavirus patients. Data from blood and throat swab samples collected at local hospitals may help understanding of how therapies given to patients with chronic diseases affects their treatment if they contract COVID-19, and if there are genetic factors that cause some people to suffer more severe illness from COVID-19.
The US Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) has launched a $21 million fund focussed on COVID-19. PCORI carries out research into the relative clinical effectiveness of different treatments from the perspective of patients and the outcomes that matter to them. The COVID-19 fund will back projects that help communities increase their ability to participate in patient-centered outcomes research/comparative clinical effectiveness research whist at the same time adhering and responding to social distancing and other changes resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. PCORI also wants to fund organisations to disseminate PCORI-funded research results during the pandemic. A full proposal is due at the time of submission, with projects to begin by either 1 July or 1 August 2020. Application deadline: 22 May.
UK Research and Innovation and the National Institutes for Health Research have launched a call for research to investigate which ethnic groups are at greatest risk of suffering severe effects from COVID-19 infection. An audit by the intensive care research centre has shown that while black and minority ethnic people make up 13 per cent of the population, 34 per cent of all patients who become critically ill are from these ethnic groups. Healthcare and other key workers with minority backgrounds might be particularly at risk in terms of mortality and morbidity. This is part of an ongoing call for research proposals, with £25 million already awarded to 26 research projects. Application deadline: 11 May.
Three European companies announced they are pooling their resources and expertise in the development of a vaccine against COVID-19. ReiThera in Rome, Leukocare in Munich, and Univercells in Brussels, are on course to begin a phase I trial in June and are now looking for external funding to take the project forward into large scale manufacturing. The three companies have experience expertise in vector-based vaccine development, vaccine formulation, and manufacturing, respectively. In parallel with the clinical development program, the consortium will start manufacturing and stockpiling the vaccine. Working at a pilot scale, approximately 6 million doses of the vaccine are expected to be available early in 2021.
The European Commission has given Malta approval for a €5.3 million state aid programme for COVID-19 research. The money will fund research into therapeutics, devices, medical equipment and data analysis tools. To date, Malta has had 433 confirmed cases of COVID-19 infection, with 12 new cases reported on April 22. There have been three deaths.
A special “e-pitching” session for small companies to try selling their COVID-19-related products and services on 30 April has grown to include more than 40 public procurers in Europe and beyond, European Commission officials said.
The four-hour session, organised by the Commission’s European Innovation Council, will select 20 of the EIC’s existing grantees to make online pitches about their medical devices, supply chain, biotech and drug innovations. The procurers include hospital groups, health services and other public organisations from 15 EU member states, plus a group of Columbian hospitals. Two private German companies, one in artificial intelligence and the other in biotech, are also involved.
The procurers, according to Bertrand Wert, an EIC Accelerator project officer, have concerns during the COVID-19 crisis about disruptions and reliability of their supply chains – and so the EIC pitch event provides a stage for “recommended, quality supply-chain” companies. He said the 20 companies will be selected, out of a pool of about 70 volunteering grantees, based on whether they can respond to the specific needs that the procurers identified in joining the session.
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